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Bones of Contention: The Repatriation of the Remains of Roger Casement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2013

Kevin Grant
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Extract

This is a history of life after death—not the life of a disembodied soul, but of the body left behind in a prison yard, buried in quicklime. It is a history composed of family members, friends, politicians, and bureaucrats drawn into cooperation and conflict by the politics of rebellion, partition, and sexuality in Ireland and Great Britain. The deceased in dispute, Roger Casement, had been a controversial figure during the later years of his life, knighted by the British Crown in 1911 for his advocacy of humanitarian causes in Africa and South America and then hanged by the British government on 3 August 1916 for conspiring with Germany to mobilize and arm Irish separatists. Casement had requested that his body be buried at Murlough Bay, near his family's home in County Antrim in the province of Ulster. Instead, Casement's body was buried at Pentonville Prison in London, and for almost fifty years the British government rejected the appeals of Casement's family and supporters for the repatriation of his body to Ireland. In 1965, the body was finally exhumed and reinterred at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, following a state funeral.

Why did the British government take over fifty years to disinter Casement's body from Pentonville, and why was his request to be buried at Murlough Bay not honored? In exploring the answers to these questions, I focus on negotiations between the British and Irish governments, and the terms of their final agreement over the present location of Casement's remains.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 3: New Directions in Political History , July 2002 , pp. 329 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 2002

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References

1 For related studies of the repatriation of Casement's remains, see McMahon, Deirdre, “Roger Casement: An Account from the Archives of His Reinterment in Ireland,” Irish Archives 3 (Spring 1996): 3–12Google Scholar. McMahon depends mainly on files from the Taoiseach's Department in the National Archives of Ireland and on oral interviews to reconstruct a basic account of official exchanges between the Irish and British governments. By contrast, I draw primarily on files of the Commonwealth Relations Office, located at the Public Record Office, Kew, England, as well as the Casement Papers at the National Library of Ireland. Moving beyond McMahon's useful study, my objective is to situate the controversies over Casement's body in the broader contexts of Anglo-Irish policy making. My work can furthermore be read as a critique of McDiarmid, Lucy, “The Posthumous Life of Roger Casement,” in Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland, ed. Bradley, Anthony and Valiulis, Maryann Gialanella (Amherst, Mass., 1997), pp. 127–58Google Scholar. McDiarmid dwells on issues of popular memory and sexuality, making use primarily, though not exclusively, of published literary sources and newspapers. Although McDiarmid refers to “state” and “official” ideologies, she does not directly examine these subjects, which is noteworthy given that the controversies over Casement's body focused on prompting the British state to take action.

2 Regarding debates over Casement after 1965, see McDiarmid, “The Posthumous Life.”

3 For recent contributions to the debate over the authenticity of the diaries, see Mitchell, Angus, ed., The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement (Dublin, 1997)Google Scholar; Sawyer, Roger, ed., Roger Casement's Diaries—1910: The Black and the White (London, 1998)Google Scholar.

4 Toward this end, Ahern commissioned the Royal Irish Academy to convene an international symposium on Casement in Dublin in May 2000.

5 The standard biographies of Casement are Inglis, Brian, Roger Casement (London, 1973)Google Scholar; Reid, B. L., The Lives of Roger Casement (New Haven, Conn., 1976)Google Scholar.

6 For Casement's early involvement in humanitarian politics, see the following letter to the secretary of the Aborigines' Protection Society: Roger Casement, from Old Calabar, West Africa, to H. R. Fox Bourne, 7 February 1894, British Library, London, Add. MS 46912. For his subsequent report on the Congo Free State, see Roger Casement, “Correspondence and Report from his Majesty's Consul at Boma Respecting the Administration of the Independent State of the Congo,” Accounts and Papers of the British Parliament, 1904, vol. 62, Cd. 1933Google Scholar. For broader discussions of Casement's participation in the Congo reform campaign, and especially the work of the Congo Reform Association (1904–13), see Grant, Kevin Patrick, “‘A Civilised Savagery’: British Humanitarian Politics and European Imperialism in Africa, 1884–1926” (Ph.D. Diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1997)Google Scholar; Louis, William Roger, “Roger Casement and the Congo,” Journal of African History 5, no. 1 (1964): 99–120Google Scholar.

7 Siochain, Seamas O, “Roger Casement, Ethnography, and the Putumayo,” Eire-Ireland 29, no. 2 (1995): 29–41Google Scholar; Taussig, Michael, “Culture of Terror—Space of Death: Roger Casement's Putumayo Report and the Explanation of Torture,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 26 (July 1984): 467–97Google Scholar.

8 See Casement's correspondence with Douglas Hyde (1904–13), National Library of Ireland, Dublin, Casement Papers (hereafter Casement), MS 13,073. Although Casement's colleagues at the Foreign Office were unaware of his growing interest in the Gaelic language movement, this was no mystery to his personal friends, such as Alice Stopford Green. See Alice S. Green to E. D. Morel, 12 February 1906, British Library of Political and Economic Science, London School of Economics, E. D. Morel Collection, F8, File 72.

9 Casement to Alfred Emmott, 12 November 1906, Nuffield College Library, Oxford, Alfred Emmott Papers, sec. 2, MSS Emmott 3.

10 Doerries, Reinhard, Sir Roger Casement in Imperial Germany, 1914–1916 (Dublin, 1998)Google Scholar.

11 The precise manner in which the diaries were obtained has been disputed. See Mitchell, , The Amazon Journal, pp. 15–40Google Scholar. This issue might be resolved by Special Branch files that are currently under review for release to the Public Records Office (PRO).

12 Ed Cohen, , Talk on the Wilde Side (New York, 1993), p. 9Google Scholar; Weeks, Jeffrey, Coming Out: Homosexual Politics in Britain from the Nineteenth Century to the Present (London, 1990), pp. 2–6Google Scholar.

13 See Cohen, Talk on the Wilde Side.

14 Regarding the home secretary, Herbert Samuel, it is noteworthy that he was an early parliamentary supporter of the Congo reform campaign. He took an interest in this cause after reading Casement's report in 1904 (House of Lords Record Office, London, Herbert Samuel Papers, A/22, 1904 Diary).

15 Nevinson, Henry, Last Changes, Last Chances (London, 1928), p. 115Google Scholar. Nevinson recalled that the Home Office circulated copies of the diaries among members of the London press and among leaders of society (p. 114). He further believed that the allegation of homosexuality was decisive in sealing Casement's death sentence (pp. 114–16).

16 “The Casement Case,” PRO, CAB 37/151/35, p. 5. Anglo-Irish politics had already been thrown into turmoil over a case of forgery, when in 1887 The Times published a facsimile of a letter signed by Charles Stewart Parnell, purportedly conveying Parnell's support for the Phoenix Park murders of 1882. A government committee confirmed that the letter was a forgery in 1890. See Lyons, F. S. L., Charles Stewart Parnell (London, 1977)Google ScholarPubMed.

17 See, e.g., the observations of the Reverend John Harris, a close ally of Casement in the Congo reform campaign and the current secretary of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection Society. Following Casement's conviction for high treason, Harris took a leading role in organizing petitions to commute Casement's death sentence, and he adamantly rejected the rumors of Casement's sexual deviance. He wrote to William Cadbury, another of Casement's supporters: “The difficulty is that this revolting rumour has gained such wide credence and is declared to be based on such conclusive evidence that most of our friends are afraid to touch the question.” See John Harris to William Cadbury, 14 July 1916, Archive of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection Society, Rhodes House, Oxford (hereafter Anti-Slavery), D3/14. Sir Ernley Blackwell subsequently called Harris into the Home Office to view the diaries as an emissary of the archbishop of Canterbury, who had submitted an appeal on Casement's behalf to the home secretary. Harris was convinced of the diaries' authenticity and persuaded the archbishop to withdraw his support for Casement. Harris commented to another of Casement's supporters, Lord Cromer, “I am strongly of the opinion that the evidence shows very serious mental disorder, probably not unconnected with tropical disease.” (See Harris to Lord Cromer, 26 July 1916, Anti-Slavery, D3/13.)

18 Inglis, , Roger Casement, p. 385Google Scholar.

19 McDiarmid, , “The Posthumous Life,” incorrectly identifies Blackwell as “legal advisor to the Foreign Office” (p. 127)Google Scholar. This error is significant because the Foreign Office did not play a part in Casement's trial or in the burial of his remains. The prime minister and cabinet relied on the Home Office for guidance throughout this controversy, though the Commonwealth Relations Office would play a secondary role in offering legal advice after 1953.

20 E. Blackwell to G. Gavan Duffy, 3 August 1916, Casement, MS 13,088.

21 Gavan Duffy to Under-Secretary of State, 4 August 1916, Casement, MS 13,088.

22 Anonymous, undated memorandum of Casement Repatriation Committee, Casement, MS 24,123. The style of this document is consistent with the correspondence of Sorcha MacDermott, the honorary secretary of the Roger Casement Remains Repatriation Committee. References to events within the document suggest that it was written in 1936. Prime Minister MacDonald might have been receptive to Bannister because of his role as chairman of the Parliamentary Congo Committee, which was established in the wake of the 1906 general election. In this capacity, MacDonald certainly became familiar with Casement's work on the Congo and his role in the Congo reform campaign.

23 The original officers of the Casement Repatriation Committee were Fintain Murphy, president; Padraig O'Boyle, vice-chairman; Miss K. O'Kelly and Miss R. Killen, honorary treasurers; Miss Sorcha MacDermott, honorary secretary; Mrs. Parry, Mrs. J. Dowling, Miss C. Sheehan, Rev. C. O'Callaghan, Garry Allingham, Frank Dunne, and Cliff Murphy, committee members. Sorcha MacDermott had become a member of the Roger Casement Sinn Fein Club in 1916, which had subsequently been transformed into a branch of Cumann na mBan, of which MacDermott was the honorary secretary. See the Sunday Press, “Casement's Last Days Described” (3 August 1958).

24 The first president of the committee, Fintain Murphy, was a veteran of the Easter Rising.

25 MacDermott was the honorary secretary of the Amusements Committee of the London Gaelic League. See the Sunday Press, “Casement's Last Days Described” (3 August 1958).

26 Roger Casement Committee, Copy of Resolution of Easter Sunday, 1936, Casement, MS 13,089 (14).

27 De Valera had first encountered Casement in 1912, when Casement attended an Irish language summer school of which de Valera was the director. In the months after the Easter Rising, de Valera named his newborn son, Ruari (the Gaelic form of Roger), after Casement. In the following year, as a prisoner at Pentonville, de Valera had prayed over Casement's grave. See Speeches and Statements by Eamon de Valera, 1917–73, ed. Moynihan, Maurice (Dublin, 1980), p. 603Google Scholar; Coogan, Tim Pat, Eamon de Valera (New York, 1993), pp. 63, 683Google Scholar; the Earl of Longford and O'Neill, Thomas P., Eamon de Valera (Boston, 1971), p. 457Google Scholar.

28 McMahon, , “Roger Casement,” p. 4Google Scholar.

29 Anonymous, undated memorandum of Casement Repatriation Committee, Casement, MS 24,123; Sorcha MacDermott, 9 December 1935, Casement, MS 24,122. In March 1935, Parry approached the Irish Free State commissioner in London, J. W. Dulanty, regarding the repatriation of Casement's remains. The commissioner asked Parry not to take further action while he made private inquiries. As nothing came of this, the committee sent a resolution to de Valera in May but received no reply and so sent a letter to the secretary of Fianna Fáil in September. In December they inquired again and received the above response.

30 McMahon, , “Roger Casement,” p. 5Google Scholar; de Valera's appeal is also referred to in Seán Lemass, P.M., to Harold Macmillan, P.M., 18 April 1961, PRO, DO161/168.

31 Bowman, John, De Valera and the Ulster Question, 1917–1973 (Oxford, 1982), pp. 112–18, 135–36Google Scholar.

32 Ibid., pp. 139–40.

33 Whyte, J. H., Church and State in Modern Ireland, 1923–1979 (Dublin, 1980), p. 60Google Scholar. McDiarmid, , “The Posthumous Life,” notes the most famous examples of the conservative social legislation of this period (p. 135)Google Scholar.

34 McDiarmid, , “The Posthumous Life,” p. 143Google Scholar.

35 For example, Frank Macdermot had copies of the diaries in his possession in 1957. See Sir Gilbert Laithwaite, Commonwealth Relations Office (CRO), to Arthur W. Snelling, CRO, 14 October 1957, PRO, DO35/8029. Regarding Macdermot's criticism of de Valera in the 1930s, see Bowman, , De Valera, pp. 128–29Google Scholar.

36 For example, Maloney, William published “The Forged Casement Diaries” in serial form in the Irish Press in 1936–1937Google Scholar, prompting Yeats's poem, “Roger Casement,” in the Irish Press on 2 February 1937. See McDiarmid, “The Posthumous Life,” on the ensuing controversy.

37 Fisk, Robert, In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality, 1939–1945 (London, 1985), pp. 128–29Google Scholar.

38 Bowman, , De Valera, pp. 282–83Google Scholar.

39 Ibid., pp. 280–81; Also see Dwyer, R. Ryle, “Eamon de Valera and the Partition Question,” in De Valera and His Times, ed. O'Carroll, John P. and Murphy, John A. (Cork, 1983), pp. 88–89Google Scholar.

40 The Dominions Office was renamed the Commonwealth Relations Office in July 1947.

41 Willson, F. M. G., The Organization of the British Central Government, 1914–1956 (London, 1957), p. 192Google Scholar.

42 Bowman, , De Valera, pp. 282–85Google Scholar.

43 Letter from British Embassy to R. Walker, CRO, 10 June 1953, PRO, DO35/8069.

44 According to McMahon, “Roger Casement,” Duffy expressed concerns in 1959 that unauthorized individuals might attempt to exploit Casement's diaries for profit (p. 9). It is possible that Duffy similarly viewed the Casement Repatriation Committee as self-serving opportunists.

45 Herbert Mackey to Winston Churchill, 27 November 1954, PRO, DO35/8029.

46 G. D. Anderson, British Embassy, Dublin, to T. D. O'Leary, CRO, 6 August 1958, PRO, DO35/8029.

47 Irish Republican Government Summary, British Embassy, Dublin, 11 August 1953, PRO, DO35/8029.

48 Regarding de Valera's commitment to Gaelic over immediate unification, see Bowman, , De Valera, pp. 294–95Google Scholar; Dwyer, , “Eamon de Valera,” p. 84Google Scholar.

49 Bowman, , De Valera, p. 282Google Scholar. MacBride had been the I.R.A. chief of staff in 1936–37. He established Clann na Poblachta in 1946 and had served as foreign minister in 1948–51.

50 “Casement Hosting,” Irish Press (3 August 1953).

51 Ibid.

52 “Secret” memo from J. J. S. Garneru to A. F. Morley (head of the Constitutional Department, CRO), 17 September 1953, PRO, DO35/8029.

53 Maxwell Fyfe to Churchill, 23 September 1953, PRO, DO35/8029. Also see the minutes exchanged between Home Office officials in September and October 1953, PRO, DO35/8029.

54 Fyfe to Churchill, 23 September 1953, PRO, DO35/8029.

55 Churchill to Eamon de Valera, 14 October 1953, PRO, DO35/8029.

56 De Valera to Churchill, 23 October 1953, PRO, DO35/8029.

57 Laithwaite to Snelling, 14 October 1957, PRO, DO35/8029.

58 Memorandum from M. P. Preston, CRO, to Snelling, 11 October 1957, PRO, DO35/8029.

59 Copy of confidential memorandum from Snelling to J. J. Nunn, Home Office, 17 October 1957, PRO, DO35/8029.

60 Laithwaite memorandum of meeting with the Irish Ambassador, Con Cremin, 2 December 1957, PRO, DO35/8029.

61 See “Extract” from Laithwaite's minute of 26 August 1959, no recipient specified, PRO, DO35/8029.

62 Proinnsias O Duinn, honorary secretary of the Casement Repatriation Committee, letter to Irish Press (3 April 1961)Google ScholarPubMed.

63 The ceremony was attended by Capt. Seamus MaCall, a cousin of Casement's, as well as representatives of the Repatriation Committee, the National Graves Association, the Benevolent Society of Irish Republican Adherents, New York, and the Easter Week Commemoration Committee of the Association of Irish Societies in New York. See “Franciscan's Tribute to Casement,” Irish Times (8 August 1960); “At Blessing of Casement Plot,” Irish Press (8 August 1960).

64 “Casement Honoured at Murlough Bay,” Irish Press (8 August 1960).

65 Mackey, Herbert O., Roger Casement: The Forged Diaries (Dublin, 1966)Google Scholar.

66 Singleton-Gates, Peter and Girodias, Maurice, The Black Diaries: An Account of Casement's Life and Times with a Collection of His Diaries and Writings (Paris, 1959)Google Scholar.

67 McMahon, , “Roger Casement,” p. 9Google Scholar.

68 For a summary of these requests, see ibid., pp. 9–10.

69 Bew, Paul and Patterson, Henry, Seán Lemass and the Making of Modern Ireland, 1945–1966 (Dublin, 1982), p. 174Google Scholar.

70 Wilson, Harold, A Personal Record (Boston, 1971), p. 75Google Scholar.

71 McMahon, , “Roger Casement,” p. 10Google Scholar.

72 Minutes of cabinet meeting, 14 January 1965, PRO, CAB128/39, pt. 1.

73 Parliamentary Debates, 5th ser., 1964–65, vol. 707, 23 February 1965, pp. 231–32Google Scholar.

74 These women were the daughters of Casement's older brother, Charles (Reid, , The Lives of Roger Casement, p. 450Google Scholar).

75 For accounts of the funeral and burial, see the Irish Times of 1 and 2 March 1965. Also see The Times, “Crowds Pay Homage to Roger Casement” (1 March 1965), “A Stirring Moment at Casement Funeral” (2 March 1965).

76 Wilson, , A Personal Record, p. 75Google Scholar.