8'4", 18th c. Irish Giant still not resting in peace

He was so tall that he could light his pipe from a street lamp. He was said to be more than 8ft 4in (although his skeleton suggests he was actually nearer 8ft). His voice sounded ‘like thunder’, his hands and feet were immense and he had a gentle manner — when he was sober.

Charles Byrne, known as the Irish Giant, was the toast of Georgian London after arriving to seek his fortune at the age of 21 and being put on show as a freak.

People flocked to see him. Newspapers printed breathless reports of his astonishing size. The King and Queen received him, and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire — the leading lights of fashionable society — took their friends to see Byrne.
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A devout Catholic, mindful of the after-life, he left strict instructions that his body should be buried at sea in a lead-lined coffin: he was desperate that his remains escape the attentions of surgeons and scientists who were eager to dissect it and place it on public display.

But his last wishes were cruelly ignored and his worst fears realised when an eminent surgeon managed to snatch the body and put his skeleton on display in the Royal College of Surgeons — where it remains today.

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Now two academics have mounted a campaign to fulfil his dying wishes and give the Irish Giant the burial he wanted. Writing in the British Medical Journal, Thomas Muinzer, a legal researcher at Queen’s University Belfast, and Len Doyal, professor of medical ethics at the University of London, argue there is no scientific benefit from continuing to display his remains.

‘What has been done cannot be undone, but it can be morally rectified. Surely it is time to respect the memory and reputation of Byrne,’ they say.
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badhorsie said:

There is a long history of giants in Irish history, probably due to a high incidence of Familial Isolated Pituitary Adenoma.

I hate the arrogance of the RCS in refusing to dispose of this man's remains in accordance with his wishes

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wfgodot said:

If I had a time machine I'd go back and watch him light his pipe from a street lamp.

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Steely Dan said:

Really, that's what you'd do? You wouldn't kill Hitler. :tsktsk:

I agree with those who say his dying wishes should be fulfilled.

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wfgodot said:

Would kill Adolf on way back to 2012. Not a one shot thing, time machines. Would also correct Don Denkinger's
blown call in Game 6 of '85 Cards-Royals series. Possibly before killing Hitler - oh, okay, maybe not, maybe not!

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