8 Dying for Ireland
The trial of Roger Casement, hanged in 1916 for seeking
German aid, raised the issue of citizens with divided loyalties
Hostile environment
Roger Casement leaves court during his
trial in London, 1916. “If it be treason to
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be a rebel,” he declaredFrench terror
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T
homas Hardy may have defied the
government in the law courts. But
the Irish nationalist Roger Case-
ment – who was charged with treason
120 years later at the height of the First
World War – wasn’t so lucky.
Casement’s trial again showed the
difficulties of defining “treason” and of
securing a fair trial. Before 1914, Casement
had a huge moral reputation because he had
exposed human rights abuses in the Congo
and Peru. With the outbreak of war,
however, he travelled to Germany to secure
help for what he saw as the moral cause of
Irish independence.
While admitting that he was a traitor to
Britain, Casement wrote that “my country
[Ireland, which was at that point ruled from
London] can only gain from my treason”.
He would, he believed, be betraying Ireland
if he did not perform “a bold deed of open
treason”. Yet German aid was lukewarm and
in April 1916 Casement returned to Ireland,
where he was captured and sent to the Tower
of London to await trial.Casement’s crime seemed clear under the
1351 Act: he had given “aid and comfort” to
the king’s enemies, behaviour that was even
worse during a major war. Yet like so many
“traitors”, he disputed the whole trial and
took the moral high-ground. His allegiance,
he said, was to Ireland: “If it be treason to
fight [for Ireland], then I am proud to be a
rebel, and shall cling to my ‘rebellion’ with
the last drop of my blood.” He also objected
to being tried in London, by a purely English
jury, with a prosecution led by the attor-
ney-general, FE Smith, who was notoriously
hostile to Irish nationalism. The courtroom
was stacked against him.
Even worse, on discovering that Case-
ment was homosexual, the authorities tried
to discredit his moral stature. They leaked to
the newspapers his “Black Diaries”, which
graphically detailed his sex life.
As with Edmund Campion, Casement’s
trial revealed the split-allegiance at the root
of so many treason cases. When he was
hanged he, too, became a martyr – this time
GE to the Irish nationalist cause.TTY^IMAGESThe defence ridiculed
the idea that calling
for political reform
was equivalent to
“imagining the
death” of George III