Sam Hanna Bell Samuel Beckett John Hewitt Bernard (Barney) Hughes James Joseph Magennis VC Frances Elizabeth Clarke Stewart Parker William Carleton Rosamond Praegar

Roger Casement (1864 - 1916):
Diplomatist and Irish rebel


Roger Casement was born in Sandycove, Dublin, and was educated at Ballymena Academy, County Antrim. He was employed in the British Consular Service fro 1895 to 1913, from which position he exposed cruelties in the Congo and on the rubber plantations of Brazil, where he was Consul-General. He received a knighthood in 1911 and retired from the colonial services in 1912. He joined the Irish Volunteer movement in 1913 and the Sinn Fein movement in 1914 and went to Germany to appeal for armed aid. On his return in a German submarine, he was arrested in County Kerry, tried in London for high treason, and was found guilty and hanged in 1916. His collected writings were published in 1958, and The Black Diaries of Roger Casement, which had been used to prejudice public opinion against him, were published in Europe and America in 1959. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, his body having been returned to Ireland in 1965. In the words of Bulmer Hobson, he 'literally gave away everything he had to help the national movement. He raised money to defend prisoners, to feed school children in the Gaeltacht, to finance Gaelic colleges and to keep our small and insolvent newspapers in existence'.

Born: 1 September 1864
Died: 3 August 1916
Kate Newmann