Roger Casement Roger David Casement ( ; 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 — 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 of Black 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 . Circulation of the diaries helped undermine support for clemency for Casement . Early life and education . Casement was born near Dublin , living in very early childhood at Doyle ' s Cottage , Lawson Terrace , Sandycove . 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 . According to an 1892 letter , Casement believed that she was descended from the Jephson family of Mallow , County Cork . However , the Jephson family ' s historian provides no evidence of this . 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 . The Congo and the Casement Report . Casement was appointed British Consul for the Eastern part of French Congo in August 1901 . In 1903 the British government commissioned Casement , then the British Consul at Boma in neighbouring Congo Free State , to investigate the human - rights situation in that colony . The consul delivered a long , detailed eyewitness report exposing abuses , the Casement Report , in 1904 . The Congo Free State had been in the possession of King Leopold II of Belgium since 1885 , when the Berlin Conference effectively gave him free rein in the area . Leopold had exploited the territory ' s natural resources ( mostly rubber ) as a private entrepreneur , not as King of the Belgians . Casement ' s report would prove instrumental in Leopold relinquishing his personal holdings in Africa in 1908 . 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 . 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 . 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 the House 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 . Casement retired from the consular service in the summer of 1913 . 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 . 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 . 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 . 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 " . 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 . " It was this episode that first provided London with the intimation that Casement was homosexual . In November 1914 , 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 " . 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 - war in the prison camp of Limburg an der Lahn , who would be trained to fight against Britain . 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 . 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 gun s and accompanying ammunition , a fraction of the quantity of the arms Casement had hoped for , and no German officers . 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 . 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 . Her crew became prisoners of war . Capture , trial and execution . Casement confided his personal papers to Dr . Charles Curry , with whom he had stayed at Riederau 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 , which developed engine trouble , and then the , 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 . 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 " . 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 . Despite any view ascribed to Monteith , 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 the Tower of London where he was imprisoned , 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 " . 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 , the Anglo - 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 " . 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 . 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 . 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 Diaries " undermined 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 . The diaries were declassified for public inspection in August 1959 . The original diaries may be seen at the British National Archives in Kew . 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 record of the decision refers to him as " Sir " Roger Casement . Legacy . Quotations . 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 . Landmarks , buildings and organisations . Many landmarks , buildings and organisations in Ireland are named after Casement including : Song , story and verse . Casement was also the subject of ballads and poetry in Ireland in the wake of his death , including : Bibliography . By Roger Casement : " Secondary Literature , and other materials cited in this entry " : External links . city