Roger Casement

Roger Casement
Sir Roger Casement was an Irish-born diplomat who served in the British foreign service. He reported on human rights abuses in the Belgian Congo and investigated the exploitation of the Putamayo Indians in the Peruvian rubber trade. In 1904 he joined the Gaelic League and grew increasingly sympathetic to the movement for Irish independence. Casement’s career of humanitarian work resulted in a knighthood in 1911 before his retirement in 1913.
On Good Friday 1916, Casement was arrested in Kerry while attempting to land arms shipped from Germany. He was charged with treason and on 29 June found guilty, stripped of his knighthood and sentenced to death. Friends and supporters started a petition to overturn the execution but their efforts would be in vain. Shortly before his death, the chaplains in London's Pentonville prison reconciled Casement into the Catholic faith. He was hanged on 3 August 1916.

Roger Casement (1864-1916)

Retired British Army Colonel Maurice Moore and UCD lecturer Agnes O'Farrelly organised a mass petition to spare Roger Casement's life and appealed to the Irish bishops for their support.

Alice Stopford Green, a well-known historian and Irish nationalist, wrote to Dr. William Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, on 22 July shortly after visiting Casement in his prison cell in London.

Four days earlier, the Archbishop had traveled to Wexford to discuss Casement's situation with Green.

According to British Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, "Ireland does not care a farthing about Casement."

In Green's opinion, "an appeal from the Irish Bishops would really decide the matter..."

Irish poet Alice Milligan was another close friend of Casement's who contacted Archbishop Walsh and sought his advice on how to appeal the sentence.

In England, the reaction to Casement's actions was overwhelmingly negative.

One English woman, identified only as 'Jane', wrote to Archbishop Walsh to criticise several Irish bishops who publicly supported the petition against the execution.

On 28 July, Maurice Moore wrote to Archbishop Walsh to thank him for signing the petition.