Exploring eight centuries of communication disabilities
Posted on: 12 September 2019
Rubbing the soles of the feet with garlic and lard beside the fire was once thought of as a cure for hoarseness, while ‘Cúscraid the stammerer’ was recorded as a brave and handsome king of Ulster, whose stammer was acknowledged alongside his kingship, as another aspect of his identity rather than being seen as a disability.
These and many other findings are part of a new intriguing exhibition in the Old Library that looks back at communication disabilities throughout the ages, providing a window into how communication disorders were problematised, understood and managed.
‘On Speaking Terms: Eight Centuries of Communication Disabilities’ celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Department of Clinical Speech and Language Studies which is the oldest established centre of its kind in Ireland. The exhibition is open to members of the public.
Leading the project was Dr Caroline Jagoe, Assistant Professor in Speech and Language Pathology at Trinity College. Dr Jagoe together with Dr Deborah Thorpe, who is a medievalist with an interest in the history of medicine at Trinity College, and Margaret Leahy, a retired senior lecturer in Speech & Language Pathology at Trinity College, spent almost a year trawling through the Trinity Library manuscripts, looking for clues of communication disabilities and references hidden across texts.
Dr Caroline Jagoe said:
“If communication is part of our humanness as social beings then communication disability is as old as humanity. This project gave us the opportunity to explore how communication disabilities were described and managed in past centuries.”
She continued:
“Communication disabilities are invisible disabilities. A public seminar provides an opportunity to bring these disabilities into focus.
“Looking back at the evidence from centuries past can also help us to challenge our perceptions of our own models of understanding and reflect on how they will also change over time.
Communication difficulties, while varying in nature and type, can exclude people from participating and have a big impact on how people see themselves and how other people assign identities to them. Communication is a basic human right and we all have the right to be able to communicate and receive information in a way that we can understand.”
A public seminar took place in the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute to launch the exhibition, which explored the value of this type of inter-disciplinary engagement across health sciences and the humanities. Professor Emeritus Matt Lehtihalmes, a speech and language therapist, highlighted the importance and relevance of historical perspectives for speech and language therapy, while medievalist Wendy Turner explored the medieval concepts of the brain.
‘On Speaking Terms: Eight Centuries of Communication Disabilities’ a public exhibition, will run until the end of October 2019. You can read more about the exhibition here