It’s St. Patrick’s Day and just a week or so before Easter. By chance, it’s also the centennial anniversary of Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising, and what better way to celebrate them all than to recognize Irish patriot, Sir Roger Casement? The name might be unfamiliar to most, even for those of Irish persuasion. But, we should all know his place in Irish history as a gay man.
Called the “father of 20th-century human rights investigations,” Casement was knighted for his work in exposing the abuses of indigenous peoples by colonial exploitation in Africa and South America. Then, disillusioned by imperialism and moved by atrocities committed against the Irish, he joined the struggle for Ireland’s independence.
In that cause he travelled to Germany during World War I to enlist the Kaiser’s support, acquire arms and recruit a rebel army from the ranks of Irish prisoners of war. Then, in mid-April 1916, Casement and two compatriots embarked on the German submarine, U-19. His mission was to secretly land at Tralee Bay in County Kerry and head on to Dublin. There, he would join the rising set for Easter Sunday.
The landing went as planned, but unfortunately for Casement, he was arrested within hours of coming ashore by the local constabulary. His trial for treason followed. However, it seemed—despite his seditious intentions—he might be pardoned; Sir Casement had, after all, been knighted for his extraordinary service to the English crown. All may have gone well enough had not his diaries been entered as evidence against his character.
Apparently, advocacy in the native interest was not his only activity whilst serving in the crown colonies; he also liked native men and had written rather explicitly about his exploits with them. Although his sexual proclivities had nothing to do with his role in the fight for Ireland’s independence, they were naturally considered an additional crime. In the court of public opinion, they gave his detractors moral superiority. After all, one might allow a knighted man of Casement’s decency a lesser sentence, or even a pardon; but, defamed as a degenerate queer (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?), there was no question as to the traitor’s fate. Casement was condemned to death and executed by hanging.
The Easter Rising failed. Ireland would achieve independence, but it would take decades before the Republic of Ireland was declared in 1948. Then, in a national referendum, it would overwhelmingly vote for marriage equality in 2015.
Casement’s homosexuality may have inspired his patriotic fervor. Perhaps the misery of the oppressed peoples he sought to relieve was in some way inspired by his own misery as an oppressed gay man. However, it did have everything to do with his unlucky demise. Even his knighthood didn’t trump the “crime” of being gay. Still, every good Irish man and woman, LGBT or otherwise, should know that Irish liberty was, in part, accomplished by the deeds of a heroic gay Irishman—Sir Roger Casement. There’s no time like St. Patrick’s Day to raise a pint or two in his honor.
