Casement

Roger Casement (1864-1916) is remembered in England as a "traitor," but passionately revered in Ireland as a founding father of the Irish State. By 1913, with an international reputation as a savior of the oppressed in Africa and South America, Sir Roger Casement resigned from the Foreign Office and devoted himself openly to the cause of Irish independence. He was a founder of the Irish Volunteers and soon after the outbreak of World War I traveled to Germany to seek international guarantees for Irish independence. Returning to Ireland in 1916, he was arrested on the eve of the Easter Rising, given a state trial in London and executed for high treason. Since his execution, Roger Casement's place in history has become a riddle entwined in the waging of war followed by the delicate negotiation of peace that has defined Anglo-Irish politics. Was Roger Casement's rebellious nature motivated as much by his 'incorrigible' Irishness as by his exposure of the appalling crimes against humanity that he witnessed in Africa and South America?