About

A focus is placed on the social history, environmental impacts and unfolding legacy of Aughinish Alumina, Ireland’s largest industrial site, and Europe’s biggest bauxite refinery. Sitting on the Shannon Estuary that flows into the Atlantic Ocean, and a key part of the global production of aluminium, it began production onsite in 1983. Red rock bauxite mined and imported from Guinea is chemically altered before being exported to smelters worldwide to become aluminium, used in computer parts and engines, drink cans, cars and airplanes, or kept as a commodity in warehouses across the world to be traded on stock exchanges. Debates in the hinterlands of Aughinish continue to link the refinery to deformed agricultural livestock, local health issues, and toxic deposits. Since early 2022, with war in Ukraine, the Irish government refuse to apply sanctions despite proven links to military forces through the refinery’s owner, Moscow-based Rusal. The need for a heightened social awareness of these issues is a key motivation for Stigma Damages.
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The material presented on this website is additionally made available as an open resource for the case study of heavy industry in Junior Cycle Geography, as taught in the Irish educational curriculum.

Stigma Damages is an online resource researched, assembled and edited by artist Michele Horrigan. Initially funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, this website launched in September 2024 as part of Horrigan’s solo exhibition at The Model, Sligo. The platform will continue to investigate and research contexts of heavy industry in Ireland and elsewhere, with new podcasts, documents, archival material and a digital app to be made public in the coming year.
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The title of the project, Stigma Damages, is typically used as a legal term to describe suspected environmental contamination. Here, it additionally acts as a framework to map and uncover corporate greenwashing strategies of global extraction industries, and seek restorative justice for land and its people.
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A focus is placed on the social history, environmental impacts and unfolding legacy of Aughinish Alumina, Ireland’s largest industrial site, and Europe’s biggest bauxite refinery. Sitting on the Shannon Estuary that flows into the Atlantic Ocean, and a key part of the global production of aluminium, it began production onsite in 1983. Red rock bauxite mined and imported from Guinea is chemically altered before being exported to smelters worldwide to become aluminium, used in computer parts and engines, drink cans, cars and airplanes, or kept as a commodity in warehouses across the world to be traded on stock exchanges. Debates in the hinterlands of Aughinish continue to link the refinery to deformed agricultural livestock, local health issues, and toxic deposits. Since early 2022, with war in Ukraine, the Irish government refuse to apply sanctions despite proven links to military forces through the refinery’s owner, Moscow-based Rusal. The need for a heightened social awareness of these issues is a key motivation for Stigma Damages.
‍
The material presented on this website is additionally made available as an open resource for the case study of heavy industry in Junior Cycle Geography, as taught in the Irish educational curriculum.