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- Herausgeber: New Island
- Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
- Sprache: Englisch
Originally published in 1918 by the Talbot Press in Dublin, two years after his execution by the British Government for his involvement in the 1916 Easter Rising, Some Poems of Roger Casement has long been a collector's item. In life and in death, Roger Casement appears to contain many contradictions: decorated British diplomat, Irish Protestant and martyred Irish nationalist. He was a humanitarian, essayist and sometime poet, a public gentleman and a private lover. Over the years, Roger Casement's ghost has been the subject of endless controversies, co-opted into both the queer liberation movement in Ireland and the Republican movement. Predator or saviour, traitor or hero, maligned martyr or gay icon? The question depends on who you ask, and what aspects of Casement's life they choose to hold in focus, or to dismiss as a lie. —SEÁN HEWITT Includes a specially commissioned introduction by Seán Hewitt as well as the original 1918 introduction, written by Casement's cousin, Gertrude Parry.
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Some Poems of
ROGER CASEMENT
With a new introduction by Seán Hewitt
SOME POEMS OF ROGER CASEMENT
Published in 2025 by
New Island Books
Glenshesk House
10 Richview Office Park
Clonskeagh
Dublin D14 V8C4
Republic of Ireland
www.newisland.ie
First published in 1918 by Talbot Press, Dublin
Introduction copyright © Seán Hewitt, 2025
The right of Roger Casement to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000.
Print ISBN: 978-1-83594-013-6
eBook ISBN: 978-1-83594-014-3
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Product safety queries can be addressed to New Island Books at the above postal address or at [email protected].
Cover design by Niall McCormack, hitone.ie
New Island Books is a member of Publishing Ireland.
CONTENTS
THE LIFE AND AFTERLIFE OF ROGER CASEMENT
INTRODUCTION by Seán Hewitt
‘THE HEART’S VERDICT’
‘MIO SALVATORE’
‘LOVE’S HORIZON’
‘LOVE’S CARES’
THE PEAK OF THE CAMEROONS
HAMILCAR BARCA
VERSES
LOST YOUTH
THE STREETS OF CATANIA
THE IRISH LANGUAGE
PARNELL
BENBURB
OLIVER CROMWELL
THE TRIUMPH OF HUGH O’NEILL
TRANSLATION FROM VICTOR HUGO’S ‘FEUILLES D’AUTOMNE’
ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION by Gertrude Parry
THE LIFE AND AFTERLIFE OF ROGER CASEMENT
1864 Born 1 September in Sandycove, County Dublin, the youngest child of four, to parents Anne Casement (née Jephson) and Captain Roger Casement. The family is Church of Ireland but Anne secretl)y baptises the children in the Catholic Church. The family is chronically in debt and moves many times.
1873 Anne Casement dies and the family moves to County Antrim. Roger attends Ballymena diocesan school.
1877 Roger’s father dies and he and his siblings are cared for by relatives in County Antrim and Liverpool. As a teenager, Roger becomes interested in Irish rebels of the past.
1879 At fifteen, Roger begins work as a clerk in the Elder Dempster shipping company, Liverpool.
1883 Casement becomes a purser (administration and logistics) on a ship bound for West Africa.
1884–
1891 Lives in the Congo Free State, founded and owned by King Leopold II of Belgium from 1885 to 1908.
1890 Meets Joseph Conrad, novelist and story writer.
1892 Works as a surveyor and customs official in the Niger Coast protectorate. Joins the British consular service. From 1895 onwards, holds consular appointments in various locations in Africa, including Luanda, Lourenço Marques (later Maputo) and Boma in the Congo.
1899 Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is published.
1903 Is commissioned to investigate reports of atrocities carried out by King Leopold’s agents in the Congo; gathers much evidence of forced labour, extortionate taxes, mutilation, murder and depopulation.
1904 Casement’s report is published in February.
1904–
1906 Because of ill health, Casement takes a break from his consular career and spends 18 months in Ireland and Britain; he has no base and stays in lodgings, hotels and with friends. Becomes a committed Irish nationalist, supporting the ideals of ‘Irish Ireland’, the revival of the Irish language and rejecting empire in all its manifestations.
1905 Awarded the companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in Edward VII’s birthday honours list for his reporting on the Congo; Casement never opens the parcel containing the insignia of his award.
1906 Despite reluctance by the Foreign Office to reemploying him, Casement resumes his consular career and takes up postings in Brazil, culminating in his appointment as consul-general in Rio de Janeiro.
1908 As a result of several pressures, including Casement’s 1904 report, the Belgian government takes over administration of the Congo. Casement is directed to investigate reports of atrocities in the rubber industry in the region of the Putumayo, Peru.
1911 Casement receives a knighthood from the British Empire but is embarrassed by this. Commits further to Irish causes and advocates for a fully independent Ireland; is galvanised by the opposition of Ulster Unionists to Home Rule.
1912 Casement’s final report on the Putumayo is published to widespread publicity and praise; he gains an international reputation as a humanitarian.
1913 Retires from the Foreign Office. At the age of forty-nine, he begins to play a greater role in Irish affairs, becoming a member of the provisional committee of the Irish Volunteers.
1914 Leads the Howth gun-running in July, importing 1,500 rifles and ammunition from Belgium (some of these weapons would be used two years later during the Easter Rising). By August, when the guns land in Ireland, he is already in the United States raising funds for the Volunteers; he becomes a hero among Irish Americans but the outbreak of the First World War diverts attention away from Ireland’s cause. Travels to Berlin in October where he tries to persuade the German government to declare support for Ireland; he receives reports that the British authorities are disconcerted by his actions and are offering substantial sums of money for information leading to his capture.
