Call to destroy 'fake' Casement diaries
The “Black Diaries” of Roger Casement should be destroyed when they are eventually exposed as fakes, it was claimed today.
On the 90th anniversary of the revolutionary’s execution for treason in 1916, supporters called for Casement’s legacy to focus on his humanitarian work in Africa and South America rather than other controversies about his life.
The Black Diaries, which claim to detail Casement’s explicit homosexual urges, are currently kept in the Public Record Office outside London.
Jack Moylett, chairman of the Roger Casement Foundation said today: “I think they are horrible things and should be eventually destroyed when it is proven they are counterfeit.
“If they are to be exhibited, they should only be criminal exhibits.”
A two-month forensic analysis of the diaries in 2002, funded by RTE and the Taoiseach’s Department, found they were genuine examples of his handwriting.
However, the Foundation disputes these findings and is currently raising funds to carry out its own linguistic study of the documents using a Canadian computer software programme.
“We will be examining the words, phrases and style of expression, which we believe Casement would never have used at all,” said Mr Moylett.
The Diaries, which comprise two office diaries, an army field notebook, a pocket diary and a 1911 cash ledger, were used by the British to smear Casement at his trial for treason in 1916.
Mr Moylett said he would block any attempts to have the documents housed in an Irish museum.
The Roger Casement Foundation was formed in Dublin in 1995 and has up to 100 members. It also holds an annual one-day symposium on the revolutionary.
Mr Moylett has written a stage play about the revolutionary in which he plays Casement himself.
A distinguished British diplomat who served in the Congo and the Amazon basin, Casement tried to import arms for the Easter Rising but was arrested at Banna Strand Co Kerry after leaving a German submarine.
He was hanged for treason at Pentonville Prison outside London on August 3, 1916.
His body was repatriated in 1965 and he was given a state funeral and buried with full military honours in the Republican Plot in Glasnevin Cemetery.
President Eamon de Valera defied doctors’ advice to attend the ceremonies, along with 30,000 Irish citizens.
The Foundation will lay a wreath at Casement’s grave at Glasnevin Cemetery on Sunday to mark the anniversary of his death.
Sinn Féin will mark his anniversary with a march to his birthplace in Sandycove on Saturday.
