Stigma Damages: Counter-Archives, Art, and Irish Natural Heritage

What does it mean to inherit harm? Artist and Askeaton Contemporary Arts director Michele Horrigan sits down with Kate Huber and Stacey Copeland to discuss life beside Aughinish Alumina—Europe's largest bauxite refinery, now Russian-owned—and the toxic legacy it has left across County Limerick. Through her ongoing project Stigma Damages, Horrigan has built a counter-archive of found objects, promotional ephemera, poetry, and video that bears witness against the industry's sanitized self-presentation. From government cover-ups and "sacrifice zones" to a grassroots Natural Heritage Group restoring a polluted river and preserving the oral histories of an aging community, this conversation asks: when what we inherit is harm, what does it mean to preserve it—and who gets to tell that story?

Learn more and access the transcript and our further reading list on Diggit Magazine.

In collaboration with Diggit Magazine, University of Groningen and Tilburg University. Hosted by Kate Huber and Stacey Copeland.

Audio Editor: Romane Rolland

Theme music by Karl Christenson

Podcast Artwork by Clara Daniels

Contact us with listener questions at lcmh@tilburguniversity.edu