Conference on global legacy of Roger Casement

A conference of international scholars to "examine and interrogate" the global legacy of Roger Casement is taking place this week in Tralee, Co Kerry.

Casement, who was hanged for treason after trying to land a large shipment of German arms at Banna Strand near Tralee in 1916, was a major international and human rights figure, the gathering of scholars from Ireland, the UK, and North and South America will hear.

The conference focuses on his extraordinary life as British consul in Mozambique, Angola, and particularly in the Congo and Brazil, during the height of the rubber boom at the
end of the 19th and early 20th century; his poetry; and his Irish nationalism.

He was knighted in 1911 for his efforts on behalf of the Amazonian Indians, where whole tribes were forced into slavery and thousands died from overwork, torture and disease.

Just one lecture, on forgery, is likely to deal with the controversial black diaries and his alleged homosexual leanings. Circulated by the British authorities to discredit Casement, their provenance is still not certain.