- unitid
-
{"value"=>"992446", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1882-1883", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1882/1883"}
{"value"=>"1898-1900", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1898/1900"}
{"value"=>"1904-1965", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1904/1965"}
{"value"=>"undated", "type"=>"inclusive"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1882
- date_inclusive_end
-
1965
- keydate
-
1882
- date_start
-
1882
- date_end
-
1965
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"I. Sir Roger Casement"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"3 boxes"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Roger Casement was an Irish nationalist and revolutionary. He helped establish the Irish Volunteers, a volunteer force in defense of Ireland, in 1913, traveled in Germany and the United States during 1914-1916 working to secure aid for Ireland in her revolt against England, and was executed as a traitor by the British after the Easter Rising in 1916. He was born in Dublin in 1864, but moved to County Antrim as a teenager with his brothers and sister after the deaths of both of their parents. The Casement children were taken in by an uncle in the north of Ireland and were educated there and spent a great deal of time in Liverpool, England with a maternal aunt. Both households impressed upon Casement the glories of the British Empire, but he continued to identify with the Irish nationalists.</p> <p>Between 1886 and 1892, Casement worked in Africa for various organizations, both commercial and imperial. He began to develop a reputation as one of the few competent colonialists for his honest recording of events and fair dealing with both the colonials and natives. He joined the British Foreign Office in 1892 and served as consul in Africa and South America for the next twenty years. During his long service, he published two well received reports on human rights abuses, the first in 1903 on the Congo and the second in 1911 on Peru. The latter garnered him a knighthood that same year, which he accepted with concern for its effect on his reputation as an Irish nationalist. In 1912 he left the consular service citing ill health.</p> <p>Upon his return to Ireland in 1912, Casement dedicated all of his time to the nationalist movement. In 1913, he helped establish the Irish Volunteers with Eoin MacNeill, in response to the Ulster unionists' creation of the Ulster Volunteer Force the previous year. Both groups were organized to defend by force the position on Home Rule held by its creators.</p> <p>With the outbreak of World War I, Casement began to travel to the United States and Germany looking to raise support for the Irish cause. In the States he worked with the Clan-na-Gael, a group of exiled nationalists, to raise money for the Volunteers. He traveled to Germany between 1914-1916 looking to gain the support of the German government in the forms of arms and men. He hoped to create an Irish Brigade, which was to be formed by Irish members of the British Army who were prisoners of war in Germany. He was granted permission to visit German camps and attempt to recruit the Irish POWs, but as they had all joined the British Army voluntarily, very few left with Casement. The amount of arms promised by the Germans was a fraction of what Casement had hoped to raise.</p> <p>While Casement was in Germany, the Irish Republican Brotherhood covertly planned the Easter Rising while supporting the activities of the Irish Volunteers. Patrick Pearse and Tom Clarke, the leaders of the Rising, did not trust Casement to support their plan and kept him in the dark until the last moment. Once he learned of their plan, Casement did his best to put a stop to it, but was not successful. The arms he had raised from the Germans were sent to Ireland by sea, but the British intercepted the shipment. Casement traveled to Ireland separately and was captured by the British and tried for treason. He was hanged on August 3, 1916.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Roger Casement papers contain correspondence, articles by and about Casement, poems, diary extracts, photographs, and other materials regarding his work in American and Germany to gain support for the Irish Volunteers. Some of the materials are copies of original documents in the National Library of Ireland.</p>"}
- extent_statement
-
3 boxes