Sir, – Further to the remarks on Roger Casement made by Kathleen Clarke ("Roger Casement made a 'fool of himself' – Kathleen Clarke", October 21st), which have just been revealed in the Fr Louis O'Kane archive in Armagh, she was plainly not happy with his behaviour in Germany and the reason for his submarine journey to Ireland just before the Rising. However, even though before the war Casement was seen as a leader of the separatists, that was not his choice but due to the fact that he was already well known where others hugged the shadows. He had been treasurer of the Irish Volunteers and helped organise and finance the Howth gun running.
Far from being an aristocrat, having left school at 15, he was however classless in the way the Irish can be seen in England.
He was certainly a gentleman and a scholar, despite never attending university.
His relatives in Co Antrim, in both Ballymena and Ballycastle, were prosperous professionals and manufacturers, although he was largely brought up in England.
A good assessment of Casement's actions in April 1916 is provided by John Devoy who had certainly sent him over as an official envoy of Clan na Gael: "Casement admitted that he deceived the Germans into the belief that he wanted to go to take part in the fight but that his real purpose was to reach the leaders and get them to put off the rising and that if he failed in this he would 'go out and die with them'. He had no military knowledge whatever and his judgment in this matter was wholly valueless and his presence would have added nothing to the force of the insurgents." (Gaelic American, October 4th, 1924). – Yours, etc,
Cllr JEFFREY DUDGEON,
City Hall,
Belfast.
Sir, – One of the factors that influenced Casement in his endeavour to raise an Irish Brigade in Germany stemmed from his meeting with Major John MacBride in Dublin 1913. Casement was enthralled to hear the details of MacBride’s successful organizing and co-leadership of an Irish Brigade in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1904.
He wrote to Alice Green, “Can you imagine the feelings of an English Colonel who had given up his sword to an ‘Irish rebel’!” – Yours, etc,
ANTHONY J JORDAN,
Dublin 4.