Burial of Casement in Glasnevin 'wrong' - campaign group

A campaign group in Belfast has said that the burial of Roger Casement in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery is a "wrong that must be righted".

The Roger Casement Commemoration and Reinterment Association, a branch within the Casement Social Club in West Belfast, has formally applied to move Roger Casement's remains from Glasnevin in Dublin to Murlough Bay on the tip of county Antrim.

The application is with Dublin City Council and the association is waiting on their decision.

"It was a wrong that we intend to right," said Alan Daly, chairperson of the association told RTÉ's This Week.

"It should never have happened," he added.

"It was wrong back then and it's wrong ever since."

Roger Casement is now considered an Irish nationalist hero.

He was knighted by the British King in 1911 for his investigations into human rights abuses in the Congo Free State and Peru.

However, Casement became convinced that Ireland should not be part of Britain.

In 1914, he travelled to Germany where he tried to mobilise and arm Irish separatists who would fight for an independent Ireland.

He tried unsuccessfully to bring guns to Irish rebels for the Easter Rising but was arrested and brought to London.

In August 1916, he was hanged as a traitor to the British crown.

He was buried in Pentonville Prison, but his remains were reinterred in Glasnevin Cemetery in 1965 following negotiations between British and Irish governments.

However, Roger Casement is said to have wished his body to be laid to rest in Murlough Bay in Antrim, more than 260km away and across a border he never thought would exist.

In Belfast, Mr Daly of the reinternment association said that they have been working for years to prepare their argument and application that Roger Casement's final wish should be fulfilled.

He now believes everything is in place for it to happen.

The association has gotten consent from Roger Casement's closest living relative. The owner of the land at Murlough Bay is happy for Casement's remains to be buried there and they even have an undertaker and forensic anthropologist on board to facilitate the practical arrangements of moving 110-year-old human remains.

"Everything's positive," Mr Daly said.

"Everyone's falling in saying 'What can we do to help you make this happen?'"

Mr Daly is so convinced of his argument that when asked if he would appeal a rejection, he said it would not come to that.

Political tensions

The possibility of reinterring Casement's remains to Ireland had been mooted as early as the 1930s.
Both the British and Irish governments knew of his wishes to be buried in Antrim but feared the political tensions that could arise from moving a nationalist hero to Northern Ireland.

Nearly 30 years on from the 30-year-long Troubles, Mr Daly insists that the time is right to fulfil Casement's wishes.

"That political climate no longer exists," he said.

"What they did in 1965 was bring Casement halfway home.

"Now we are going to bring him the rest of the way and bring the journey to its final conclusion."

Laurence O'Neill of O'Neill's Funeral Directors in Belfast will be the undertaker who takes Roger Casement's body from Glasnevin to Antrim, if the application is successful.

Mr O'Neill grew up in West Belfast hearing about Casement as a hero and his unfilled wish to be buried in Antrim.

"Growing up and living beside Casement Park, having played in Casement Park, it would be nice to see it through and be part of it," Mr O'Neill said.

"I'd be very surprised if we don't get to achieving the ultimate goal of seeing it through," he added.

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Listen: The campaign to move Roger Casement's remains to Antrim

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Joe Compston, another member of Casement Social Club who also grew up in the area, said he felt a duty to try to fulfil Roger Casement's final wish.

"You can't really say that you were a member of the Casement Social Club unless you try," he said.

"The man's still being talked about 110 years after his death and it shows you how much of a colossus of a human being and humanitarian he was.

"Unfortunately, it's hard to take the politics out of a case like this, but hopefully we can promote that this is the reason why we're wanting to do it.

"Because we're members of the Casement Social Club and we want to honour the person in the last place who we're named after."

James Casement, whose grandfather was the first cousin of Roger, said it took him a long time to research the issue, but he is now satisfied that it was Roger Casement's wish that he wanted to be buried in Murlough Bay.

"If it's possible for me to be a part of it, I sort of feel like it's my duty," he told RTÉ News from his home in Arizona.

Roger Casement in Glasnevin

Roger Casement's remains are near the entrance to Glasnevin Cemetery in front of Daniel O'Connell's Tower.

"Roger Casement would definitely be one of the better known of the 1.6 million people who were buried in Glasnevin Cemetery," said Peter Gallogly chief executive of Dublin Cemeteries Trust.

Glasnevin Cemetery was founded in 1832 and cares for the remains of some of the most significant figures to have contributed to Irish society in the last two hundred years including Michael Collins, Eamon de Valera, Constance Markovich and Charles Stuart Parnell.

If Roger Casement's remains are removed from Glasnevin, Mr Gallogly said he would "definitely" be missed.

However, the cemetery has not received any communication in the last 12 months from anyone seeking to reinter Roger Casement's remains.

"Ultimately, the owner of the remains of Roger Casement is the Irish Government and it is a decision for the Government as to any decision about Casement's remains," Mr Gallogly said.

"It is something that comes up every now and again," he said.

Dublin City Council and the Government did not respond to a request for comment.

'Get me back to the green hill at Murlough'

Roger Casement was born in Dublin but moved to Antrim when he was a teenager.

He regularly visited Antrim as an adult and was friends with Elizabeth McCarry.

Just over a week before his execution, Roger Casement wrote a letter to his cousin from Pentonville Prison.

It reads: "Don't let my body lie here. Get me back to the green hill at Murlough, by the McGarry's house."

Elizabeth McCarry's grandnephew, Patrick, who owns the land at Murlough Bay wants to have his body reinterred on his land.

"I think it's only fitting," he said, "The man's last request should be honoured."

On a green hill at Murlough Bay lies an old church site that dates back to at least the 12th century and could be as old as the 6th century.

The site overlooks the bay and the coast of Scotland can be seen through a sycamore tree.

Mr McCarry said he was getting emotional as he recounted memories of the stories about Roger Casement that were passed down through his family including that Casement planted some of the daffodils around the family home.

In 1965, when he was a child, Mr McCarry and his siblings watched on as a camera crew came to the old churchyard on their family farm and a piece of sod was dug up.

That piece of sod travelled to Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, where it was buried with Roger Casement.

At the time, Mr McCarry said they knew that bringing Roger Casement's body to Northern Ireland would have increased tensions among the unionist community here.

"I hope nowadays people will see through that," he said.

Even if the application fails, Mr McCarry will not give up hope.

"If it doesn't happen now, it'll happen someday." he said.

"It will happen someday," he repeated.

"And why not now?"