1916 hero Roger Casement remembered on 100th anniversary of execution

HUNDREDS of people marched to the grave of Roger Casement on Tuesday, to mark the 100^th anniversary of his execution by the British for his part in the 1916 Rising.

The Cabra Historical Society and the Dublin Republican Colour Party led the march to his grave in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Executed in Pentonville Prison in England, Casement had originally been buried in quicklime within the prison walls. He was given a full state funeral and reinterred in 1965

Speaking at the graveside, Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin TD said:

“Casement was part of that small band of revolutionaries who a century ago proclaimed an independent Irish republic. He personified everything that was unique and great about that moment in our history.”

He recalled Casement's campaigning human rights work in Africa and South America:

“With the crusading journalist E. D. Morel, he exposed the horrendous, genocidal regime of King Leopold of Belgium in the Congo working for the captains of European industry in the rubber trade.”

He also noted how Casement's work in the British Foreign Office led to his detestation of imperialism and growing support for Irish republicanism. 

Casement went on to join Sinn Féin and Conradh na Gaeilge. He was also a founder member of the Irish Volunteers.

Representatives of the Congolese Community in Ireland attended the commemoration and laid a wreath in memory of the man who did so much to expose Belgium's brutal imperialist regime in their homeland.

Eoin Ó Broin added:

“Let us repay the debt we owe to Roger Casement and the women and men of 1916 in the most fitting of ways – by achieving in our life time a 32-county democratic socialist republic.”

• Members of the Congolese Community in Ireland remember Roger Casement