Sir, – The article reporting Kathleen Clarke's interview with Fr Louis O'Kane, where she reveals her disdain for Roger Casement, is interesting for what it divulges about the class and gender issues intrinsic to the remembering of the Rising ("Roger Casement made a 'fool of himself' – Kathleen Clarke", October 21st).
However, there is still a tendency to read the tragedy of the first World War through the outrages of the second World War, which is one reason why Casement’s meaning remains so conflicted.
But Clarke’s opinions about Casement should not go unchallenged, as they only serve to bolster historical distortions.
Having spent eight months speaking to Irish Volunteer rallies across the four provinces of Ireland, Casement spoke at his final recruitment gathering in the Glens of Antrim on June 28th, 1914, as news of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo was being wired around the world.
A month later, he was with Joe McGarrity in Philadelphia where word of the landing of the guns at Howth reached him. As a key strategist behind that operation, he was accepted into the bosom of the IRB. This is evident from the letter Casement addressed to the kaiser, on August 25th, 1914, which was signed by every member of the Clan na Gael executive. John Devoy’s name headed the list.
In this communication, Casement argued that the war had been forced upon Germany “by those jealous of her military security, envious of her industrial and commercial capacity, and aiming at her integrity as a great world power”. He claimed that “thousands of Irishmen are prepared to do their part to aid the German cause, for they recognise that it is their own”.
The cause, as he identified it, was to build a peaceful and prosperous Europe rather than bolster a straining empire.
In October 1914, Casement went to Germany with the blessing of the IRB and with their gold in his pocket. He remained there for the next 18 months, during which time communications broke down, his plans for the Irish Brigade failed and Germany grew weary of the “Irish factor”.
Speaking in 1968, is it possible that Mrs Clarke’s comments were tempered by the inevitable process of retrospective detachment that occurred as Ireland tried to distance its nationalist past from historic alliances with Germany after the defeat of Nazism? – Yours, etc,
ANGUS MITCHELL,
Limerick.
Sir, – The article on Roger Casement, which featured the testimony of Kathleen Clarke, the wife of executed Easter Rising leader Tom Clarke, was interesting for revealing the personal relationships (or lack thereof) of certain individuals central to the events of 1916, but offered very little in terms of objective truth.
As to Mrs Clarke’s contention that Casement’s attempt to enlist a brigade from amidst the British POWs held in Germany was foolish, we can only say that with hindsight because it failed. Had the operation to land 1,500 riles in Howth for the Irish Volunteers failed, with the gift of hindsight it too could have been described as foolish.
Instead the Howth gun running, in which Casement played a leading role, proved to the very thing without which the Rising could not have taken place.
It would have been nice if Mrs Clarke had had the generosity to acknowledge that.
For anyone looking to find a fairer appraisal of Roger Casement, the Dún Laoghaire 1916 Committee will be launching its book next month. It will of course feature an article on one of Dún Laoghaire’s most famous revolutionary sons. – Yours, etc,
CILLIAN DOYLE,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.