Rory Carroll and his new book on Roger Casement
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Pat Kenny Show. With Timber Living Log Cabins. Saturday and Sunday from 10am on Newstalk. Conversation that counts. Roger Casement was executed 110 years ago on Monday at Pentelville Prison in London, having been convicted of high treason. He was buried in an unmarked grave inside the prison, but his body was later repatriated to Ireland in 1965. He was given a state funeral before being interred in Glasnevin Cemetery. My next guest is the Guardian's Ireland correspondent, also author of the book Killing Thatcher. He has written a book about Casement entitled A Rebel and a Traitor, A Fugitive, The Manhunt and the Birth of the IRA, which tells the story of Britain's pursuit of Roger Casement. Rory Carroll, good morning and welcome.
Good morning, Pat. Thank you.
Who was Roger Casement and why is his story being revisited now?
Now, let's talk about Sir Roger Casement. I mean, the Sir was a reward for services to the Empire.
It was because he was a hero of the British Empire and he served very loyally and very effectively for many years. He performed amazing feats in Africa, exposing horrors in Congo and depredations by the Belgian King Leopold. And then he did it all over again in the Amazon, exposing abuses there against indigenous tribes. So he was considered kind of a Victorian wonder man. I mean, and for that, he was vetted as the greatest humanitarian of the age.
Yeah. And he was rewarded with his title as a result of this work. When did he start to favour Irish nationalism?
Well, he grew up in Antrim as a Protestant and he had always imbibed the legends and stories of rebels in Ireland. And even when he served the British Crown as a Foreign Office Consul, that kind of sentimental attachment to Ireland never left him. But it was after, during the 1900s, when he He fell in love with the idea of the Irish language and Irish nationalism home rule, but then he became more radicalized and he felt that he turned against the British Empire. He saw horrors in the Boer War and then he just felt that British Empire was a force of a baleful force that was strangling Ireland and the world. And so he went so strong then against it.
Now, if this is a book with a hero, it's Roger Casement. It's also a book with a villain, and that villain is a man called Reginald Blinkerhall. Who was he?
Well, I would dispute that. I mean, if there's maybe two antiheroes, I mean, Casement is an extremely flawed figure. I mean, he was very heroic. He could also be completely… He was having a nervous breakdown. He was completely exasperating to his own friends and allies. But the core of the book of A Rebel and a Traitor is this pursuit. It's a manhunt. And in this case, his nemesis was Captain Reginald Blinker Hall. And he was the head of Admiralty Intelligence, which at that time, and we're talking about the First World War, had the greatest intelligence network. So he was at the center of this web. And he was tracking casements. And he wanted to catch casements because he had despised him. What was his preoccupation with Casement?
Why did he despise him? Because at the outset of the war, Casement turned up in Germany, of all places. And, you know, he turned his back on the British Empire. And at the time of Greatest peril when the British Empire is fighting for its life against the German Empire was then that Casement, from the British perspective, tries to drag a dagger into the heart of the British Empire. And so he's there in Germany trying to muster guns and weapons and recruit prisoners of war for an invasion of Ireland.
Now, when you say prisoners of war, he was looking for Irish men who had served in the British Army, captured, became prisoners of war. He wanted some sort of an Irish brigade. Many of those soldiers were not greatly enthused of the idea because they were more loyal to the empire than they were to the notion of some future republic.
Yes, that was his idea. He wanted to do like what Wolfe Tone had done or previous rebels to kind of, you know, recruit from the ranks of Irish prisoners. And it just backfired.
What were Roger Casement’s humanitarian achievements in Congo and the Amazon?
He completely didn't understand these guys had joined up the British Army before the war.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:51
2
Who was Roger Casement and why is his story being revisited now?
0:51–4:18
3
What were Roger Casement’s humanitarian achievements in Congo and the Amazon?
4:18–6:27
4
When and why did Casement become sympathetic to Irish nationalism?
6:27–10:13
5
Who was Captain Reginald Blinker Hall and why did he pursue Casement?
10:13–13:39