Professor Pollard (centre, blue top) with course participants from the Irish Defence Forces, the Garda and Irish government and cultural institutions, plus the armed forces of the UK, Netherlands, Austria and Germany.
Irish armed forces involved in UN peacekeeping duties have been trained by a Swansea expert in how best to protect cultural sites and artefacts in conflict zones.
Professor Nigel Pollard is an expert on the destruction and protection of cultural heritage in conflict, including historic buildings, archaeological sites and museums.
He was lead civilian tutor on a recent Cultural Property Protection Course, run for the Irish Defence Forces UN Training School Ireland (UNTSI).
UNTSI trains Irish Defence Forces personnel for deployment on peacekeeping duties, particularly in UNIFIL, the UN force in southern Lebanon, where the impact of conflict on cultural heritage is very much a current issue.
The course coincided with the 70th anniversary of the 1954 Hague Convention on the protection of cultural property in times of crisis, to which Ireland is a signatory.
It was designed to teach participants how to advise military commanders on protecting cultural sites. The course was run in collaboration with Blue Shield International, the 'Red Cross' for cultural heritage in times of conflict and disaster.
The 45 participants on the course came mostly from the Irish Defence Forces, but also from the Garda and Irish government and cultural institutions, and the armed forces of the UK, Netherlands, Austria and Germany.
Content included remote contributions from the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL. Some participants in the course contributed their experience of conditions on the ground in the UNIFIL area of operations. There was also a simulated exercise at St Patrick's Cathedral and the Military Archives, both in Dublin.
Professor Pollard’s expertise means he is frequently asked to advise and help train contemporary military personnel. These include the UK military Cultural Property Protection Unit, the descendants of the Second World War 'Monuments Men', featured in the George Clooney film of that name.
His research on the bombing of the ruins of Pompeii by Allied forces during the Second World War featured on a Channel 5 programme with historian Dan Snow.
Professor Pollard’s current research is a Leverhulme Trust funded project on 'Allied Soldiers as Cultural Tourists in Wartime Italy'. Using archival memoirs, diaries, letters and photographs, he is examining the responses of military personnel to heritage sites such as Pompeii, Florence and Rome, and how those were shaped by factors like class, education, gender and nationality.
Professor Nigel Pollard of Swansea University said:
“Cultural heritage is fundamentally about people, not just buildings and historic sites. Protecting it can strengthen groups who are under stress, help to reduce sectarian conflict and reconstruct communities that have been through war and displacement.”
Study Classics, Ancient History and Egyptology at Swansea University