The unveiling of a statue of the Irish nationalist and human rights activist, Roger Casement, at the end of a new jetty at the Dún Laoghaire Baths project, has been warmly welcomed on social media.
The statue was commissioned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and commemorates Casement who was born in Sandycove in 1864, became an early international human rights campaigner and who was executed for his part in the 1916 Rising, specifically for his mission to being rifles for the rebellion to Banna Strand in Kerry.
The statue was created by sculptor Mr Mark Richards FRSS following an open competition and is a representational bronze standing over 3m tall.
Wonderful to see the new statue of Roger Casement positioned off Dún Laoghaire Harbour
As Cathaoirleach of @dlrcc, I launched the project to commission the new statue, which was created by sculptor Mark Richards. Thanks are due to everyone involved, particularly @tim_carey1 pic.twitter.com/yfXijRYDSr
— Cormac Devlin TD (@CormacDevlin) September 14, 2021
A hero.
And not just for Irish freedom but for indigenous peoples brutally oppressed by colonialism to whom he gave a voice.
Long overdue.
Statue of Roger Casement installed at redeveloped Dun Laoghaire baths https://t.co/DLjVklOLE1 via @IrishTimes
— Marc Peter Coleman (@MarcPColeman) September 14, 2021
Dún Laoghaire Library captured the lowering of the statue onto its plinth at the jetty.
Watching the Roger Casement statue being lowered onto its plinth, from the rooftop of @dlrLexIcon @dlrcc @dlrArts pic.twitter.com/fXamA2vjm1
— dlr Libraries (@DLR_Libraries) September 14, 2021
Others remembered that he was honoured in song and poetry.
Roger Casement, by Padraic Colum pic.twitter.com/hHyk0ZBA7r
— Just Joyce (@johnstonglenn) September 15, 2021
Casement was executed on August 3rd, 1916. At his trial he said that: “Ireland has wronged no man, has injured no land, has sought no dominion over others. Ireland is treated today among other nations of the world as if she was a convicted criminal. If it be treason to fight against such an unnatural fate as this, then I am proud to be a rebel and shall cling to my rebellion with the last drop of my blood.”
Prior to his involvement with the Volunteers and cause of Irish freedom, Casement joined the British civil service and held a number of consular appointments in various locations in Africa. During this time he investigated and produced a hugely influential report on human rights abuses carried out by European commercial concerns in the Belgian Congo. The Congo Reform Association he helped to found was a prototype of the modern human rights organisation. He later reported on the appalling abuse of rubber workers by the Peruvian Amazon Company in a region now part of Colombia, and is still remembered in the region as a hero. He was knighted for his services in 1911.
On a short visit back to Ireland, he joined the Gaelic league – but he remained a British Diplomat until as late as 1913.
Around that time he finally converted to the cause of Irish independence, journeying to the US shortly after his retirement to raise money for the Irish volunteers. He travelled to Germany at the beginning of the war, and secured from Kaiser Wilhelm a declaration that the German Empire would support Irish Independence, should the war be won.
In 1916, Casement travelled back to Ireland, bringing a shipment of arms for the rebellion. Landing from a German U-boat at Banna strand, he was arrested and captured, and tried for treason.
Actor and singer Breandán Ó Dúill’s compelling recitation <https://archive.comhaltas.ie/search?tab=tracks&q=banna+strand#/tracks/15127> of the tale (accessible in the archives of Comhaltas Ceolteoirí Éíreann) tells how Casement feared those who were meant to meet him were dead. “There was no shout” from the shore as expected, and he decided to head for the strand with Captain Robert Montheith.
“Banna was lonely and Casement coming in,” the recitation says – but the area wasn’t, in fact, deserted.
British intelligence had intercepted messages between the rebels and the German Embassy in New York, and they knew the ship bearing arms was coming. They captured Casement, weak from malaria, at McKenna’s Fort at Ardfert near the strand, and then brought him to London to try him for treason.
The Aud was approached by three English destroyers and ordered to sail in custody to Cork Harbour, where it was scuttled by its Captain. The arms never made it to the Volunteers, with significant consequences for the Rising.
Mcneill.
After being captured and brought to London, Casement was kept in Brixton Prison while awaiting trial on charges of high treason, sabotage and espionage against the Crown.
Casement, however, strongly rejected the charge of high treason, saying he was an Irishman and the charge did not apply. Unlike the leaders of the Rising who had been court-martialled and denied the opportunity to make a speech from the dock, Casement’s was entitled to make his case in a powerful speech that attracted the attention of the world.
“My ‘treason’ was based on a ruthless sincerity that forced me to attempt in time and season to carry out in action what I said in word,” he said.
“If small nationalities were to be the pawns in this game of embattled giants, I saw no reason why Ireland should shed her blood in any cause but her own, and if that be treason beyond the seas I am not ashamed to avow to it or to answer for it here with my life.”
He also spoke of the loyalty of an Irishman to his country resting on love, not restraint.
“I am being tried, in truth, not by my peers of the live present, but by the fears of the dead past; not by the civilization of the twentieth century, but by the brutality of the fourteenth; not even by a statute framed in the language of the land that tries me, but emitted in the language of an enemy land — so antiquated is the law that must be sought today to slay an Irishman, whose offence is that he puts Ireland firstm,” he said.
“Loyalty is a sentiment, not a law. It rests on love, not on restraint. The government of Ireland by England rests on restraint, and not on law; and since it demands no love, it can evoke no loyalty.”
He was, nonetheless, found guilty and was sentenced to be hanged. On the day of his execution, Casement was received into the Catholic Church at his request before being hanged at Pentonville Prison on 3 August 1916.