Song Playing:
"O'Neill's March"


In Fermoy, Ireland

221

 

Sir Roger David Casement (1864-1916)


Roger Casement

Roger Casement was born to a Protestant father and Catholic mother in Sandy Cove near Dublin in 1864. His family later moved and settled in Belfast. Both parents died when he was still young and he was raised by an Aunt. He attended the Ballymena Academy and would come and stay with relatives near Ballycastle, County Antrim and one of his favourite locations was Murlough Bay which he visited frequently.

Roger Casement had long been seen as a champion of the oppressed, demonstrated through his compassionate foreign service in the Congo and Peru. Casement joined the British consular service in 1892 where he gained an international reputation and was knighted in 1911 for his report highlighting the appalling horrors of European rule in the Congo Free State, and for similar work amongst the Putumayo Indians in Peru.


Roger Casement stamp


He retired from this position in 1913, but had had a deep involvement in Irish affairs long before this time. He had developed anti-British feelings with regard to Ireland while still in the British Foreign Service.

After he resigned from Colonial Service he joined as a member of the provisional committee of the Irish Volunteers in spring 1914. He also helped to form a "London Committee" which helped to raise funds, which were used to buy arms.

Roger Casement had formed many friendships over the years with very influential men who where to play an important role in Ireland’s future. He knew Bulmer Hobson and F.J. Bigger as early as 1904, and through his connection with the "Irish Review" he became acquainted with many of the future leaders of the Easter Rising such as Sean Mc Dermot, Thomas Mac Donagh, Joseph Plunkett, James Connolly and Padraig Pearse. At this time however he was not in the confidence of extreme nationalists and he was never a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.


Roger Casement


When war broke out in 1914, he attempted to secure German aid for Irish independence, sailing for Germany via the USA. The Germans were however sceptical, but nonetheless aware of the military advantage which an uprising in Ireland would give them, granted the Irish 20,000 guns, 10 machine guns and accompanying ammunition, a fraction of the amount of weaponry which Casement was after. Whilst in Germany, he tried to enlist Irish prisoners of war at the prison camp of Limburg an der Lahn in an Irish Brigade.

The weapons never reached Ireland. The ship in which they were travelling, a German cargo vessel, the Libau, was intercepted, even though it had been thoroughly disguised as a Norwegian vessel, Aud Norge. All the crew were German sailors, but their clothes and effects, even the charts and books on the bridge, were all Norwegian.


Roger Casement's grave


Sir Roger Casement was the last person to suffer the consequences of the 1916 rebellion. He was captured in Ireland, having been put ashore from a German submarine, the U-19. Too weak to travel (he was ill), he was subsequently arrested, summarily tried and hung at Pentonville Prison in London for treason, sabotage and espionage against the Crown on the 3rd of August 1916, after his appeal was overturned.


Roger Casement's Grave


In the mid 1960s Casement's body was repatriated and after a state funeral, was buried with full military honours in the Republican Plot in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. The President of Ireland, Eamon de Valera, who in his mid eighties was the last surviving leader of the Easter Rising, defied the advice of his doctors to attend the ceremony.

©   Paudie McGrath Cork Ireland 2003 -