Who is Roger Casement?

Many knew of the slave system in King Leopold’s Congo rubber plantations– but British Consul Roger Casement was the first to make the world take notice. He created the 20th century's first international human rights movement, and was knighted for his work. Two years later, he was hung for treason, after an abortive plot to enlist German aid for Ireland’s Easter Rising. A widely-popular clemency movement had collapsed when Britain secretly circulated private diaries alleged to be Casement’s. Shocking if true, the diaries are still a matter of passionate contention, a century after Casement’s death.

Monday, August 29, 2016

Is the forgery controversy settled? The forgery controversy is never settled.

In the Dublin Review of Books, Tim O'Sullivan recounts the arguments of those who believe Roger Casement's "black diaries" were forged, dating from the first claims nearly a century ago. Many of the older arguments have been discredited, but he raises legitimate questions about the thoroughness of the Giles Report, the forensic handwriting analyst's study which claimed the diaries were in Casement's hand and not altered.


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