Roger Casement
Encyclopedia
Roger David CasementSir Roger Casement CMG between 1911 and shortly before his execution for treason, when he was stripped of his British honours—was an Irish patriot, poet, revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...

ary, and nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...

.

He was a British consul
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...

 by profession, famous for his reports and activities against human rights abuses in the Congo
Congo Free State
The Congo Free State was a large area in Central Africa which was privately controlled by Leopold II, King of the Belgians. Its origins lay in Leopold's attracting scientific, and humanitarian backing for a non-governmental organization, the Association internationale africaine...

 and Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

 but better known for his dealings with Germany before Ireland's Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...

 in 1916. An Irish nationalist and Parnellite in his youth, he worked in Africa for commercial interests and latterly in the service of Britain. However, the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....

 and his consular investigation into atrocities in the Congo led Casement to anti-Imperialist and ultimately to Irish Republican and separatist political opinions. He sought to obtain German support for a rebellion in Ireland against British rule. Shortly before the Easter Rising, he landed in Ireland and was arrested. He was subsequently convicted and executed by the British for treason.

There has been controversy over a set of "black" diaries, circulated selectively by the British authorities at the time, which, if accepted as genuine, would portray Casement as a promiscuous homosexual
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

 sex tourist
Sex tourism
Sex tourism is travel to engage in sexual activity with prostitutes.The World Tourism Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations, defines sex tourism as "trips organized from within the tourism sector, or from outside this sector but using its structures and networks, with the primary...

 with a fondness for young men
Ephebophilia
Ephebophilia is the sexual preference of adults for mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19. The term was originally used in the late 19th to mid 20th century, and has been more recently revisited by Ray Blanchard. It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed...

.

Early life and education

Casement was born near Dublin, living in very early childhood at Doyle's Cottage, Lawson Terrace, Sandycove
Sandycove
Sandycove is an area of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Dún Laoghaire and Glasthule, but north of Dalkey.Sandycove is well-known for its gentlemen's bathing place, the Forty Foot, which in the past afforded a quiet swimming haven for males only...

.
His Protestant father, Captain Roger Casement of (The King’s Own) Regiment of Light Dragoons, was the son of a bankrupt Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

 shipping
Ship transport
Ship transport is watercraft carrying people or goods . Sea transport has been the largest carrier of freight throughout recorded history. Although the importance of sea travel for passengers has decreased due to aviation, it is effective for short trips and pleasure cruises...

 merchant (Hugh Casement), who later moved to Australia. Captain Casement served in the 1842 Afghan campaign
First Anglo-Afghan War
The First Anglo-Afghan War was fought between British India and Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842. It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between the United Kingdom and Russia, and also marked one of the worst...

.

Casement's mother, Anne Jephson of Dublin (whose origins are obscure), had him rebaptised secretly as a Roman Catholic when he reached the age of three, in Rhyl
Rhyl
Rhyl is a seaside resort town and community situated on the north east coast of Wales, in the county of Denbighshire , at the mouth of the River Clwyd . To the west is the suburb of Kinmel Bay, with the resort of Towyn further west, Prestatyn to the east and Rhuddlan to the south...

. She died in Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...

 when her son was nine. According to an 1892 letter, Casement believed that she was descended from the Jephson
Jephson
Jephson may refer to various members of, or estates belonging to, a landed family chiefly seated in the English county of Hampshire and the Irish county Cork.The Gestson surname suggests this family were of Scandinavian descent....

 family of Mallow, County Cork
Mallow, County Cork
Mallow is the "Crossroads of Munster" and the administrative capital of north County Cork, in Ireland. The Northern Divisional Offices of Cork County Council are located in the town....

. However, the Jephson family's historian provides no evidence of this. By the time he was 13 years old, his father was also dead, having ended his days in Ballymena dependent on the charity of relatives.

Roger was afterwards raised by Protestant paternal relatives in Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

, the Youngs of Galgorm Castle in Ballymena
Ballymena
Ballymena is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland and the seat of Ballymena Borough Council. Ballymena had a population of 28,717 people in the 2001 Census....

 and the Casements of Magherintemple, and was educated at the Diocesan School, Ballymena later Ballymena Academy
Ballymena Academy
Ballymena Academy is a mixed grammar school located in the market town of Ballymena in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was founded in the early nineteenth century as a small provincial school for children in the town and surrounding agricultural hinterland.-Admissions:The school currently has...

. He left school at the age of 16 and took up a clerical job with Elder Dempster, a Liverpool shipping company headed by Alfred Lewis Jones, later an enemy on the Congo issue.

The Congo: The Casement Report

In 1903, Roger Casement, then the British Consul at Boma, was commissioned by the British government to investigate the human rights situation in the Congo Free State
Congo Free State
The Congo Free State was a large area in Central Africa which was privately controlled by Leopold II, King of the Belgians. Its origins lay in Leopold's attracting scientific, and humanitarian backing for a non-governmental organization, the Association internationale africaine...

. A long, detailed eyewitness report exposing abuses, the Casement Report, was delivered in 1904. The Congo Free State had been in the possession of King Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne on 17 December 1865 and remained king until his death.Leopold is chiefly remembered as the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free...

 since 1885, when it was granted to him by the Berlin Conference
Berlin Conference
The Berlin Conference of 1884–85 regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power...

. Leopold had exploited the territory's natural resources (mostly rubber) as a private entrepreneur, not as King of the Belgians. Casement's report would be instrumental in Leopold finally relinquishing his personal holdings in Africa.

When the report was made public, the Congo Reform Association
Congo Reform Association
The Congo Reform Association exposed gross and rampant abuses of labor and by public servants in King Leopold II of Belgium's Congo Free State, leading to the annexation of Congo by Belgium in 1908. In March, 1904, Dr. Henry Grattan Guinness , Edmund Dene Morel, and Roger Casement founded the Congo...

, founded by E. D. Morel
E. D. Morel
Edmund Dene Morel, originally Georges Eduard Pierre Achille Morel de Ville was a British journalist, author and socialist politician. In collaboration with Roger Casement, the Congo Reform Association and others, Morel, in newspapers such as his West African Mail, led a campaign against slavery...

, with Casement's support, demanded action. Other European nations followed suit, as did the United States; and the British Parliament demanded a meeting of the 14 signatory powers to review the 1885 Berlin Agreement. The Belgian Parliament, pushed by Socialist leader Emile Vandervelde
Emile Vandervelde
thumb|upright|Emile VanderveldeEmile Vandervelde was a Belgian statesman, born at Ixelles. He studied law at the Free University of Brussels and became doctor of laws in 1885 and doctor of social science in 1888.-Activities:Vandervelde became a member of the Parti Ouvrier...

 and other critics of the king's Congolese policy, forced Léopold to set up an independent commission of inquiry. In 1905, despite his efforts, it confirmed the essentials of Casement's report. On 15 November 1908, the parliament of Belgium took over the Congo Free State from Leopold and organised its administration as the Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...

.

Peru: Abuses against the Putumayo Indians

In 1906, Casement was sent to Brazil, first as consul in Pará
Pará
Pará is a state in the north of Brazil. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Belém.Pará is the most populous state...

, then transferred to Santos
Santos (São Paulo)
-Sister cities: Shimonoseki, Japan Nagasaki, Japan Funchal, Portugal Trieste, Italy Coimbra, Portugal Ansião, Portugal Arouca, Portugal Ushuaia, Argentina Havana, Cuba Taizhou. China Ningbo. China Constanţa, Romania Ulsan, South Korea Colón, Panama* Cadiz, Spain...

, and lastly promoted to consul-general in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

. When he was attached as a consular representative to a commission investigating murderous rubber
Rubber
Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...

 slavery by the British-registered Peruvian Amazon Company, effectively controlled by the archetypal rubber baron Julio Cesar Arana
Julio César Arana
Julio César Arana del Águila, was a Peruvian entrepreneur and politician. A major figure in the rubber industry in the upper Amazon basin, he is probably best known in the English-speaking world through Walt Hardenburg's 1909 articles in the British magazine Truth, accusing him of practices that...

 and his brother, Casement had the occasion to do work among the Putumayo Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 of Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

 similar to that which he had done in the Congo
Congo Free State
The Congo Free State was a large area in Central Africa which was privately controlled by Leopold II, King of the Belgians. Its origins lay in Leopold's attracting scientific, and humanitarian backing for a non-governmental organization, the Association internationale africaine...

. Public outrage in Britain over the abuses against the Putumayo had been sparked in 1909 by articles in the British magazine Truth. Casement paid two visits to the region, first in 1910 and then a follow-up in 1911. In a report to the British foreign secretary, dated 17 March 1911, Casement detailed the rubber company's use of stocks to punish the Indians:

Men, women, and children were confined in them for days, weeks, and often months. ... Whole families ... were imprisoned--fathers, mothers, and children, and many cases were reported of parents dying thus, either from starvation or from wounds caused by flogging, while their offspring were attached alongside of them to watch in misery themselves the dying agonies of their parents.


After his return to Britain, he repeated his extra-consular campaigning work by organising Anti-Slavery Society
Anti-Slavery Society
The Anti-Slavery Society or A.S.S. was the everyday name of two different British organizations.The first was founded in 1823 and was committed to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Its official name was the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the...

 and mission interventions in the region, which was disputed between Peru and Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. Some of the men exposed as killers in his report were charged by Peru, while others fled. Conditions in the area undoubtedly improved as a result, but the contemporary switch to farmed rubber in other parts of the world was a godsend to the Indians as well. Arana himself was never prosecuted. He instead went on to have a successful political career, becoming a senator and dying in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

, Peru in 1952 at age eighty-eight.

Casement wrote extensively (as always) in those two years including several of his notorious diaries, the one for 1911 being unusually discursive. They and the 1903 diary were kept by him in London with other papers of the period, presumably so they could be consulted in his continuing work as 'Congo Casement' and the saviour of the Putumayo Indians. In 1911, Casement was knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...

 for his efforts on behalf of the Amazonian Indians, having been reluctantly appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....

 in 1905 for his Congo work.

Irish revolutionary

Casement retired from the consular service in the summer of 1913. In November that year, he helped form the Irish Volunteers
Irish Volunteers
The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...

 with Eoin MacNeill
Eoin MacNeill
Eoin MacNeill was an Irish scholar, nationalist, revolutionary and politician. MacNeill is regarded as the father of the modern study of early Irish medieval history. He was a co-founder of the Gaelic League, to preserve Irish language and culture, going on to establish the Irish Volunteers...

, later the organisation's chief of staff. They co-wrote the Volunteers' manifesto. In July 1914, Casement journeyed to the U.S. to promote and raise money for the Volunteers. Through his friendship with men such as Bulmer Hobson
Bulmer Hobson
John Bulmer Hobson was a leading member of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood before the Easter Rising in 1916...

, who was a member of the Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood
Irish Republican Brotherhood
The Irish Republican Brotherhood was a secret oath-bound fraternal organisation dedicated to the establishment of an "independent democratic republic" in Ireland during the second half of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century...

 (IRB), Casement established connections with exiled Irish nationalists, particularly in Clan na Gael
Clan na Gael
The Clan na Gael was an Irish republican organization in the United States in the late 19th and 20th centuries, successor to the Fenian Brotherhood and a sister organization to the Irish Republican Brotherhood...

.

Elements of the Clan did not trust him completely, as he was not a member of the IRB and held views considered by many to be too moderate, although others such as John Quinn
John Quinn
John Quinn or Jack Quinn is the name of:*Jack Quinn , White House counsel, 1995–1996*Jack Quinn , Congressman from New York*Jack Quinn III, Assemblyman from Erie County, New York and son of the Congressman...

 regarded him as extreme. John Devoy
John Devoy
John Devoy was an Irish rebel leader and exile.-Early life:Devoy was born near Kill, County Kildare. In 1861 he travelled to France with an introduction from T. D. Sullivan to John Mitchel...

, who was initially hostile to Casement for his part in conceding control of the Irish Volunteers to Redmond, in June was won over, while the more extreme Clan leader Joseph McGarrity
Joseph McGarrity
Joseph McGarrity was born in Carrickmore, County Tyrone, Ireland. He emigrated to the USA in 1892 at the age of 18 and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From 1893 until his death he was a leading member of the Clan na Gael organisation. He also was a successful businessman; however, his...

 became and remained devoted to Casement. The Howth gun-running
Howth gun-running
The Howth gun running took place in Ireland on 26 July 1914. It was a key step in providing arms to the Irish Volunteers, and played a role in the run-up to the Easter Rising of 1916.- The gun-running plan :...

 in late July 1914 which he had helped to organise and finance further enhanced Casement's reputation.

In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Casement and John Devoy arranged a meeting in New York with the Western Hemisphere’s top-ranking German diplomat, Count von Bernstorff, to propose a mutually beneficial plan: if Germany would sell guns to the Irish rebels and provide military leaders, the rebels would stage a revolt against England, diverting troops and attention from the war on Germany.

Von Bernstorff appeared sympathetic but Casement and Devoy decided to send an envoy, Clan na Gael president John Kenny
John Kenny (Clan-na-Gael)
John Kenny long-time member and multi-term president of the Clan-na-Gael in New York, which supplied support to the rebels in Ireland, culminating in the Easter Rising. Under the cover of personal and business trips, he served as liaison between the "Home Office" and the New York Clan-na-Gael...

, to present their plan personally. Kenny, unable to meet up with the Kaiser, was nonetheless given a warm reception by von Flutow, the German ambassador to Italy, and Prince von Bulow. In October, Casement himself set sail for Germany via Norway. He viewed himself as an ambassador of the Irish nation. While the journey was his idea, Clan na Gael financed the expedition. In Christiania (Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

), his companion Adler Christensen was taken to the British legation and, according to him, offered a reward if Casement was "knocked on the head."

The British minister, in contrast, advised London that Christensen had approached them, and also said that he “implied that their relations were of an unnatural nature and that consequently he had great power over this man.” It was this episode that first provided London with the intimation that Casement was homosexual
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

.

In November 1914, Casement negotiated a declaration by Germany which stated, "The Imperial Government formally declares that under no circumstances would Germany invade Ireland with a view to its conquest or the overthrow of any native institutions in that country. Should the fortune of this great war, that was not of Germany’s seeking, ever bring in its course German troops to the shores of Ireland, they would land there not as an army of invaders to pillage and destroy but as the forces of a Government that is inspired by goodwill towards a country and people for whom Germany desires only national prosperity and national freedom”. He negotiated in Berlin with Arthur Zimmermann
Arthur Zimmermann
Arthur Zimmermann was State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the German Empire from November 22, 1916, until his resignation on August 6, 1917. His name is associated with the Zimmermann Telegram during World War I...

, then Under Secretary of State in the Foreign Office, and with the Imperial Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg.

Most of his time in Germany, however, was spent in an attempt to recruit an "Irish Brigade" consisting of Irish prisoners-of-war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

 in the prison camp of Limburg an der Lahn
Limburg an der Lahn
Limburg an der Lahn is the district seat of Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Limburg lies in western Hesse between the Taunus and the Westerwald on the river Lahn....

, who would be trained to fight against Britain. During the war, Casement is also known to have been involved in the Hindu–German Conspiracy
Hindu–German Conspiracy
The Hindu–German Conspiracy was a series of plans formulated between 1914 and 1917 to initiate a Pan-Indian rebellion against the British Raj during World War I. The conspirators included radical nationalists in India, the Ghadar Party in the United States and the Indian independence committee in...

, recommending Joseph McGarrity
Joseph McGarrity
Joseph McGarrity was born in Carrickmore, County Tyrone, Ireland. He emigrated to the USA in 1892 at the age of 18 and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From 1893 until his death he was a leading member of the Clan na Gael organisation. He also was a successful businessman; however, his...

 to Franz von Papen
Franz von Papen
Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934...

 as an intermediary for the plot. The Indian nationalists may also have followed Casement's strategy in attempting to recruit from amongst Indian prisoners of war.

However, both efforts proved unsuccessful. The Irish plan failed, as all Irishmen fighting in the British army did so voluntarily, while recruits to Casement's brigade were liable to the death penalty if Britain won. It was largely abandoned after much time and money were wasted. The Germans, who were sceptical of Casement, but nonetheless aware of the military advantage they could gain from an uprising in Ireland, only in April 1916 offered the Irish 20,000 rifles, 10 machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....

s and accompanying ammunition, a fraction of the quantity of weaponry Casement had hoped for, and no German officers. A detailed account of Casement's Irish Brigade in Germany was written by Michael McKeogh, recruiting officer and Sergeant Major in the Irish Brigade in Germany and Casement’s adjutant.

Casement did not learn about the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...

 until after the plan was fully developed. The IRB purposely kept him in the dark and even tried to replace him. Casement may never have learned that it was not the Volunteers who were planning the rising, but IRB members such as Patrick Pearse
Patrick Pearse
Patrick Henry Pearse was an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916...

 and Tom Clarke
Tom Clarke (Irish republican)
Thomas James "Tom" Clarke was an Irish revolutionary leader and arguably the person most responsible for the 1916 Easter Rising. A proponent of violent revolution for most of his life, he spent 15 years in prison...

 who were pulling the strings behind the scenes.

The German weapons were never landed in Ireland. The ship transporting them, a German cargo vessel called the Libau, was intercepted, even though it had been thoroughly disguised as a Norwegian vessel, Aud Norge
Aud (ship)
Aud was the cover name of a German ship, Libau, that carried arms to Ireland as part of the preparation for the Easter Rising in Ireland in 1916.-Introduction:...

. All the crew were German sailors, but their clothes and effects, even the charts and books on the bridge, were Norwegian. The British, however, had intercepted German communications coming from Washington and knew there was going to be an attempt to land arms, even if the Royal Navy was not precisely aware of where. The arms ship under Captain Karl Spindler was eventually apprehended by HMS Bluebell on the late afternoon of Good Friday. About to be escorted into Queenstown (now Cobh, Co. Cork) on the morning of Saturday, 22 April, after surrendering, the Aud Norge was scuttled by pre-set explosive charges. She lies at 40 metres depth. Her crew became prisoners of war.

Capture, trial and execution

Casement confided his personal papers to Dr. Charles Curry, with whom he had stayed at Riederau on the Ammersee
Ammersee
Ammersee is a lake in Upper Bavaria, Germany located southwest of Munich between the towns of Herrsching and Dießen am Ammersee. With a surface area of approximately , it is the sixth largest lake in Germany. The lake is located at an elevation of , and has a maximum depth of . Like other Bavarian...

, before he left Germany. He departed with Robert Monteith and Sergeant Daniel Beverley (Bailey) of the Irish Brigade in a submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

, initially the U-20, which developed engine trouble, and then the U-19, shortly after the Aud sailed.

According to Monteith, Casement believed that the Germans were toying with him from the start and providing inadequate aid that would doom a rising to failure, and that he had to reach Ireland before the shipment of arms and convince Eoin MacNeill
Eoin MacNeill
Eoin MacNeill was an Irish scholar, nationalist, revolutionary and politician. MacNeill is regarded as the father of the modern study of early Irish medieval history. He was a co-founder of the Gaelic League, to preserve Irish language and culture, going on to establish the Irish Volunteers...

 (who he believed was still in control) to cancel the rising. Indeed, Casement sent a recently arrived Irish-American, John McGoey, through Denmark to Dublin, ostensibly to advise of what military aid was coming from Germany and when, but with Casement's orders "to get the Heads in Ireland to call off the rising and merely try to land the arms and distribute them". McGoey however did not make it to Dublin, nor did his message. His fate was unknown until recently but he survived the war. Despite any view ascribed to Monteith, Casement expected to be involved in the rising if it went ahead.

In the early hours of 21 April 1916, three days before the rising began, Casement was put ashore at Banna Strand
Banna Strand
Banna Strand, also known as Banna Beach, is situated in Tralee Bay. It is an Atlantic Ocean beach extending from Ballyheigue Beach at the Blackrock in the North to Barrow Beach at its southern edge, located in County Kerry. It is located approx 12 km north west of Tralee. It features sand...

 in Tralee Bay
Tralee Bay
Tralee Bay is located in on the west coast of County Kerry, Ireland. It is situated between Kerry Head on the north side and the Maharees on the west and extends eastwards as far as the bridge at Blennerville. Several small rivers feed into the bay through the town of Tralee...

, County Kerry
County Kerry
Kerry means the "people of Ciar" which was the name of the pre-Gaelic tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich. In Old Irish "Ciar" meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective...

. Too weak to travel, he was discovered at McKenna's Fort (an ancient ring fort now called Casement's Fort) in Rathoneen
Rathoneen
Rathoneen is a townland of Ardfert in County Kerry, Ireland and is most notable for the home of Casement's Fort, an ancient Celtic ringfort where Roger Casement was hiding after landing at Banna Strand in the Aud....

, Ardfert
Ardfert
Ardfert is a village in County Kerry, Ireland. Historically a religious centre, the economy of the locality is driven by agriculture and its position as a dormitory town, being only 8 km from Tralee.-Origin:...

, and subsequently arrested on charges of treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

, sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...

 and espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

 against the Crown. He was taken straight to the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

 where he was imprisoned, but not before he was able to send word to Dublin about the inadequate German assistance. The Kerry Brigade of the Irish Volunteers
Irish Volunteers
The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...

 might have tried to rescue him over the next three days, but was ordered by its leadership in Dublin to "do nothing".

At Casement's highly publicised trial for treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

, the prosecution had trouble arguing its case as Casement's crimes had been carried out in Germany and the medieval Treason Act 1351
Treason Act 1351
The Treason Act 1351 is an Act of the Parliament of England which codified and curtailed the common law offence of treason. No new offences were created by the statute. It is one of the earliest English statutes still in force, although it has been very significantly amended. It was extended to...

 seemed to apply only to activities carried out on British (or English) soil. Closer reading of the ancient document allowed for a broader interpretation, leading to the accusation that Casement was "hanged on a comma". The court decided that a comma should be read in the text, crucially widening the sense so that "in the realm or elsewhere" meant where acts were done and not just where the "King's enemies" may be.

Casement made an unsuccessful appeal against the conviction and death sentence. Among the many people who pleaded for clemency were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...

, who was acquainted with Casement through the work of the Congo Reform Association, W. B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...

. Edmund Dene Morel could not visit him in jail, being under attack for his pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...

 position. On the other hand, Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...

, who had a son at the front, could not forgive Casement for his treachery toward Britain, nor did his friend the sculptor Herbert Ward. Members of the Casement family in Antrim contributed discreetly to the defence fund, although they had sons in the army and navy.

Casement was received into the Catholic Church while awaiting execution and was attended by a Catholic priest, Fr. James McCarroll, who said of Casement that he was "a saint ... we should be praying to him [Casement] instead of for him". He went to his death, Casement said, with the body of his God as his last meal. He was hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

 by John Ellis
John Ellis (executioner)
John Ellis was a Rochdale hairdresser and newsagent who served as one of the United Kingdom's executioners for 23 years, from 1901 to 1924....

 and his assistants at Pentonville Prison
Pentonville (HM Prison)
HM Prison Pentonville is a Category B/C men's prison, operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service. Pentonville Prison is not actually within Pentonville itself, but is located further north, on the Caledonian Road in the Barnsbury area of the London Borough of Islington, in inner-North London,...

 in London on 3 August 1916, at the age of 51.

The Black Diaries and Casement’s sexuality

Before Casement's execution, photographs of so-called "Black Diaries," which the government claimed were written by Casement, were circulated to those urging commutation of his death sentence. The documents, which covered the years 1903, 1910 and 1911, would, if accepted as genuine, show Casement to have been a promiscuous homosexual
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

 sex tourist with a fondness for young men. On account of their pornographic content, they were termed the 'Black Diaries', and were distinguished from the 'White Diaries' where Casement omitted sexual references and recorded only details of his humanitarian work and private business. In a time of strong social conservatism, not least among Irish Catholics, the Black Diaries undermined or at least suppressed support for Casement.

Archbishop Davidson
Randall Thomas Davidson
Randall Thomas Davidson, 1st Baron Davidson of Lambeth GCVO, PC was an Anglican bishop of Scottish origin who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1903 to 1928.-Background and education:...

, concerned at the rumours, arranged for John Harris of the Anti-Slavery Society, and a missionary friend of Casement's, to view the diaries; Harris was shattered when he realised they were authentic. The statement found in a number of books (usually without source) that Archbishop Davidson
Randall Thomas Davidson
Randall Thomas Davidson, 1st Baron Davidson of Lambeth GCVO, PC was an Anglican bishop of Scottish origin who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1903 to 1928.-Background and education:...

 consequently abandoned his attempts to seek clemency is incorrect. Davidson had declined to sign a petition, but this was because it was his policy not to sign petitions but to make his own representations. The Archbishop made his plea for Casement's life to the Lord Chancellor, Lord Buckmaster, on 1 August, two days before the execution.

For many in the south of Ireland, the 'Black Diaries' were long considered to be bogus and part of a propaganda smear campaign. A parallel suggested itself with the nineteenth century Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...

, who had been the target of forgeries by rogue editor Richard Pigott, which sought (ultimately unsuccessfully) to implicate him in the Phoenix Park Murders
Phoenix Park Murders
The Phoenix Park Murders were the fatal stabbings on 6 May 1882 in the Phoenix Park in Dublin of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke. Cavendish was the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Burke was the Permanent Undersecretary, the most senior Irish civil servant...

. The Black Diaries' authenticity was disputed by the American neurologist, Dr. William J. Maloney (1882-1952), in his book The Forged Casement Diaries (1936), and by other nationalist writers such as the dermatologist, Dr. Herbert O. Mackey. The English poet Alfred Noyes
Alfred Noyes
Alfred Noyes was an English poet, best known for his ballads, "The Highwayman" and "The Barrel-Organ".-Early years:...

, too, argued in his last book The Accusing Ghost, or Justice for Casement (1957) that the diaries had been forged by British Intelligence. By contrast, H. Montgomery Hyde, an Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

 MP and barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...

, who campaigned in Parliament in the 1950s for the release of the Black Diaries and who wrote a book on Casement's trial, was convinced of the diaries' authenticity.

Casement consistently insisted the ‘Black Diaries’ were forgeries. A problem that critics raise with the diaries is the lack of corroborating evidence for Casement's proposed double life. Essentially, there are two sets of documents about Casement. One set shows him to be a great humanitarian, who devoted the best years of his life to campaigning against slavery and exploitation. The other set shows him as a man who had sex with male prostitutes, including children, and may have paid for it with money raised for charity.

Irish academic Prof. Roger McHugh (1960) made a detailed challenge to the diaries' authenticity and his central argument was simple: all those documents which claimed to show Casement as a paedophile homosexual had, without exception, passed through the hands of the Chief of British Naval Intelligence
Naval Intelligence Division
The Naval Intelligence Division was the intelligence arm of the British Admiralty before the establishment of a unified Defence Staff in 1965. It dealt with matters concerning British naval plans, with the collection of naval intelligence...

, Sir Reginald Hall
William Reginald Hall
Admiral Sir William Reginald Hall, KCMG, CB, RN was the British Director of Naval Intelligence from 1914 to 1919...

, and the Head of Scotland Yard, Sir Basil Thompson.

In 2002, an independent forensic examination of the diaries, commissioned by a team of academics from Goldsmiths, University of London led by Prof. W.J. MacCormack, and funded by RTÉ
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

 and the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, was undertaken by Dr. Audrey Giles, an internationally respected figure in the field of document forensics
Questioned document examination
Questioned document examination is the forensic science discipline pertaining to documents that are in dispute in a court of law...

. According to the BBC, "the main focus of Dr Giles' examination was handwriting analysis, which involved making direct comparisons between known examples of Casement's handwriting and the entries in the Black Diaries. As well as identifying similar characteristics, Dr Giles looked for inconsistencies that would indicate the work of a forger. Having found 'many similarities' and 'no significant differences', she reached an inescapable conclusion in favour of authenticity":

The unequivocal and confident conclusion which the Giles Document Laboratory has reached is that each of the five documents collectively known as the Black Diaries is exclusively the work of Roger Casement's hand, without any reason to suspect either forgery or interpolation by any other hand. The Diaries are genuine throughout and in each instance.


One objection that has been made is that Dr. Giles' examination was confined mainly to handwriting, rather than being a complete forensic investigation of Casement's writings, involving analysis of paper, ink, writing instruments, pollen, word frequency and content. While she had 'examined the pages of the individual documents using ultra-violet light to determine any differences between them', she had not 'attempted to identify the origin of paper used in any of the documents.' Concerning the potential examination of ink, paper and materials, Dr. Giles stated in the documentary:

We could go ahead and carry out analysis of the inks, there are some problems there. There has to be a recognition that, if indeed the Diaries are substantial forgeries, then they would have been produced at about the same time as the documents are dated or not long afterwards (sic). So they are going to be produced using materials of the age, so I doubt whether in the end any close analysis of the ink is going to tell us a great deal about them.


American document examiner and expert James Horan challenged Dr. Giles' conclusion on the grounds that the "control" material (i.e., the "authentic" handwriting of Casement against which the diaries were compared) taken from the Morel archive at LSE, may itself have passed through the hands of British Intelligence after Morel's arrest in 1917. Horan's view was that the conclusion would not stand up in a US court. However such a test was not a requirement in the Giles report remit for judging authenticity, and Horan accepted he had not seen any of the material in question.

Some who question the impartiality of the Giles examination have also argued that Professor MacCormack, who was involved in commissioning the review, exhibits anti-Irish Nationalist sentiments in his book, Roger Casement in Death, or Haunting the Free State (Dublin 2002). McCormack's book expounds his view that the Casement diaries are genuine and not forgeries. The Giles Report is referred to in several places as having conclusively proved the contested writings of Casement to be authentic, though the book does not provide the text of the report, an account of how Dr. Giles was chosen or a full summary of the report Included is a section on the psychological theories of Jacques Lacan
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who made prominent contributions to psychoanalysis and philosophy, and has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". Giving yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, Lacan influenced France's...

, in which it is claimed that there is a significant correlation between rubber production, which involves the breaking of tree-bark resulting in the extrusion of a 'white sticky substance', and Casement's alleged recording of 'same-sex' practices, 'in which the diarist details the extrusion of a different white sticky substance (namely semen)' Proponents of the forgery theory are dismissed by McCormack as 'Casement Vindicators', whom he compares with perpetrators of 'clerical child abuse, prime-ministerial corruption, and paramilitary terror', not to mention 'Holocaust Denial'!.

A further claim is that Dr Giles's examination of the Putamayo Journal (or White Diary) for the period from 9 October to 14 October 1910 may have been incomplete. Kevin Mannerings and Marcel B. Matley argue that, due to confusion over copies received from the National Library, Dr. Giles does not appear to have examined the important entry in the White Diary dated 12 October 1910. The methodology of Dr. Giles's report has also also criticised; in particular it is claimed that the author's starting point was not neutrality but the proposition that the Black Diaries were authentic. It is claimed that the Black Diary for 1911 shows signs of 'bleaching and interpolation'. There is also a suggestionthat the putative forger may have been an MI5 officer, Donald im Thurn, (Conrad Donald Everard Im Thurn b. 1883 (Jun Q 1d/785 Camberwell) Surrey), who was implicated in the release of the forged 1924 Zinoviev letter
Zinoviev Letter
The "Zinoviev Letter" refers to a controversial document published by the British press in 1924, allegedly sent from the Communist International in Moscow to the Communist Party of Great Britain...

.

In a survey of the forged Hitler Diaries
Hitler Diaries
In April 1983, the West German news magazine Stern published excerpts from what purported to be the diaries of Adolf Hitler, known as the Hitler Diaries , which were subsequently revealed to be forgeries...

, the Mormon historical documents forged by Mark Hofmann
Mark Hofmann
Mark William Hofmann is an American counterfeiter, forger and convicted murderer. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished forgers in history, Hofmann is especially noted for his creation of documents related to the history of the Latter Day Saint movement...

 and other forgery cases, Kenneth W Rendell
Kenneth W. Rendell
Kenneth W. Rendell is an American dealer and expert in historical letters, manuscripts, and documents. He is president of Kenneth W. Rendell, Inc., in South Natick, Massachusetts, and the Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery in New York City. Rendell is also founder of the Museum of World War II in...

, an American dealer and expert in historical letters, manuscripts, and documents, has stated that "it can be an error to conclude from an examination of only a few factors that the writing is genuine or forged". It has also been argued that a forensic document examiner with no official English or Irish connections would be in a better position to provide an objective analysis of Casement's diaries, and that the task is one which would appear to require the services of a team of specialists.

The circulation of copies of the diaries was masterminded by Reginald 'Blinker' Hall, director of Naval Intelligence, a ruthless operative whose accomplishments included the promotion of the forged Zinoviev letter
Zinoviev Letter
The "Zinoviev Letter" refers to a controversial document published by the British press in 1924, allegedly sent from the Communist International in Moscow to the Communist Party of Great Britain...

 in 1924, a smear campaign conducted against the British Labour Party. An article by Brian Inglis in Spectator pointed a finger at Sir Basil Thompson (Scotland Yard) and Admiral Sir Reginald Hall, 1955 The Daily Mail helped Capt. Hall by publishing an entirely false rumour that Casement had been arrested in Germany under paragraph 175 of the German penal code (homosexual offences). It is argued that Hall's aim was to get Casement executed, and that once that had happened the diaries disappeared from public view.

Roger Sawyer’s 1997 work on the 1910 diary and Jeffrey Dudgeon’s footnoted edition of all the Black Diaries in 2002, accompanied by a biographical treatment, went a long way towards integrating Casement’s nationalist, humanitarian and alleged homosexual lives. Casement's most recent biographer, Séamas Ó Síocháin, accepts the black diaries' authenticity as a matter of course.

Jeffrey Dudgeon's edition of the black diaries is the product of an editor who is himself an Ulster Unionist and a gay rights activist. Dudgeon's research throws new light on Casement's Irish relatives, friends and contacts, for the first time providing some biography for an alleged lover who features in the Black Diaries, one Millar Gordon. While all the Black Diaries are published together for the first time, some entries have been abbreviated or omitted: for example, the controversial entry dated 12 October 1910 (below) is absent. While most of the controversial Black Diaries entries are self-evidently obscene, Dudgeon's square bracketed glosses seem suggestive rather than interpretive:
In the last analysis, and although he himself believes in the authenticity of the Black Diaries, Dudgeon seems surprisingly pessimistic concerning the possibility of actually proving the case beyond doubt:
The current re-opening of the controversy is due in large measure to the work of Angus Mitchell, a British scholar who was commissioned to edit Casement's writings for publication. Mitchell found his initial belief in the authenticity of the Black Diaries undermined by his detailed study of Casement's career and close comparison with the content of the White Diaries in the National Library of Ireland in Dublin. Mitchell considered the Black Diaries to be 'riddled with inaccuracies and inconsistencies', and questioned why Casement would keep in his possession incriminating material which could have been used by his many enemies in South America and subsequently in Britain. In particular, Mitchell points to the fact that in 1910 Casement was suffering from eye problems which frequently caused him to write entries in the White Diaries in pencil, whereas corresponding entries in the Black Diaries tended to be written more deliberately in pen. To illustrate this point, Mitchell provides photographs of White and Black entries for 12 October 1910.
Here is a sample pair of 1910 entries, from the White and Black Diaries respectively:
The first entry describes a day commencing with a combined walk and tour of inspection and concluding with an evening of socialising at a bridge party. The second entry portrays a round of sexual frolics with not one but apparently two males, concluding with a bridge party which seems 'stupid' in contrast. If the second diary entry is genuine, Casement combined official investigative work and reporting with voracious cruising day and night, while finding time to write up two diaries. There are other puzzling discrepancies between the two texts. For example, in a White Diary entry dated 30 November 1910 Casement wrote:

The entry for the same date in the Black Diary gives an account which is at variance with this: '. . .

There is no 'positive' evidence whatsoever that the diaries are forgeries; there is, indeed, evidence that the British Government also undertook investigations to ascertain whether they were genuine. An account of the forgeries controversy is given in the comparative biography of Casement and John Amery
John Amery
John Amery was a British fascist who proposed to the Wehrmacht the formation of a British volunteer force and made recruitment efforts and propaganda broadcasts for Nazi Germany...

 by the historian and former intelligence officer Adrian Weale
Adrian Weale
Adrian Weale is a British writer, journalist, illustrator and photographer of Welsh origin. He was educated at Latymer Upper School, University of York and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.- Biography :...

 (2001). Weale argues that proponents of the idea that the 'Black' diaries are forgeries have tended to be either humanitarian anti-slavery activists or conservative religious Catholics, neither of whom would be likely to admire Casement's sexual activities among native men and boys. This said, the diaries themselves are the only 'evidence' that Casement was a homosexual, and it is precisely their authenticity which is so hotly debated.

Dr Daniel Vangroenweghe, a Belgian anthropologist with a long knowledge of the Congo, wrote in 2002 that Casement's use of Congolese dialect slang words could not have been forged, and he claims to be the first academic to have read Sir John Harris' unpublished autobiography. In it, Harris (see above) commented that: "Alas, when it was put before me and I had examined certain parts, my confidence was shaken. Then I came upon two or three facts only known in Europe to Casement and myself, and then my hopes were scattered, for, I realized that the wretched thing was genuine!" Dr Vangroenweghe added that if the Congo black diary was forged then the typed transcripts should have been near-perfect, but have misprints on every page. Also, as the diaries were shown to Casement's lawyer, it would have been possible for Casement to rebut them as forgeries in or out of court, but he chose not to do so; the inference being that he knew that they were his.

Generally speaking, proponents of Irish Nationalism (especially religious Catholics) and Republicanism tend to disbelieve the Black diaries, whereas opponents of Nationalism, Unionists and Gay Rights' activists tend to consider them authentic. Revisionist historian Roy Foster
R. F. Foster (historian)
Robert Fitzroy Foster FBA FRHistS FRSL - generally known as Roy Foster - is the Carroll Professor of Irish History at Hertford College, Oxford in the UK.-Background and education:...

 refers to proponents of the forgery theory as "Casementalists"

The diaries may now be inspected at the British National Archives
The National Archives (UK)
The National Archives is a UK government department and an executive agency of the Secretary of State for Justice. It is "the UK government's official archive, containing 1,000 years of history"...

 in Kew
Kew
Kew is a place in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in South West London. Kew is best known for being the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens, now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace...

.

State funeral

As was the custom at the time, Casement's body was buried in quicklime in the prison cemetery at the rear of Pentonville Prison, where he was hanged. In 1965, Casement's body was repatriated to Ireland and, after a state funeral, was buried with full military honours in the Republican plot in Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery , officially known as Prospect Cemetery, is the largest non-denominational cemetery in Ireland with an estimated 1.5 million burials...

 in Dublin after lying in state at Arbour Hill for five days, during which time an estimated half a million people filed past his coffin. The President of Ireland
President of Ireland
The President of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland. The President is usually directly elected by the people for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms. The presidency is largely a ceremonial office, but the President does exercise certain limited powers with absolute...

, Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...

, who in his mid-eighties was the last surviving leader of the Easter Rising, defied the advice of his doctors and attended the ceremony, along with an estimated 30,000 Irish citizens. Casement's last wish, to be buried at Murlough Bay
Murlough Bay
Murlough Bay in County Antrim, Northern Ireland is a bay in the north-eastern corner of Northern Ireland. It is known for its outstanding beauty and remote location, with views across the ocean to Rathlin Island, the Mull of Kintyre and various other Scottish islands.The local geology is typical...

 on the North Antrim
County Antrim
County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...

 coast has yet to be fulfilled as Harold Wilson's government released the remains only on condition that they not be brought into Northern Ireland. Interestingly, the 1966 British Cabinet
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....

 record of the decision refers to him as Sir Roger Casement.

Landmarks, buildings and organisations

Many landmarks, buildings and organisations in Ireland are named after Casement including:
  • Casement Park
    Casement Park
    Casement Park is the principal Gaelic Athletic Association stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland, home to the Antrim football and hurling teams...

    , the Gaelic Athletic Association
    Gaelic Athletic Association
    The Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders...

     ground on Andersonstown Road in west Belfast
    Belfast
    Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

    .
  • Several Gaelic Athletic Association
    Gaelic Athletic Association
    The Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders...

     clubs, for instance the Roger Casements GAA Club in Coventry
    Coventry
    Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

     and the Roger Casements GAC in Portglenone
    Portglenone
    Portglenone is a village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies 8.5 miles west of Ballymena. It had a population of 2,900 in the 2001 Census...

    .
  • In Dundalk
    Dundalk
    Dundalk is the county town of County Louth in Ireland. It is situated where the Castletown River flows into Dundalk Bay. The town is close to the border with Northern Ireland and equi-distant from Dublin and Belfast. The town's name, which was historically written as Dundalgan, has associations...

     there is an estate named after him in Árd Easmuinn called "Casement Heights."
  • Casement Aerodrome
    Casement Aerodrome
    Casement Aerodrome or Baldonnel Aerodrome is a military airbase to the south west of Dublin, Ireland situated off the N7 main road route to the south and south west. It is the headquarters and the sole base of the Irish Air Corps, and is also used for other government purposes...

     in Baldonnel, the Irish Air Corps base near Dublin.
  • Casement Rail & Bus Station in Tralee, near the site of Casement's landing on Banna Strand
    Banna Strand
    Banna Strand, also known as Banna Beach, is situated in Tralee Bay. It is an Atlantic Ocean beach extending from Ballyheigue Beach at the Blackrock in the North to Barrow Beach at its southern edge, located in County Kerry. It is located approx 12 km north west of Tralee. It features sand...

    . Operated by Iarnród Éireann
    Iarnród Éireann
    Iarnród Éireann is the national railway system operator of Ireland. Established on 2 February 1987, it is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann . It operates all internal intercity, commuter and freight railway services in the Republic of Ireland, and, jointly with Northern Ireland Railways, the...

     and Córas Iompair Éireann
    Córas Iompair Éireann
    Córas Iompair Éireann , or CIÉ, is a statutory corporation of the Irish state, answerable to the Irish Government and responsible for most public transport in the Republic of Ireland and, jointly with its Northern Ireland counterpart, the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, between the...

  • In Cork, there is an estate named after him in one of the west suburbs, Glasheen, named Roger Casement Park.
  • Monument in County Kerry at Banna Strand. Open to the public at all times.
  • Many streets, particularly in the north-west Dublin suburb of Finglas
    Finglas
    -See also:* List of towns and villages in Ireland* List of abbeys and priories in Ireland...

    , and in the Loyalist
    Ulster loyalism
    Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...

     heartland of Harryville, Ballymena
    Ballymena
    Ballymena is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland and the seat of Ballymena Borough Council. Ballymena had a population of 28,717 people in the 2001 Census....

    , County Antrim
    County Antrim
    County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...

    , although the street is actually named for his great-grandfather who was a solicitor in Henryville as it was then called.

Song, story and verse

Casement was also the subject of ballads and poetry in Ireland in the wake of his death, including:
  • The ballad "Lonely Banna Strand
    Banna Strand (song)
    Banna Strand is an Irish rebel song about the failed transport of arms into Ireland for use in the Easter Rising. Authorship of the song is unknown...

    " tells the story of Casement's role in the prelude to the Easter Rising
    Easter Rising
    The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...

    , his arrest, and subsequent execution.
  • Arthur Conan Doyle
    Arthur Conan Doyle
    Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...

     used Casement as an inspiration for the character of Lord John Roxton
    Lord John Roxton
    Lord John Roxton is a supporting character in the Professor Challenger series of stories by Arthur Conan Doyle...

     in the 1912 novel The Lost World.
  • W. B. Yeats wrote a poem demanding the return of Casement's remains, with the refrain, "The ghost of Roger Casement/Is beating on the door". Brendan Behan
    Brendan Behan
    Brendan Francis Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army.-Early life:...

     refers to the poem in his autobiographical novel Borstal Boy
    Borstal Boy
    Borstal Boy is an autobiographical 1958 book by Brendan Behan. The story depicts a young, fervently idealistic Behan who loses his naïveté over the three years of his sentence to a juvenile borstal, softening his radical Republican stance and warming to his fellow British prisoners...

    , and speaks of the respect his family had for Casement, noting that his older brother Rory Behan had been named after Casement.
  • Casement is the subject of the play Prisoner of the Crown, which was written by Richard Herd
    Richard Herd
    Richard Herd, Jr. is an American actor in television and film. He is well known in the science fiction community for his role in the 1983 NBC miniseries V and the 1984 sequel V: The Final Battle, as John, the Visitors' Supreme Commander...

     and Richard Stockton
    Richard Stockton (playwright)
    Richard F. Stockton was an American playwright. He was the first American Playwright to receive a world premiere at the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s National Theatre, for his play Prisoner of the Crown, co-produced by Sir Alfred Drake...

     and which premiered at the Abbey Theatre
    Abbey Theatre
    The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...

     in Dublin on 15 February 1972.
  • Roger Casement appears in the "Giant's Causeway
    Giant's Causeway
    The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles northeast of the town of Bushmills...

    " of French Academician Pierre Benoit
    Pierre Benoit (novelist)
    Pierre Benoît was a French novelist and member of the Académie française.Pierre Benoit, born in Albi was the son of a French soldier. Benoit spent his early years and military service in Northern Africa, before becoming a civil servant...

     in 1922, telling of his capture and execution and presenting him as a noble martyr and scapegoat.
  • In 1968 a German TV series Sir Roger Casement
    Sir Roger Casement (TV series)
    Sir Roger Casement is a 1968 German television miniseries depicting the efforts of the historical figure Sir Roger Casement to seek German aid for Irish independence during the First World War and his attempts to form an Irish Brigade of Prisoners of War. It was aired in two 90 minute parts.-Cast:*...

    was made about his time in Germany during the First World War.
  • In 1973, BBC Radio
    BBC Radio
    BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...

     aired a critically acclaimed radio play by David Rudkin
    David Rudkin
    James David Rudkin is an English playwright of Northern Irish descent. Coming from a family of strict evangelical Christians, Rudkin was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and read Mods and Greats at St Catherine's College, Oxford...

     about the life of Casement, called Cries from Casement as His Bones are Brought to Dublin
    Cries from Casement as His Bones are Brought to Dublin
    Cries from Casement as His Bones are Brought to Dublin is a radio play written by David Rudkin that examines the life and controversial legacy of Irish nationalist and British diplomat Roger Casement...

    .
  • On November 3, 2010, Mario Vargas Llosa
    Mario Vargas Llosa
    Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...

     (2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature
    Nobel Prize
    The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

    ) published El sueño del celta, or The Dream of the Celt
    The Dream of the Celt
    The Dream of the Celt is a novel written by Hispano-Peruvian writer and 2010 Nobel laureate in literature Mario Vargas Llosa....

    , based on Casement's life.

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