IN THE BRITISH Museum, there are 1,297 Irish artefacts and relics, and 6,445 Irish items including prints, letters, and coins.

Many of these artefacts were acquired legitimately – but calls for them to be returned to Ireland persist.

Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe continued those calls today, telling Newstalk Breakfast that at the very least, the artefacts should be on display if they are not repatriated to Ireland, rather than sitting hidden in archives at the British Museum.

“These items have been acquired through many means. Some have been bought. Some have been acquired quite recently by the museum. Some were plundered. Some were got by very legitimate means many years ago,” Crowe said.

“At a minimum, I think these items should be on display.”

He said some items are in archive and others are rotated, and he understands that not all of the museum’s collection can be on display

“But there are really precious Irish items that are not available for anyone to see,” Crowe added. “Some items there, they’re just locked away in archive boxes; no one has ever seen them unless you get special permit or you’re undertaking a body of research. So I don’t think it’s right for all these items to be there.”

Britain’s history of colonisation has resulted in its acquisition of countless important historic artefacts from all over the world, many of which countries have sought to be returned when they became autonomous. 

One major example is the Rosetta Stone. The stone’s discovery in 1799 was the key for scholars to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics and Demotic. It has been in the British Museum since 1802. 

Egypt has long demanded the return of the stone, and the country’s opening of its Grand Egyptian Museum in November 2025 has exacerbated the plea for the repatriation of the artefact.

Crowe said he appreciates that history and culture from across the world should be visible in museums, but that items held in archives and unseen by the public should be returned.

“Why not bring some of that [items in archive] back to Ireland, where it belongs? But also, I think we need to look at this through an ethic lens. We need to look at how some of these items were acquired.

“Some of them were acquired during plantation. Some of them were acquired, brought back by British troops. Some were brought into Britain very legitimately.

“I think they need to have cast a lens over that, and that would determine, I think, what should be back in Ireland and maybe what should be in Britain, and what should be on display and what should be seen in the Dublin museum versus the London museum.”