Roger Casement Papers

Context

Creator(s): Roger Casement; Fr Crotty

• Administrative History ↴

  Roger Casement was born in Dublin on 1 September 1864, the son of a Protestant father, also Roger Casement (1819-1877), and a Catholic mother, Anne Casement (née Jephson, 1834-1873). Casement’s mother passed away during childbirth when Casement was aged just nine years, followed by his father four years later, leaving behind four children, Casement, his sister Agnes and two brothers Tom and Charles. The children were taken in by their Uncle John in Antrim and Casement attended Ballymena High School. On leaving school, Casement was employed by the Elder Dempster Shipping Company in Liverpool until 1883 when he experienced his first taste of Africa, working as a purser on board an African trading vessel. Casement secured other positions in Africa during the 1880s and in 1892, was recruited by the British Foreign Office to serve in the Oil Rivers Protectorate at Old Calabar. Casement’s consular work took him to Mozambique, Angola, the Congo Free State and Brazil, and he gained international respect for his reports exposing the atrocities inflicted on native workers in the Congo and the Amazon, by European traders. Casement’s humanitarian work was rewarded in 1911 with a knighthood. He resigned from the Foreign Office in 1913 due to ill health and returned home to Ireland. With his arrival in Ireland, Casement turned his attention towards matters closer to home, renewing friendships with nationalists and considering the issue of Irish independence. A man of strong nationalist sympathies, Casement helped to form the Irish Volunteers in 1913. The following year, Casement travelled to New York to deliver lectures and collect funds for the new organisation. With the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Casement saw the need to keep the Irish out of the war and to get assistance from Germany and the United States to provide arms for the Irish Volunteers in preparation for the fight for independence. By late September, Casement was in talks with the German military about the formation of an Irish Brigade made up of Irish prisoners of war held in German war camps. Casement left the United States in October and began his journey to Berlin, Germany. His mission was supported financially by a sum of $3000 in gold, provided by Clan na Gael. Casement travelled under the name ‘James Landy’ to Christiania, Norway, steering clear of British warships, and reached Berlin on 31 October 1914. He was accompanied by Richard Meyer, a representative of the German Foreign Office, and Adler Christensen, a Norwegian sailor who was to become his servant and travelling companion. As Casement engaged in discussions with the German Foreign Office, he began to put his plans in place for an Irish Brigade, assembling Irishmen from different prison camps at Limburg, a special camp in the Lahn Valley. Casement recognised the need for priests to provide for the spiritual care of the prisoners, requesting an Irish priest if possible. Three priests were located, Father John Thomas Crotty, a Dominican, Father John Thomas Nicholson from Philadelphia, and Father Canice O'Gorman who came through Clan na Gael. It was Father Crotty who was to become an invaluable source of help and support for Casement. Casement began to call for volunteers from the Irish prisoners of war to join an Irish Brigade and fight for Irish independence, however, the results were not positive, and often hostile. Casement was also concerned with locating more suitable military officers and even turned to the United States in his quest, however, only one man got through, Robert Monteith. Relations between Casement and the men continued to deteriorate in 1915. His relationship with the German Foreign Office was also considerably cooler as Casement's efforts to build an Irish combat unit yielded little results. Casement realised that the Germans had little interest in Ireland or her liberation. By 1916, it was clear that the Germans were only willing to send a small consignment of arms to Ireland as a feeble gesture to keep their Irish-American friends happy, and to perhaps cause a military diversion. Only one ship, the Aud, would be sent to Tralee, carrying a cargo of 20,000 rifles captured from the enemy instead of the requested 100,000. Casement became increasingly concerned about the prospect of an armed rising without sufficient military cover. Greatly opposed to the plan, Casement now focussed on how to reach Ireland before the rising scheduled to take place on Easter Sunday to call off the rebellion. Casement eventually persuaded the Germans to allow him to travel to Ireland by submarine prior to the sailing of the Aud and the planned rising. The U-19 carrying Casement, Monteith and Irish Brigadier, Daniel Bailey, arrived at Tralee Bay on 21 April 1916. Roger Casement was captured and subsequently sentenced to death by the British authorities. He died in Pentonville prison on 3 August 1916.

• Archival History ↴

  The papers were received as a gift by the late Ignatius M. Houlihan, Solicitor, Ennis, in 1969. The papers were deposited in Clare County Library and transferred to Clare County Archives in October 2003.

• Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

  Donation