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USA OUT OF IRELAND ! - Indymedia Ireland

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MARTIN COREY INTERNMENT JOURNALIST MARTIN COREY SEEKS POLITICAL ASYLUM RUSSIA

10,000 Protest Internment 1971 - 2013 in Belfast

 international | rights and freedoms | news report  Saturday August 17, 2013 16:50 by brionOcleirigh - AllVoices 

Release Martin Corey

The anti-internment march in Belfast on 9th August 2013, was a welcome display of disciplined unity, against a most serious abuse of human rights, that the establishment parties in Ireland, either wish to ignore or damn with feint protest, while at the same time professing to be democrats, socialists or republicans. Up to 10,000 marchers stewarded by a variety of Irish Republican Socialists, Republicans and human rights organisations, marched from Ardoyne in the north of Belfast, until they they were stopped for approximately 2 hours by PSNI jeeps and thousands of fascist, rioting UVF and Orange Order members near the city centre.

Free Pussy Putin Release Martin Corey Counts

When the human rights marchers pushed their way through the PSNI roadblock, they left the massed riot paramilitary police, with no choice but to clear a route for the protesters, to march through Carrick Hill, before joining with an anti-internment contingent waiting the arrival of comrades at Divis Street. Despite considerable delay, the people of West Belfast lined the march route cheering up to 10,000 anti-internment marchers, making a nonsense of counter revolutionary, press statements and disinformation earlier in the day, bizarrely condemning the 10,000 strong human rights march, as a 'dissident' parade! The march which was lined with well-wishers all along the route, as it made it's way through West Belfast to the Busy Bee Centre, a traditional rallying point for Republicans, where speeches were given by well known human rights figures.

In "THE POLITICS OF INTERNMENT 1971" John McGuffin wrote of the re-introduction of Internment in Occupied Ireland, as follows:

IN the mid-1960's people might have been forgiven for thinking that internment was a thing of the past. (True, the obnoxious Special Powers Acts were still on the Statute Book, but they were in abeyance). Such thinking was not to be right, however. The monolithic structure of Unionism proved incapable of reforming itself under the onslaught of the civil rights campaign. Terence O'Neill might have been able to save the Unionists with his pragmatic approach and his appreciation of the need for change, but their diehard 'not an inch' backwoodsmen would have none of it. And so the week of 12 – 16 August 1969 saw the old familiar pattern: a police force unable, and, in many cases unwilling,[1] to prevent the sectarian attack upon the Falls Road periphery, led in some cases by the B specials. That month was to see house burning, intimidation and murder – ten civilians dead, including a 9-year-old boy asleep in his bed, shot by a high-velocity Browning machine-gun used with murderous recklessness by the police in their Shorland armoured cars; 145 injured, hundreds of families burnt out of their homes, 90% of them Catholic. Free Derry was born that week. The barricades went up in Belfast. The first steps towards the irrevocable demise of Stormont were taken. And, predictably, men were detained, without charge or trial.

At 6.45 a.m. on 14 August, 28 Republicans were arrested and taken from their homes. As usual, no 'Loyalist' extremists or gunmen were arrested.
When the English Special Branch men arrived next month to sort out the RUC they asked for the files on all the 'terrorists'. They were handed the records, mostly out-of-date, on the IRA. "What about the UVF," they asked. "It doesn't exist," was the reply. "We have no records on Loyalists."
But this time it was not to be internment. The British army had had to be called in. Callaghan and Wilson had summoned Chichester Clark to Downing Street. The B men were 'phased out'. The Scarman Tribunal was set up. The Labour Government was tired of the old-fashioned traditional Unionist methods. Moreover, from behind the barricades a campaign was being mounted. Illegal radios proliferated. Street newspapers were born. The detainees were released after 17 to 20 days. The message should have been clear; internment should have no place in the 1970's.
But the Unionist hierarchy learn nothing from history. The gangling figure of Chichester Clark, the stand-in PM, shambled off into obscurity as 1970 and 1971 saw an escalation of the violence by the Provisional IRA, themselves a reaction to the attempted 'Loyalist' pogrom of 1969.

On 23 March 1971 Brian Arthur Deane Faulkner achieved his lifelong ambition and became PM. The English press warned that he was the 'last man in'. If he couldn't control the situation, direct rule was a certainty. But despite the obvious immensity of the task, Faulkner was confident.
This was the moment for which he had schemed, intrigued and betrayed, for so long. With a staggering record of disloyalty to previous PMs, he could hardly expect to be trusted or liked, but surely all could agree on his shrewdness and ability.

In fact, Faulkner's intelligence was always greatly over-rated by the media. And his biggest mistake was soon to come. The Sunday Times 'Insight' team claim[2]that "when he took over the issue was not whether internment was to come, but when and on what scale. By then Faulkner had been an advocate of internment inside Chichester Clark's Joint Security Committee, for six months." Whether this is true or not, and on balance it seems a reasonable statement, it is certain that Faulkner had completely failed to learn the lesson of how and when internment 'worked'. He had been Minister for Home Affairs in 1959 under Brookeborough, and, with the help of his trusty aide, the civil servant William Stout, he bad been responsible for the implementation of internment, which he apparently felt to be responsible for the defeat of the IRA border campaign. As is made clear already, this just was not so. The campaign failed, for lack of popular support, and, most important, the internees could languish in Crumlin because there was no campaign to get them released.

Nevertheless, one of Faulkner's first actions upon becoming Northern Ireland's last PM was to order the RUC Special Branch to work with the Director of Military Intelligence at Lisburn in drawing up a list of those Catholics who should be interned. The army were unhappy. General Tuzo, the GOC in Northern Ireland since February 1971, consistently opposed internment, believing, rightly, as it turned out, that they could not get the right people. But as the violence escalated, Faulkner became more and more insistent. On 9 July he telephoned Heath. "I must be able to intern now" he demanded. Accordingly, with some reluctance, a 'dry run' was agreed upon. At dawn on 23 July, 1,800 troops and RUC raided Republican houses throughout the province, searching for documents. They got enough to encourage them. The decision to intern was only a matter of time then, despite army objections.

The position was complicated by the mistrust and, in some cases, downright hostility between the army and the RUC. As the Sunday Times team put it: "The army believed the police list was politically motivated, and the police believed that the army's list showed inadequate local knowledge." Both were correct. Some sections of the army had favoured a small internment in the spring of 1971, with only 50 or 60 men being lifted. They had been overruled. Now the task was to be much greater.
The list had more than 500 names on it. Of these only 120 or 130 were gunmen or officers in the IRA. The vast majority were regarded either as 'Fellow-travelling sympathisers' or troublesome political activists – like PD socialists. The police contribution was the names and addresses of former internees. But Faulkner was determined. At the Joint Security Committee meeting at Stormont, Shillington, the Chief Constable, agreed with Tuzo that internment would not work. That made no difference. Faulkner secretly flew to London that afternoon. There he convinced the Cabinet. Tuzo could offer no alternative. Maudling was his usual indolent self. Whitelaw said nothing. Internment without trial was acquiesced to.

The date was set for 10 Augnst. On Sunday 7 August, however, Harry Thornton, an innocent building worker, was driving his car past Springfield Road barracks when it backfired. Soldiers opened up and killed him. His friend Murphy was dragged from the car, covered with Thornton's blood, and savagely beaten by police and army. Within minutes the people of Clonard went wild. The fighting went on all night but had died down the next day. But the army were taking no chances. At midnight on Sunday the order went out: operation internment was brought forward 24 hours. Brian Faulkner had unwittingly signed himself his own political death warrant – and that of Stormont, too.

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Anti Internment Republican March Attacked By Loyalists

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Martin Corey Internment Journalist Seeks Political Asylum in Russia

 by Brian Clarke - AllVoices Sun Aug 18, 2013 11:07

An Irish Human Rights activist and journalist covering the internment of Martin Corey in British Occupied Ireland, is seeking Political Asylum in Russia, after he received a threat, relayed by agents aligned with Britain's secret services. The journalist who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons, has been told that he will be whacked or assassinated by a British paramilitary unit called Group 13, whose sole purpose is deniable assassination, operating in a world of shadows. Little is known about them, because they and their activities are exceptionally difficult to document. The Group is also suspected of being involved in the assassination of the Princess of Wales.

Author of “Enemies of the State,” Gary Murray, who researched Group 13 for a book but was prevented from writing it. During his research, he was dragged into the back of a van, and had a gun stuck to his mouth. He was told, it would be unwise to continue after which he decided to abandon writing the book.

Group 13 evolved from SAS soldiers and British Secret Service operatives, who were given hands on experience in the counter insurgency political laboratory of British Occupied Ireland, from the late nineteen seventies onward. Starting with Fredrick Holroyd, a Captain in British Army Intelligence, who focused on developing informers and human intelligence sources, connected with the IRA. Resulting viscous turf wars between MI5 and MI6, to control the highly lucrative“patch” of British Occupied Ireland complicated matters considerably.

Holroyd shed considerable light on Britain's dirty war and “Shoot to Kill” policies in Occupied Ireland, which resulted in the dysfunctional investigation of senior police officer, John Stalker. This was also covered in the feature film Hidden Agenda.To cover deployment in this politically sensitive area, they disguised themselves as “training teams,” with cover names like, the Royal Engineers, the Four Field Survey Troop, the Military Reconnaissance Force (MRF), and the 14th Intelligence unit.

All were SAS undercover units stationed principally at Castiledillon, Armagh. Right wing groups operating in the shadows of power, planned a right wing coup. These groups some based in Mid- Ulster, were given unofficial political cover for British State Terrorism, by the Tory Government of Margaret Thatcher, others named GB75, organised by David Sterling, founder of the SAS were operating alongside other groups who have close contact with British Secret Services, from which they still receive some unofficial cover.

Another mysterious group called Resistance and Psychological Operations Committee RPOC was based on material researched, during the torture of Martin Corey and his comrades, when tortured during Long Kesh internment in British Occupied Ireland. RPOC was a reflection of the Special Operations Executive SOE, a dirty tricks operation. RPOC have a clandestine underground movement, operating on a nod and a wink of the Conservative government, with forged close links to British Secret Services and also close links with the SAS. Little is known of the Tory SAS’s secret intelligence network, other than being tasked, with protecting the SAS, who’s lives may be under threat, as a result of their activities. The Irish journalist believes a contract has been put out on him, after this SAS secretive group had mopped on another freelance assassination team sent to kill other Irish human rights activists. “Mopping up” meaning killing members of the original assassination squad.

Elements within this group also evolved to become Group 13. Highly unofficial but desirable to players within the Tory government. Responsible for British political assassinations in Occupied Ireland and worldwide they have right wing agenda. The best known being the SAS in a “wet operation” murder of an unarmed IRA unit in Gibraltar, which led to the TV documentary Death on the Rock, based on eye-witnesses who testified, that the three members were gunned down in cold blood, which in the context of what was happening in Ireland during this period, was part of a shoot-to-kill-policy. meant to 'sanitize' the republican movement, prior to negotiations proper. Gene “Chip” Tatum a former CIA operative and former member of the international assassination team Pegasus, targeting influential international politicians and financiers, alleges that the British assassins, operated during the mid-eighties onward, under the direction of a high ranking British government official, who in turn answered only to Thatcher.

Connections between Group Thirteen and the United States intelligence community during the alleged assassination of Vincent Foster, associate and legal adviser to President Clinton, existed around a highly secret US assassination team, operating out of the National Security Agency NSA. This unit is called “I-3,” with the information on this unit, provided by a “former CIA agent with the CIA’s highest security clearance.” The NSA unit just happens to share a common name with “Group 13” and just happens to be in the same business?

Despite all the smoke and mirrors surrounding Group 13, significant information came to light after the Scott Enquiry into arms to Iraq. Gerald James a leading British munitions manufacturer has written of group 13 in his book In the Public Interest, blowing the lid off the British government's arming of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. James believes his removal from the Board of Astra, was orchestrated by non-executive director Stephan Kock, a self acknowledged former Security and Intelligence officer in the employ of Midland Bank.

In written evidence presented to the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee, James stated that he was told, that Kock was “… a former head of ‘Group 13.’ The organisation is a hit or contract squad for the Foreign Office and Secret Services.” The Foreign Office draws Group 13 operatives from the SAS and private security firms,” and “It’s duties involve ‘service to the nation.’” Polite language for British State terrorism. Kock had exceptionally senior level contacts inside British intelligence including ready access to the highest levels of the British government, including the British Prime Minister.

Dr. Gerald Bull - designer of the Supergun , who was shot outside his apartment in Brussels, a few months before his assassination, writing to a colleague, stated he was “advised in a letter of an imminent accident.” He identified the origin of the threat as being the British Foreign Office. This then is the background of the application to Russia for political asylum by the Irish journalist.

Under Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution." The United Nations 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees guides national legislation concerning political asylum. Under these agreements, a refugee is a person who is outside their own country's territory owing to fear of persecution on protected grounds. Protected grounds include race, caste, nationality, religion, political opinions and membership and/or participation in any particular social group or social activities. Rendering true victims of persecution to their persecutor is a particularly odious violation of a principle called non-refoulement, part of the customary and trucial Law of Nations.These are the accepted terms and criteria as principles and a fundamental part in the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees non-refoulement order

Unofficially he has been told that it is expected he will be allowed a temporary Russian visa while an asylum application is formally considered. Hopefully,Vladimir Putin will refuse to hand him over to the British.The Irish journalist hopes to make a permanent home in Nicaragua, in South America but the UK has ordered all countries to hand him over to the UK. In order to get asylum, the journalist has to prove a well-founded fear, which in his case means he has at least a 10 percent chance of being murdered by the British, for highlighting the Human Rights Abuse of internment without trial in British Occupied Ireland.

Then he has to give an account of political opinion, race, religion, nationality or group membership. In the case of political opinion, it will in his case be as a human rights activist, in the Police Dictatorship and British State Terrorism of British Occupied Ireland, where political assassination or internment without trial, are regularly used, against all Irish political dissidents of conscience. Several other countries including Spain, Ireland and Ecuador, have said that his asylum requests can’t be processed, because he is presently not in their country currently. However he feels that Group 13 operate openly there anyway. On Friday Daniel Ortega looked like the best option. However currently Russia offer superior quality Human Rights, despite the imprisonment of Pussy Riot. along with having considerably more diplomatic clout than the British, who besides interning Irish political prisoners of conscience, have also kidnapped international whistle blowers of war crimes, such as Julian Assange.

Related Link: http://irishblog-irelandblog.blogspot.com/

Scary Stuff ...

 by W. Finnerty Sun Aug 18, 2013 13:19

Thanks for the "Group 13" information Brion.

It's the first time I've ever heard of them (by that particular name).

"It is the number that carries the most occult significance.  Throughout Europe it has historically been regarded as an ill omen.  In Norse mythology, the number 13 often signifies death.  Today, in the United Kingdom, there exists a paramilitary unit called Group13.  The sole purpose of this ultra secretive unit is deniable assassination and it operates in the world of shadows.  So little is known about them, that it is exceptionally hard to document its activities with any certainty."

The above excerpt has come from:
http://www.deepblacklies.co.uk/group_13.htm

Google List #1:
"British paramilitary unit called Group 13 ..."
http://tinyurl.com/ma8puoh

Google List #2:
"Murder of Human Rights Lawyers Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, government corruption, crime, cover ups, and IMPUNITY, Ireland ..."
http://tinyurl.com/kuv6ynp

=== === ===

JOIN HUMAN RIGHTS BOYCOTT OF BRUTISH BEAST

The word boycott entered the English language during the Irish "Land War" and is derived from the name of Captain Charles Boycott, the land agent of an absentee landlord, Lord Erne, who lived in Lough Mask House, near Ballinrobe in County Mayo, Ireland, who was subject to social ostracism organized by the Irish Land League in 1880. As harvests had been poor that year, Lord Erne offered his tenants a ten percent reduction in their rents. In September of that year, protesting tenants demanded a twenty five percent reduction, which Lord Erne refused. Boycott then attempted to evict eleven tenants from the land. 

Charles Stewart Parnell, in a speech in Ennis prior to the events in Lough Mask, proposed that when dealing with tenants who take farms where another tenant was evicted, rather than resorting to violence, everyone in the locality should shun them. While Parnell's speech did not refer to land agents or landlords, the tactic was first applied to Boycott when the alarm was raised about the evictions. Despite the short-term economic hardship to those undertaking this action, Boycott soon found himself isolated — his workers stopped work in the fields and stables, as well as in his house. Local businessmen stopped trading with him, and the local postman refused to deliver mail.

The concerted action taken against him meant that Boycott was unable to hire anyone toharvest the crops in his charge. Eventually 50 Orangemen from Cavan and Monaghanvolunteered to do the work. They were escorted to and from Claremorris by one thousandpolicemen and soldiers, despite the fact that the local Land League leaders had said that there would be no violence from them, and in fact no violence materialized. This protection ended up costing far more than the harvest was worth. After the harvest, the "boycott" was successfully continued. Within weeks Boycott's name was everywhere. It was used by The Times in November 1880 as a term for organized isolation. 

According to an account in the book “The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland” by Michael Davitt, the term was promoted by Fr. John O'Malley of County Mayo to "signify ostracism applied to a landlord or agent like Boycott". The Times first reported on November 20, 1880: “The people of New Pallas have resolved to 'boycott' them and refused to supply them with food or drink.” The Daily News wrote on December 13, 1880: “Already the stoutest-hearted are yielding on every side to the dread of being 'Boycotted'.” By January of the following year, the word was being used figuratively: "Dame Nature arose.... She 'Boycotted' London from Kew to Mile End" (The Spectator, January 22, 1881).

Other instances of boycotts are their use by African Americans during the US civil rights movement (notably the Montgomery Bus Boycott); the United Farm Workers union grape and lettuce boycotts; the American boycott of British goods at the time of the American Revolution; the Indian boycott of British goods organized by Mohandas Gandhi;

BOYCOTT BRITISH HUMAN RIGHTS CRIMINALS - ROGER CASEMENT

Roger Casement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roger Casement
Born	1 September 1864 Sandycove, Dublin, Ireland
Died	3 August 1916 (aged 51) Pentonville Prison, London, England
Monuments	Casement Monument at Banna Strand
Organization	Irish Volunteers, British Foreign Office
Political movement	Irish nationalism, Anti-Imperialism
Religion	Roman Catholic Convert

Roger David Casement (Irish: Ruairí Dáithí Mac Easmainn; 1 September 1864 – 3 August 1916) — known as Sir Roger Casement Kt. CMG between 1911 and shortly before his execution for treason, when he was stripped of his knighthood^[1] — was an Irish nationalist, activist, patriot and poet.

A British consul by profession, Casement became famous for his reports and activities against human rights abuses in the Congo and Peru, and also for his dealings with Germany before Ireland's Easter Rising in 1916. An Irish nationalist and Parnellite supporter in his youth, in Africa he worked for commercial interests and latterly in the service of the UK.

However, the Boer War 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 for treason. There has been controversy over a set ofBlack Diaries, copies of which were circulated selectively by the British authorities following Casement's conviction, which, if accepted as genuine, would portray Casement as a promiscuous homosexual with a fondness for young men. Given prevailing views on homosexuality at the time, circulation of the diaries helped undermine support for clemency for Casement.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Early life and education
• 2 The Congo and the Casement Report
• 3 Peru: Abuses against the Putumayo Indians
• 4 Irish revolutionary
• 5 Capture, trial and execution
• 6 The Black Diaries and Casement's sexuality
• 7 State funeral
• 8 Legacy
  • 8.1 Quotations
  • 8.2 Landmarks, buildings and organisations
  • 8.3 Song, story and verse
• 9 Footnotes
• 10 Bibliography
• 11 External links

Early life and education[edit source | editbeta]

Casement was born near Dublin, living in very early childhood at Doyle's Cottage, Lawson Terrace, Sandycove.^[2] His Protestant father, Captain Roger Casement of (The King’s Own) Regiment of Dragoons, was the son of a bankrupt Belfast shipping merchant (Hugh Casement), who later moved to Australia. Captain Casement had served in the 1842 Afghan campaign and went to fight as a volunteer in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 but arrived after the Surrender at Világos.

Casement's mother, Anne Jephson of Dublin (whose origins are obscure), had him rebaptised secretly as a Catholic when he reached the age of three, in Rhyl.^[3][4] According to an 1892 letter, Casement believed that she was descended from the Jephson family ofMallow, County Cork.^[5] However, the Jephson family's historian provides no evidence of this.^[6] She died in Worthing when her son was nine. By the time Casement was 13 years old his father was also dead, having ended his days in Ballymena dependent on the charity of relatives.

After his father's death he was looked after by Protestant paternal relatives in Ulster, the Youngs of Galgorm Castle in Ballymena and the Casements of Magherintemple, and was educated at the Diocesan School, Ballymena, later the Ballymena Academy. 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.^[7]

The Congo and the Casement Report[edit source | editbeta]

Main article: Casement Report

Casement was appointed British Consul for the Eastern part of French Congo in August 1901.^[8]

In 1903, Roger Casement, then the British Consul at Boma in neighbouring Congo Free State, was commissioned by the British government to investigate the human rights situation in that colony. 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 since 1885, when it was granted to him by the Berlin Conference.

Casement and his friendHerbert Ward, who he met in the Congo

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, founded by E. D. Morel, 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 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.

Peru: Abuses against the Putumayo Indians[edit source | editbeta]

In 1906, Casement was sent to Brazil, first as consul in Pará, then transferred to Santos, and lastly promoted to consul-general in Rio de Janeiro. When he was attached as a consular representative to a commission investigating murderous rubber slavery by the British-registered Peruvian Amazon Company, effectively controlled by the archetypal rubber baron Julio Cesar Arana and his brother, Casement had the occasion to do work among the Putumayo Indians of Peru similar to that which he had done in the Congo. 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 and mission interventions in the region, which was disputed between Peru and Colombia. 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, 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 for his efforts on behalf of the Amazonian Indians, having been reluctantly appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in 1905 for his Congo work.

Irish revolutionary[edit source | editbeta]

In Ireland on leave from Africa in 1904-05, in 1904 Casement joined the Gaelic League established in 1893 to preserve the Irish language. He also met the leaders of the Home Rule IPP to lobby for his work in the Congo, but did not support them as he felt that theHouse of Lords would always veto their efforts. He was more impressed by Arthur Griffith's new Sinn Féin party which called for Irish independence by using a non-violent series of strikes and boycotts, modelled on the policy of Ferenc Deák in Hungary, and he joined it in 1905.^[9]

Roger Casement's grave in Glasnevin Cemetery

Casement retired from the consular service in the summer of 1913.^[10] In November that year, he helped form the Irish Volunteers with Eoin MacNeill, 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, who was a member of the Volunteers and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), Casement established connections with exiled Irish nationalists, particularly in Clan na Gael.^[11]

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 regarded him as extreme.^{[citation needed]} John Devoy, 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 became and remained devoted to Casement.^[12] The Howth gun-running 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 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. Bernstorff appeared sympathetic, but Casement and Devoy decided to send an envoy, Clan na Gael president John Kenny, to present their plan personally. Kenny, unable to meet the German Emperor, was nonetheless given a warm reception by Flotow, the German ambassador to Italy, and by Prince von Bülow. 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, his companion Adler Christensen was taken to the British legation and, according to him, offered a reward if Casement was "knocked on the head".^[13]

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."^[14] It was this episode that first provided London with the intimation that Casement was homosexual.^[15]

In November 1914,^[16] 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".^[17] In Berlin Casement negotiated with Arthur Zimmermann, then Under Secretary of State in the Foreign Office, and with the Imperial Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg.

Most of Casement's time in Germany, however, was spent in an attempt to recruit an "Irish Brigade", consisting of Irish prisoners-of-warin the prison camp of Limburg an der Lahn, who would be trained to fight against Britain.^[18][19] During the war, Casement is also known to have been involved in the Hindu–German Conspiracy, recommending Joseph McGarrity to Franz von Papen as an intermediary for the plot. The Indian nationalists may also have followed Casement's strategy in attempting to recruit from among Indian prisoners of war.^[20]

Casement plaque commemorating his stay in Bavaria during the summer of 1915^[21]

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 knew they would be liable to the death penalty if Britain won the war. 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 Mosin–Nagant 1891 rifles, ten machine guns and accompanying ammunition, a fraction of the quantity of the arms Casement had hoped for, and no German officers.^[22] 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.^[23]

Casement did not learn about the Easter Rising 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 and Tom Clarke 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 SMS 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 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 the location. 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, County 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.^{[citation needed]} Her crew became prisoners of war.

Capture, trial and execution[edit source | editbeta]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Roger Casement's speech from the dock

Casement confided his personal papers to Dr. Charles Curry, with whom he had stayed atRiederau on the Ammersee, before he left Germany. He departed with Robert Monteith and Sergeant Daniel Beverley (Bailey) of the Irish Brigade in a submarine, initially the SM U-20, which developed engine trouble, and then the SM 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 (who he believed was still in control) to cancel the rising.^[24] 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".^[25] McGoey however did not make it to Dublin, nor did his message. His fate was unknown until recently but he survived, joining the Royal Navy later in 1916, and dying in the US in a 1925 building accident.^[26] Despite any view ascribed to Monteith,^[27] 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 in Tralee Bay,County Kerry. Too weak to travel, he was discovered at McKenna's Fort (an ancient ring fort now called Casement's Fort) in Rathoneen,Ardfert, and subsequently arrested on charges of treason, sabotage and espionage against the Crown. He was taken straight to theTower of London where he was imprisoned,^[28] but not before he was able to send word to Dublin about the inadequate German assistance. The Kerry Brigade of the Irish Volunteers might have tried to rescue him over the next three days, but was ordered by its leadership in Dublin to "do nothing".^[29]

At Casement's highly publicised trial for treason, the prosecution had trouble arguing its case as Casement's crimes had been carried out in Germany and the medieval Treason Act 1351 seemed to apply only to activities carried out on English (or, arguably, British) soil. A close reading of the medieval Act allowed for a broader interpretation: the court decided that a comma should be read in the text, crucially widening the sense so that "in the realm or elsewhere" referred to where acts were done and not just to where the "King's enemies" may be. This led to the claim that Casement was "hanged on a comma".

Casement made an unsuccessful appeal against the conviction and death sentence. Among the many people who pleaded for clemency were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was acquainted with Casement through the work of the Congo Reform Association, theAnglo-Irish poet W. B. Yeats and the playwright George Bernard Shaw. Edmund Dene Morel could not visit Casement in prison, being under attack for his own pacifist position. On the other hand, the author Joseph Conrad, who had a son serving at the front, could not forgive Casement for his treachery towards Britain, nor could Casement's friend the sculptor Herbert Ward. Members of the Casement family in Antrim contributed discreetly to the defence fund, although they had sons in the British Army and Navy.

Casement was received into the Catholic Church while awaiting execution and was attended by a Catholic priest, Father James McCarroll, who said of Casement that he was "a saint ... we should be praying to him [Casement] instead of for him".^[30] Casement was hanged by John Ellis and his assistants at Pentonville Prison in London on 3 August 1916, at the age of 51.

The Black Diaries and Casement's sexuality[edit source | editbeta]

The Black Diaries are a set of diaries, claimed to have been written by Casement and covering the years 1903, 1910 and 1911 (twice). If genuine, the diaries would portray Casement as a promiscuous homosexual sex tourist with a fondness for young men.^[31] In 1916, after Casement's conviction for treason, photographs of the diaries were circulated by the British government to individuals urging commutation of Casement's death sentence. At a time of strong social conservatism, not least among Irish Catholics, the Black Diariesundermined support for Casement.

The question of whether the diaries are genuine or forgeries has been much debated. However, a detailed forensic investigation in 2002 concluded that the diaries had indeed been written by Casement.^[32] The diaries were declassified for public inspection in August 1959.^[33] The original diaries may be seen at the British National Archives in Kew.

State funeral[edit source | editbeta]

The Carriage on which Casement's coffin was drawn during the 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 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, Éamon de Valera, 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 on the North Antrim 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 record of the decision refers to him as Sir Roger Casement.^[34]

Legacy[edit source | editbeta]

Quotations[edit source | editbeta]

Self-government is our right, a thing born in us at birth; a thing no more to be doled out to us or withheld from us by another people than the right to life itself.^[35]

Landmarks, buildings and organisations[edit source | editbeta]

Many landmarks, buildings and organisations in Ireland are named after Casement including:

• Casement Park, the Gaelic Athletic Association ground on Andersonstown Road in west Belfast.
• Several Gaelic Athletic Association clubs, for instance the Roger Casements GAA Club in Coventry and the Roger Casements GACin Portglenone.
• In Dundalk there is an estate named after him in Árd Easmuinn called "Casement Heights."
• Casement Aerodrome 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. Operated by Iarnród Éireann andCóras Iompair Éireann
• 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, and in the Loyalist heartland of Harryville, Ballymena, County Antrim, 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[edit source | editbeta]

Casement was also the subject of ballads and poetry in Ireland in the wake of his death, including:

• The ballad "Lonely Banna Strand" tells the story of Casement's role in the prelude to the Easter Rising, his arrest, and subsequent execution.
• Arthur Conan Doyle used Casement as an inspiration for the character of Lord John Roxton 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 refers to the poem in his autobiographical novel Borstal Boy, 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 and Richard Stockton and which premiered at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin on 15 February 1972.^[36]
• Roger Casement appears in the "Giant's Causeway" of French Academician Pierre Benoit 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 was made about his time in Germany during the First World War.
• In 1973, BBC Radio aired a critically acclaimed radio play by David Rudkin about the life of Casement, called Cries from Casement as His Bones are Brought to Dublin.
• On 3 November 2010, Mario Vargas Llosa (2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature) published El sueño del celta, or The Dream of the Celt, based on Casement's life.^[37]
• American Noise Rock band ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead released an instrumental entitled "The Betrayal of Roger Casement & the Irish Brigade" on their 2008 Festival Thyme EP.

Footnotes[edit source | editbeta]

1. ^ The London Gazette: no. 29651. p. 6596. 4 July 1916. Retrieved 3 August 2008.
2. ^ Dr Noel Kissane (2006). "The 1916 Rising: Personalities & Perspectives an online exhibition" (PDF). National Library of Ireland/Leabharlann Náisiúnta na hÉireann. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
3. ^ Angus Mitchell, Casement, Haus Publishing, 2003 p.11.
4. ^ Brian Inglis (1974, op cit.) commented at p.115 that "..although she allowed the children to be brought up as Protestants, she had them baptised 'conditionally' when Roger was four years old."
5. ^ Sawyer R. Casement the Flawed Hero (Routledge, London 1984) quoted at pp. 4-5. ISBN 0-7102-0013-7
6. ^ Maurice Denham Jephson, An Anglo-Irish Miscellany, Allen Figgis, Dublin 1964
7. ^ Seamas O Siochain, Roger Casement, Imperialist, Rebel, Revolutionary p.15
8. ^ The London Gazette: no. 27354. p. 6049. 13 September 1901.
9. ^ Brian Inglis, "Roger Casement"; Harcourt Jovanovich, 1974; pp.118-20; 134-139
10. ^ Séamas Ó Síocháin, Roger Casement: Imperialist, Rebel, Revolutionary, p. 357-8.
11. ^ Inglis, p.263
12. ^ O Síocháin, Séamas, Roger Casement: Imperialist, Rebel, Revolutionary p.382
13. ^ Mitchell, Angus, Casement, p. 99
14. ^ National Archives, Kew, PRO FO 95/776)
15. ^ O Síocháin, Séamas, Roger Casement: Imperialist, Rebel, Revolutionary p. 394
16. ^ http://www.drb.ie/essays/casement-s-war, by Jeffrey Dudgeon, March 2013
17. ^ The Continental Times, 20 November 1914
18. ^ An anonymous but detailed account of Casement's unwelcome reception at the camp appears in The Literary Digest Vol 52, No. 1, 13 May 1916 (New York: Funk and Wagnall) pp. 1376-77 [NB, the PDF download is 358MB]
19. ^ On 27 December 1914, Casement signed an agreement in Berlin to this effect with Arthur Zimmermann in the German Foreign Office. Only 52 men volunteered for the Brigade. Contrary to German promises, they received no training in the use of machine guns, which at the time were relatively new and unknown weapons.
20. ^ Plowman, Matthew Erin. "Irish Republicans and the Indo-German Conspiracy of World War I," New Hibernia Review. 7.3 (2003) 81-105
21. ^ translated: Here lived in summer 1915 Sir Roger Casement, a martyr for Ireland's freedom, a magnanimous friend of Germany in grave times. He sealed the love of his country with his blood.
22. ^ Estimates of the weapons shipment hover around the 20,000 mark. The BBC gives the figure the German government originally agreed to ship as "25,000 captured Russian rifles, and one million rounds of ammunition" here.
23. ^ With Casement's Irish Brigade
24. ^ Keith Jeffery in 1916 The long Revolution, The First World War and the Rising: Mode, Moment and Memory p. 93, Ed. G. Doherty & D. Keogh, (2007) ISBN 978-1-85635-545-2.
25. ^ Casement's diary entry for 27 March 1916, National Library of Ireland MS 5244
26. ^ http://www.irishbrigade.eu/other-men/goey/goey.html
27. ^ see Charles Townshend, Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion, p. 127.
28. ^ Olwen Hedley, Her Majesty's Tower of London, p.19, Pitkin Pictorials Ltd., 1976.
29. ^ Memoir of Willie Mullins, quoted at a Casement commemoration in 1968; a subsequent internal enquiry attached "no blame whatsoever" to the local Volunteers. See theIrish Times 29 July 1968.
30. ^ Life at Ricorso
31. ^ Bill Mc Cormack (Spring 2001). "The Casement Diaries: a suitable case for treatment". Research Hallmark, Goldsmiths College, University of London. Archived from the original on 2008-03-16. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
32. ^ Paul, Tizley. "Roger Casement: Secrets of the Black Diaries". BBC. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
33. ^ The Times, Authors Examine Casement Diaries, 11 August 1959
34. ^ National Archives, London, CAB/128/39
35. ^ [1]
36. ^ Keeler, William. Review of Prisoner of the Crown.Educational Theatre Journal, vol. 24, no. 3 (Oct. 1972), pp. 327-328 The Johns Hopkins University Press
37. ^ Mario Vargas Llosa Publishes New Novel The Dream of the Celt

Bibliography[edit source | editbeta]

By Roger Casement:

• 1910. Roger Casement's diaries: 1910. The Black and the White. Sawyer, Roger, ed. London: Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-7375-X
• 1911. The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement. Mitchell, Angus, ed. Anaconda Editions.
• 1914. The Crime against Ireland, and how the War may right it. Berlin: no publisher.
• 1914. Ireland, Germany and freedom of the seas: a possible outcome of the War of 1914. New York & Philadelphia: The Irish Press Bureau. Reprinted 2005: ISBN 1-4219-4433-2
• 1915. The Crime against Europe. The causes of the War and the foundations of Peace. Berlin: The Continental Times.
• 1916. Gesammelte Schriften. Irland, Deutschland und die Freiheit der Meere und andere Aufsätze. Diessen vor München: Joseph Huber Verlag. Second expanded edition, 1917.
• 1918. Some Poems. London: The Talbot Press/T. Fisher Unwin.

Secondary Literature, and other materials cited in this entry:

• Doerries, Reinhard R., 2000. Prelude to the Easter Rising: Sir Roger Casement in Imperial Germany. London & Portland. Frank Cass.
• Dudgeon, Jeffrey, 2002. Roger Casement: The Black Diaries with a Study of his Background, Sexuality and Irish Political Life. Belfast Press. ISBN 0-9539287-2-1. (Includes first publication of 1911 diary).
• Goodman, Jordan, The Devil and Mr. Casement: One Man's Battle for Human Rights in South America's Heart of Darkness, 2010. Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-13840-0
• Hochschild, Adam, King Leopold's Ghost.
• Hyde, H. Montgomery, 1960. Trial of Roger Casement. London: William Hodge. Penguin edition 1964.
• Hyde, H. Montgomery, 1970. The Love That Dared not Speak its Name. Boston: Little, Brown (in UK The Other Love).
• Inglis, Brian, 1973. Roger Casement, London: Hodder and Stoughton. Republished 1993 by Blackstaff Belfast and by Penguin 2002.ISBN 0-14-139127-8.
• Keogh, Michael, 2010. "With Casement's Irish Brigade". Dublin: Choice Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907107-41-2
• Lacey, Brian, 2008. Terrible Queer Creatures: Homosexuality in Irish History. Dublin: Wordwell Books.
• Mc Cormack, W.J., 2002. Roger Casement in Death or Haunting the Free State. Dublin: UCD Press.
• Minta, Stephen, 1993. Aguirre: The Re-creation of a Sixteenth-Century Journey Across South America. Henry Holt & Co. ISBN 0-8050-3103-0.
• Mitchell, Angus, 2003. Casement (Life & Times Series). Haus Publishing Limited. ISBN 1-904341-41-1.
• Ó Síocháin, Séamas and Michael O’Sullivan, eds., 2004.The Eyes of Another Race: Roger Casement's Congo Report and 1903 Diary. University College Dublin Press. ISBN 1-900621-99-1.
• Ó Síocháin, Séamas, 2008. Roger Casement: Imperialist, Rebel, Revolutionary. Dublin: Lilliput Press.
• Reid, B.L., 1987. The Lives of Roger Casement. London: The Yale Press. ISBN 0-300-01801-0.
• Sawyer, Roger, 1984. Casement: The Flawed Hero. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Singleton-Gates, Peter, & Maurice Girodias, 1959. The Black Diaries. An account of Roger Casement's life and times with a collection of his diaries and public writings. Paris: The Olympia Press. First edition of the Black Diaries.
• Thomson, Basil, 1922. Queer People (chapters 7 & 8) An account of the Easter Uprising and Casement's involvement from the head of Scotland yard at the time. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
• Clayton, Xander: Aud, Plymouth 2007.
• Wolf, Karin, 1972. Sir Roger Casement und die deutsch-irischen Beziehungen. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. ISBN 3-428-02709-4.
• Eberspächer, Cord/Wiechmann, Gerhard. "Erfolg Revolution kann Krieg entscheiden". Der Einsatz von S.M.H. Libau im irischen Osteraufstand 1916 ("Success revolution may decide war". The use of S.M.H. Libau in the Easter Rising 1916), in: Schiff & Zeit, Nr. 67, Frühjahr 2008, S. 2-16.

External links[edit source | editbeta]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Roger Casement

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Roger Casement

• "Ireland, Germany and Europe", From the Digital Library@Villanova University.
• Photographs of and about Casement in the National Library of Ireland (no charge for reproduction)
• Brief biography of Roger Casement
• A BBC investigation into the "Black Diaries"
• "Casement: Traitor or patriot?". BBC News. 2006-08-02. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
• 1916 Rising timeline.
• Roger Casement's speech from the Dock at the end of his trial for treason.
• Report of the British Consul, Roger Casement, on the Administration of the Congo Free State.
• Times report on his execution
• Works by Roger Casement at Project Gutenberg
• BBC Radio 4 Documentary, September 1993, plus article in Ireland's Hot Press magazine
• Roger Casement's Gravesite
• White King, Red Rubber, Black Death (2003) (TV) at the Internet Movie Database
• Short version of James J. Horan's review of the Giles report
• Kevin Mannerings and Marcel B. Matley, The "Black Diaries" Attributed to Sir Roger Casement. 2003-2004
• Sean Murphy, Irish Historical Mysteries: The Diaries of Roger Casement. A critical article
• Jeffrey Dudgeon reviews Séamas Ó Síocháin’s biography of Casement
• Links by Jeffrey Dudgeon MBE to images related to Roger Casement
• THE ROGER CASEMENT PAPERS - House of Commons Deb. 3 May 1956
• Arana,rey del caucho, by Ovidio Lagos (Spanish)