An Egyptian sarcophagus containing the mummified body of a man arrived in Ireland in the 1920s.

It was given to University College Cork where it was stored for over a century. This mummified man was buried beneath the Egyptian earth over 2000 years ago.

The body’s story of migration and exile is not new or unique – it is symbolic of the exile of millions of people today. His return is in recognition of displaced people everywhere, especially the continuing disappearance of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

It took five years to achieve our goal to return the body to Egypt. Over those five years I grew attached to this man who is from a different time and place. His remains, in many ways, contain ourselves.

There is no such thing as ownership with cargo like this. There is guardianship and fellowship. The body was laid to rest 2000 years ago, which is a short period in relation to time but long in relation to our own brevity on the planet.

Ideas like Kinship arrive without warning, and appear simple and possible. Each time I am surprised by the hesitations and hurdles one encounters in their making.

I had dreamt of him travelling by boat across the sea as he would have arrived here – but that was not to be. I then considered gilding the plane he would travel back in with pure gold – but that was not to be either.

Ideas like Kinship are not about remuneration or grandeur, they are fleeting thoughts that have more to do with time and progress. They mirror a passage through the world on a flight pattern that may intersect with another – and at that point of contact may reveal a sense of beauty and connection.

After one hundred years in Ireland, in December of 2024, the body was returned to Cairo.