His skeleton was on display at the Hunterian Museum in London from 1799 until it was removed from public display in 2023.

Charles Byrne (giant) - Wikipedia Charles Byrne (giant) - Wikipedia

Except she was a Protestant, which meant she would burn in hell for all eternity unless she saw what a mistake she was making. It suggested that, were a person seeking to arrange Byrne's sea burial to challenge the Hunterian Museum in an English court for lawful possession of his remains, the court would grant them this possession. You must close your eyes and concentrate," explains Mantel, in Toronto to promote her latest novel The Giant ,O'Brien. They were recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest identical twins in history. Following renewed pressure from campaigners, The Guardian reported in a 2018 article entitled "'Irish giant' may finally get respectful burial after 200 years on display" that the Trustees of the Hunterian Museum have confirmed that they will consider whether to release the skeleton of Charles Byrne for burial.This public outreach event centred on an historical encounter in Georgian London between the Irish giant Charles Byrne and the famous anatomist and surgeon John Hunter (1728-1793).

The Giant, O’Brien and the Political Hilary Mantel On The Giant, O’Brien and the Political

She further argued in her 2022 PhD thesis [21] that English law has long protected the dignity of the human corpse as if it is a legal person, and that for the law to explicitly acknowledge it (and Byrne) as such would bring much-needed clarity and consistency to all areas of law concerning human remains. He made express arrangements with friends that when he died his body would be sealed in a lead coffin and taken to the coastal town of Margate and then to a ship for burial at sea. On 11 January 2023, the Hunterian Museum announced official retirement of Byrne's skeleton from public display. Charles Byrne (1761 – 1783), also known as Charles O'Brien or the “Irish Giant", was a human curiosity in London in the 1780s.In his desire for scientific advancement, Hunter considers only the substance of things: Dead bodies are mere slabs of meat and the giant, a freakish collection of bones. In May 2015, the then Mayor of Derry, Martin Reilly, wrote to the museum's trustees advocating for "the importance of respecting the wishes of Mr Byrne in relation to his burial". A spokesperson for the Royal College of Surgeons said "The Hunterian Museum will be closed [from late 2016] until 2021 and Charles Byrne's skeleton is not currently on display. Mantel is perhaps best known for her sweeping, fictionalized account of the French Revolution, A Place of Greater Safety, for which she won the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award in 1992.