by Eamonn Cullen

Roland Philipps, Broken Archangel: The tempestuous lives of Roger Casement. The Bodley Head, 2024.

In the early hours of Good Friday, 21 April 1916, three men arrived by boat at Banna Strand, a long stretch of sandy beach on the coast of Kerry in south west Ireland. With the Dingle mountains in the distance, it attracts many visitors who come to enjoy the sunshine and sea air. But the men who slipped in under cover of darkness in 1916 had a different purpose. A German submarine had dropped them offshore following the efforts of their leader, Roger Casement, to secure German arms in support of the rebellion against British rule in Ireland. The Royal Irish Constabulary were alerted and arrested the plotters; Casement was sent to London to be tried for treason. Roland Philipp’s book explores how this gifted member of the English diplomatic establishment, who had been knighted for his humanitarian work, came to support the struggle for Irish independence.

Casement was born in Dublin in 1864, the youngest of four children. His father was an officer in the British Army and his mother died when he was nine. His father died three years later. Orphaned, and separated from his siblings, he moved between relatives in Ireland and Liverpool. At the age of 15, he went to work for his uncle, an agent for a shipping company. Three years later, this sensitive, lonely and vulnerable young man, probably aware of his homosexuality, signed up for a voyage to the Congo.

Eamonn Cullen is a retired teacher.

With thanks to Dumbarton Library for acquiring the book.