Casement's fate The renowned human rights campaigner, Sir Roger Casement, was hanged in 1916 for his involvement in the Irish Nationalist revolt in Dublin - the Easter Rising. His guilt was never seriously in doubt but the Black Diaries sealed Casement's fate. Within their pages are the explicit details that exposed him as a promiscuous homosexual. When selected extracts were shown to public figures and known sympathisers, most shrank back from the calls for clemency that could have saved Casement. He went to his death in disgrace. Such underhand tactics were always bound to arouse suspicions of foul play. The diary pages were distributed by the British authorities in a determined effort to ensure that Casement's execution would be unopposed. Such underhand tactics were always bound to arouse suspicions of foul play. After Casement's death the diaries were retained by the Home Office and held in conditions of extraordinary secrecy, which only added to the atmosphere of mistrust. There has existed for many years now a widely held belief, particularly in Ireland, that all five diaries were forged. Top

Forgery theories begin Suspicions of forgery were first aroused at the time of Casement's execution when many of his closest friends and relatives insisted that he was not homosexual. Herbert Dickey, an American doctor, spent several weeks during 1911 travelling with Casement in South America and observed nothing. New York lawyer John Quinn had also known Casement and wrote to a friend, using the language of the day: 'Never by word or act, by tone of the voice, by a gesture or by the slightest syllable or letter was there a shadow or shade of anything of a degenerate about him.' 'They got the diary, cooked it and forged bits...' Gertrude Bannister, Casement's favourite cousin and confidante, was equally adamant. She held a theory of how the diaries had been produced which she explained in a letter to Roger's sister Nina. 'While he was in the Putumayo he kept a diary in which he jotted down all the foul things he heard of the doings of the beauties out there whose conduct he was investigating. He used it later for his notes and report... They got the diary, cooked it and forged bits to make it seem as if it were R's own experiences.' Top

Inconsistencies appear Casement's first biographer, Denis Gwynn, was frustrated in his efforts to investigate the issue. The Home Office refused to confirm that the diaries even existed. However, in 1936, William J. Maloney, an American doctor with no connection to Casement, made a direct allegation of foul play in The Forged Casement Diaries. Dr Maloney had not had access to the diaries himself, but he drew attention to apparent inconsistencies in the descriptions given by those who had seen them. This included the Irish Republican leader Michael Collins who inspected them in 1921 and was satisfied that they were genuine. Maloney also proposed a variation on Gertrude Bannister's explanation of how the diaries were forged, which has since become known as 'The Normand Theory'. Whilst conducting his investigations in South America, Casement had obtained one of Normand's private diaries... Armando Normand was the most infamous of the managers employed by the Peruvian Amazon rubber company. The cruelty he inflicted on the native workers, as well as their wives and children, was truly appalling. While conducting his investigations in South America, Casement had obtained one of Normand's private diaries, translated it and sent it to the Foreign Office. According to this forgery theory, these descriptions of Normand's depraved acts of sadism, written in Casement's own hand, were later incorporated in some way into other genuine diaries. The problem with this explanation is that the diaries describe the activities of a promiscuous homosexual but it is evident from Casement's own Putumayo report that Normand was violently heterosexual. Nevertheless, Dr Maloney's book had a powerful impact, particularly on two poets: W B Yeats and Alfred Noyes. Their reactions helped propagate the idea that Casement had been the victim of a British conspiracy. Top

The debate widens In August 1916, the English poet Alfred Noyes was working in the News Department of the Foreign Office. As part of his work as a wartime propagandist he published his own account of having seen the Black Diaries. 'I have seen and read them and they touch the lowest depths that human degradation has ever touched. Page after page of his diary would be an insult to a pig's trough to let the foul record touch it.' But Noyes soon got his comeuppance for having lavished such invective on the recently executed Casement. Later that same year he was in Philadelphia to give a lecture on English poets, but before he could utter a word he was confronted by Sir Roger's sister, Nina. He recalled in his memoirs, 'The chairman had just finished his introduction, and I was already on my feet, when a lady of distinguished bearing rose in the audience and asked if she might say a few words... to my horror and that of the audience, she announced that she had come for the express purpose of exposing the speaker of the evening as a "blackguardly scoundrel". "Your countrymen," she cried, "hanged my brother Roger Casement."' His admission was seized upon by Casement sympathisers... Twenty years later, the unfortunate Noyes found himself the victim of a rather more eloquent but equally withering attack. After reading Dr Maloney's book, W B Yeats was moved to write a protest poem entitled Roger Casement, and he was not afraid to name names. Come, Alfred Noyes, come all the troop That cried it far and wide Come from the forger and his desk Desert the perjurer's side Stung into action, Alfred Noyes wrote a letter to the Irish Press in which he confessed that he might have been misled about the authenticity of the diaries. His admission was seized upon by Casement sympathisers and, in recognition of Noyes having deserted 'the perjuror's side', Yeats kindly rewrote his poem to read 'Come Tom and Dick, come all the troop'. In 1957 Alfred Noyes made full amends for his previous harsh judgement when he published The Accusing Ghost or Justice for Casement in which he argued that Casement had indeed been the victim of a British Intelligence plot. His conversion, and Yeats' protest in verse, cemented the idea that the diaries were forgeries. Top

Forensic testing On 12th March 2002 the results of the first ever fully independent forensic examination of the Black Diaries were announced at a press conference in London. The examination was carried out by Dr Audrey Giles, an internationally respected figure in the field of document forensics. It was commissioned by Professor Bill McCormack of Goldsmiths College, London, and jointly funded by the BBC and RTE. The verdict was as follows: The unequivocal and confident conclusion which the Giles Document Laboratory has reached is that each of the five documents collectively known as the Black Diaries is exclusively the work of Roger Casement's hand, without any reason to suspect either forgery or interpolation by any other hand. The Diaries are genuine throughout and in each instance. This investigation, based on impartial scientific analysis, should bring to an end more than 80 years of controversy. The main focus of Dr Giles' examination was handwriting analysis, which involved making direct comparisons between known examples of Casement's handwriting and the entries in the Black Diaries. As well as identifying similar characteristics, Dr Giles looked for inconsistencies that would indicate the work of a forger. Having found 'many similarities' and 'no significant differences', she reached an inescapable conclusion in favour of authenticity. This investigation, based on impartial scientific analysis, should bring to an end more than 80 years of controversy. By removing the uncertainty that has surrounded the diaries since 1916, the report opens the way for a fuller examination of Casement's life and achievements based on his own authenticated, first-hand accounts. Top

Chronology of Casement's life 1st September 1864 Born in Sandycove, Co. Dublin to Roger Casement and Anne Jephson. The youngest of four, he has two brothers, Charles and Tom, and a sister Agnes who was known as Nina. 1873 Death of Anne Jephson in childbirth. 1877 Death of Casement's father. The four children become wards of John Casement, at Magherintemple House in County Antrim. 27th June 1895 Appointed as HM Consul in Lorneço Marques, Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique). July 1903 Begins his investigation into forced labour in the Congo. 15th February 1904 Report published but, at the insistence of the Foreign Office, it does not name individuals. 13th July 1910 Meets Sir Edward Grey at the Foreign Office to discuss conditions in the Putumayo region of South America. 31st August 1910 Arrives in Iquitos to investigate reports of atrocities. 6th July 1911 Knighted by King George V. 13th July 1912 Putumayo Report published. August 1914 Outbreak of World War One. 31st October 1914 Arrives in Berlin to try to secure a German declaration of support for an independent Ireland. 5th December 1914 Addresses Irish prisoners-of-war in an attempt to raise a 'rebel brigade'. He gets only three recruits. 15th April 1916 U-19 leaves for Ireland with Casement, Robert Monteith and Daniel Bailey, an Irish Brigade sergeant, on board. 21st April 1916 Disembarks at Banna Strand, Curraghane, Co. Kerry but is soon arrested. His attempts to warn the Volunteers to call off the Rising fail. 24th April 1916 The Easter Rising ('the Sinn Fein rebellion') begins in Dublin. Casement is imprisoned in the Tower of London. 26th June 1916 The Times reports the start of the trial of Sir Roger Casement on the charge of 'high treason'. 29th June 1916 Casement is found guilty and sentenced to death. 3rd August 1916 Hanged at Pentonville Prison. The executioner Albert Ellis recalled: 'He appeared to me the bravest man it fell to my unhappy lot to execute.' Top