ROGER Casement will once again be celebrated at The Gathering at Lios Mhic Easmainn (Casement Fort), Ardfert, at 12 noon on Good Friday, March 29.
People from all walks of life are expected to be in attendance on the 108th anniversary of ‘the landing’ on Banna Strand and Dr Tim Horgan, historian, author and admirer of Casement, will be guest speaker.
Tim has researched and written Fighting for the Cause, Dying for the Cause and The Stones still Speak, the Patriot Graves of Killarney’s New Cemetery. Tá an searmanas cuimhneacháin seo á eagrú ag Tionól Mhic Easmainn agus Conradh na Gaeilge (Trá Lí). Fáilte roimh chách. All welcome.
THE annual Roger Casement Gathering will take place in Lios Mhic Easmainn (McKennas’ Fort), Ardfert, at 12 noon on Good Friday, April 7.
This coming together is to remember and to honour Casement who arrived from Germany in a German submarine and landed on Banna Strand 107 years ago.
He was captured and brought to the RIC Barracks in Tralee and later taken to London where he was tried for treason, convicted and later executed by hanging at Pentonville Prison on 3rd of August 1916. Special speaker will be Dr Tim Horgan. All are welcome to attend.
A SPECIAL event will take place this Saturday at 3pm in Ardfert to remember Roger Casement.
Dr Tim Horgan, historian, will give a short talk as gaeilge and béarla at McKenna’s Fort, Ardfert to commemorate Conradh na Gaeilge activist and humanitarian, Roger Casement.
Donnchadh Ó hAodha, cathaoirleach of Dáil na Mumhan, Conradh na Gaeilge, will chair the occasion. 200 people may attend according to COVID regulations.
.Some of the assembled gathering at the fort – Lios Mhic Easmainn.
By Brian Caball
A GATHERING of up to 40 people attended the Roger Casement Commemoration in Lios Mhic Easmainn on Saturday last.
The patriot’s execution in Pentonville Prison, London, 103 years ago to the day, was recalled and his humanitarian work in The Congo and in The Putumayo as well as his efforts to achieve Irish freedom was discussed by guest speakers Donncha Ó hAodha, iar-uachtarán Chonradh na Gaeilge, and Mícheál Ó Ruairc, scoláire Gaeilge, file agus údar.
Casement’s great interest in our native language and its importance to us as a people was also part of the day’s discussion.
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Seán Seosamh Ó Conchubhair, a local historian who has worked tirelessly for many years in promoting the memory of his hero, also spoke.
Pádraig Mac Fhearghusa, cathaoirleach Chonradh na Gaeilge, introduced the speakers agus labhair sé faoi Mac Easmainn.
Also present was Celene Slattery whose father knew Casement. Irish airs and Amhrán na bhFiann were played by Donncha Ó Raghallaigh, píobaire, agus chabhraigh an slua leis. Agus d’fhan an bháisteach go dtí go raibh gach éinne imithe ón Lios!
Donncha Ó hAodha, Mícheál Ó Ruairc, Máire Ní Laoi agus Mícheál Ó Loingsigh ag Comóradh Ruairí Mhic Easmainn i Lios Mhic Easmainn ar an Satharn seo caite..Pádraig Mac Fhearghusa, Seán Seosamh Ó Conchubhair, Caitlín Uí Aodha, Dawn Uí Chonchubhair agus Creda Uí Mheára ag plé cúrsaí an lae.I láthair ag Searmanas Lios Mhic Easmainn ar an Satharn seo caite bhí Caitlín de Brún, Celene Slattery, Pádraig Mac Fhearghusa agus John Mason.
THE Annual Roger Casement Commemoration will take place at Casement Fort (McKenna’s Fort), Ardfert, at 3pm on Saturday next, August 3.
Two short short talks will be given, one by Donncha Ó hAodha, President of Dáil na Mumhan, Conradh na Gaeilge, and the other by Mícheál Ó Ruairc, Irish scholar, author and poet.
The event is organised by Tionól Mhic Easmainn (The Casement Gathering Committee), chairman of which is Seán Seosamh Ó Conchubhair. All are welcome.
THE Roger Casement Commemoration will take place this Sunday at 3pm at the Banna Strand Memorial.
This occasion will mark the 50th anniversary of the unveiling of the monument. A talk will be given by Dr Tim Horgan, author of the recently published ‘Fighting for the Cause’, and a wreath laying ceremony will take place i gcuimhne laoch 1916.
All are welcome to the event which is being organised by Tionól Mhic Easmainn (The Casement Gathering).
.Members of Coiste Thionól Mhic Easmainn who are organising this year’s Casement Gathering in Tralee on Friday 15th September in The Meadowlands Hotel: tosach (ó chlé) – Pádraig Mac Fhearghusa, Seán Seosamh Ó Conchubhair (Cathaoirleach), Dawn Uí Chonchubhair. Líne 2 (ó chlé) – Brian Caball, Dr Tadhg Ó hArragáin, who will officially open The Gathering and speak ón Tomás Ághas/Thomas Ashe, Aoife Ní Chonchubhair, Brian O’Daly.
THIS year’s Tionól Mhic Easmainn/Casement Autumn Gathering will take place in The Meadowlands Hotel, Tralee, at 8pm on Friday next, September 15.
This year’s lecture, entitled ‘Saving Roger Casement: The Exiled Children’s Misplaced Trust’, will be given by Dr Robert (Bob) Schmuhl of Notre Dame University, Indiana, USA.
Dr Schmuhl, author of ‘Ireland’s Exiled Children: America and The Easter Rising’, is an authority on Irish-American affairs and is often heard speaking on such matters on RTE’s ‘Morning Ireland’.
The Tionól will be officially opened by Dr Tim Horgan, Tralee, who will give an introductory talk on ‘Tomás Ághas/Thomas Ashe’, the Irish Patriot from Lios Póíl who fought in the 1916 Rising and who died 100 years ago. Admission is €5. Everybody welcome.
.Pictured last Wednesday at the Roger Casement memorial in Ardfert were from left; Justin Horgan, Ken Curtis, Catherine McMahon, Margaret Farrington-Curtis and Bryan McMahon. Photo courtesy of Steve Baker
THE great grandniece of Roger Casement paid a visit to Tralee, Ardfert and Ballyheigue this week as part of events to mark the centenary of his death.
Margaret Farrington-Curtis – who was accompanied by her husband Ken – is from Melbourne and it was her first visit to Ireland.
Casement’s brother, Charles, went to Australia all those year ago and Margaret is a descendant of Charles. She timed her holiday to fit in with this centenary occasion and chose to be in Kerry rather than Glasnevin or Baldonnel where other major events were going on.
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She visited the exhibition “Casement in Kerry: a revolutionary journey” in the Kerry County Museum and then went on with her husband and Bryan and Catherine McMahon, (Ballyheigue) to the laying of a wreath at Casement’s Fort. On Wednesday evening she was the guest of honour in a commemorative celebration in Ballyheigue at the Casement statue.
Féile Fáilte as part of the The Casement Project comes to Banna Strand in July.
LOCAL, visitors, young and old are invited to come along to Féile Fáilte, a free, outdoor, day-long celebration of the dancing body, on the beach made famous by Roger Casement’s ill-fated 1916 landing.
Running from 3pm to midnight on Saturday, July 23, Féile Fáilte will feature dance performances, an evening ceilí, a sun-down beach disco, musical guests and a midnight spectacle of light to “welcome the stranger”, re-imagining the Ireland that greeted Casement’s coming ashore there as a welcoming body of dynamic inclusivity.
Dancer performances already confirmed for this free event include Croí Glan Integrated Dance Company, performing Fearghus Ó Conchúir’s The Rhythm of Fierce and John Scott’s Irish Modern Dance Theatre. Siamsa Tíre will be bringing their beautiful singing and dancing to the beach in an extract from their acclaimed show, Oileán.
Fearghus Ó Conchúir and his exciting company of dancers will present a special ‘unplugged’ performance of ‘Butterflies and Bones: The Casement Project’, fresh from its world premiere in London and ahead of its official Irish premiere in Dublin.
Dance enthusiasts from Kerry will also perform in a specially commissioned piece by long-time Kerry Dance Artist in Residence, Catherine Young.
As well as dancing, there will be a wide variety of music to hear and dance along to, including local legend Paddy Hanafin as céilí-master, Alma Kelliher (of The Evertides) and Limerick-based musical trio Rusangano Family.
Curated by choreographer Fearghus Ó Conchúir, Féilte Fáilte is part of The Casement Project, a year-long choreography of bodies and ideas by taking place across national boundaries and includes events on stage, on screen, in the academy and, now, on a beach. The Casement Project uses the complicated legacy of British knight, Irish republican and international humanitarian Roger Casement to reflect on today’s issues of belonging and becoming.
Speaking about Féilte Fáilte, Fearghus said “Beautiful Banna beach makes me want to dance, to run, to jump, to swim, to kick a ball. It’s a place that welcomes bodies to enjoy themselves so it’s the ideal location for our celebration of an Ireland that welcomes the stranger, an Ireland that Roger Casement as an international humanitarian would have been delighted to dance with.”
.The map of Roger Casement treasure and note bought for £7,000 at the auction.
THE Kerry Museum has purchased at auction a map drawn by Sir Roger Casement showing where he reputedly buried gold and silver coins and other items near Banna Strand before he was arrested on Good Friday in 1916.
A successful bid of £7,000 (stg) – supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht – secured the map and an accompanying note when it was auctioned by Chorley’s of Cheltenham earlier this week.
The items will now be put on display at the Kerry Museum and will form an integral part of its ‘Casement in Kerry’ exhibition which is being opened by President Michael D Higgins on 21 April.
The sketch map and note were drawn up by Casement while he was in custody at Scotland Yard.
The ‘Plan of Rath’ suggests that £50 ‘in gold and silver’ along with a lamp and pair of binoculars were buried ‘under some fern bracken and bramble’ in a fairy fort close to Currahane Moat near Ardfert.
“The map drawn by Casement solves a 100 year old mystery,” said Helen O’Carroll, Curator of the Kerry Museum. “Casement hid £50 in gold and silver coins, as well as binoculars and a lamp. He drew the map while he was in custody and gave it to his interrogators so that they would send someone to find the money, which he badly needed at that stage. The map has never been seen since,” she said.
“After a few days he was told that police had been sent back to the fort to search for the money but that it hadn’t been found. After his execution his solicitor, Gavan Duffy, brought it up again with Scotland Yard and in February 1917 a police search party made another effort and a report was sent back to say that they had found nothing,” said Helen.
“The map and its accompanying note are a significant addition to the general museum collection, not just for this year or the forthcoming ‘Casement in Kerry’ exhibition but long into the future.”
“The fact they haven’t seen the light of day for 100 years will generate great excitement when they are put on display here for the first time. I believe that we have acquired two outstanding documents that will add substantially to our knowledge of the period and will be an enhancement of the accumulated cultural heritage of Ireland. From an educational perspective these documents have a multiplicity of uses and will be used in our education programmes long after 2016 has passed,” she said.
“Before the auction I spoke to colleagues in the National Museum and the National Library who encouraged me to make a bid for them. We all felt that the documents should be in a public collection in Ireland and that they would be most appropriate here in Kerry where both their national and local significance would be fully realised. I am grateful to the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht for their financial support in helping to acquire these items ,” Helen added.
The significance of the map is that it comes with a note written by Frank Hall at the time in 1916. Hall was in MI5G (later MI5) and he was one of Casement’s interrogators.
He regarded Casement not just as a traitor and an Irish rebel because of his connection with Germany, but, as an Ulster Protestant from a similar background, he despised him as a class traitor.
His note proves that not only did the British secret service know where the money was, but that it had been given to the RIC men who had arrested him, and the binoculars went to the head of Scotland Yard, Basil Thomson.
They had found it but had consistently lied about it to Casement and to Gavan Duffy. As such, the document provides an insight into the British security establishment’s attitude to Casement and how keen they were to appropriate his property as trophies.
Aside from the famous diaries, a number of other items that Casement owned were kept as trophies of war by various members of the establishment including the King.
From a Kerry point of view, it has great significance because, as no-one knew what had happened to the money, it was assumed for the last 100 years that it had been stolen by local people.
That assumption fed into the general perception that Casement had been abandoned and betrayed in Kerry. The map and accompanying note prove otherwise.
Brian Caball writes about the Roger Casement Gathering which took place in Tralee at the weekend….
Tionól Mhic Easmainn 2015, or the Roger Casement Gathering, was held in Tralee and was hosted at Fels Point Hotel on Friday and Saturday last, 4th/5th September.
The official opening was by our own Celine Slattery who told us of her father’s conversations with Roger Casement in India and of his personal thoughts on a great man whom he greatly respected.
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In attendance at Tionól Mhic Easmainn ’15 were (chun tosaigh ó chlé): Seán Ó Luanaigh (Cill Airne), Dawn Uí Chonchubhair (Trá Lí), Pádraig Mac Fhearghusa (Trá Lí), Dáithí Ó hÉigeartaigh (Trá Lí). Ar cúl (ó chlé): Tiománaí Uí Chuív (Cill Mhantáin), Pádraig Ó Snodaigh (Ceatharlach), Mayor Tom McEllistrim, Dr Aoife Ní Chonchubhair, Dr Fiona Mhic Choitir (Cill Airne), Éamon Ó Cuív (Gaillimh), Seán Seosamh Ó Conchubhair (Trá Lí).
An tOllamh Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, NUIG, gave an enthralling lecture on the life and times of Roger Casement….on how he was treated for his treason and on how his name was blackened.
‘Commemorations’, stated Ó Tuathaigh, ‘are not merely about the past but about the future and about the handing on of values to the next generation.’
Éamon Ó Cuív, mac iníne Éamoinn de Valera, spoke of his family experiences in relation to Casement’s times….of how his grandfather held Eoin Mac Néill in the greatest respect and, when ‘sportingly’ challenged by one of his grandsons as to why he had taken part in a Rising that had been cancelled by Mac Néill, had answered, without critizing his commander, that ‘we were an army; my boss was McDonagh and he ordered me out!’
Ó Cuív spoke of his grandfather’s great respect for Casement. as well as the love and respect shown to him by the ordinary people.
Dr Tim Horgan, whose grandmother was secretary to Ernie O’Malley and to Liam Lynch, gave a detailed account on Kerrymen who died in 1916.
He told of how ‘The O’Rahilly’ drove to Limerick on Easter Sunday to call off the Rising and how, on Easter Monday, he was shot while leading a group of men from the GPO and up Moore Street.
A plaque on a wall in that street ‘gives’ his last letter to his wife! Interesting details of of Kerrymen who died in The Troubles may be read in Dr Horgan’s book, ‘Dying for the Cause’ (Mercier Press).
Did you know that a Jewish man was the first to be shot in the Rising or that two Lithuanians lost their lives in Ireland’s cause? He also referred to the importance of our history ballads in handing on a knowledge of our history.
Pádraig Ó Snodaigh, a leading historian on the 1916 period and a former uachtarán of Conradh na Gaeilge, read a selection of Roger Casement’s poetry and told that it was Casement’s wish to be buried in his ancestral home near Morlough Bay, County Antrim.
Will Roger Casement’s wish be granted in, say, 1916? He talked of Eoin Mac Néill’s indecision…..bhí sé idir dhá chomhairle….on the question of cancelling or ordering the Rising!
Pádraig also mentioned the idea of Roger coming to Ireland to have the Rising called off and at that very same time 20,000 rifles were off the Kerry coast!
The last speaker was marine radio operator Brian O’Daly and he gave an account of the fruitless efforts to carry a radio from Cahersiveen to Tralee.
The unfortunate result of the attempt was the drowning of Keating (Cahersiveen), Monaghan (Belfast) and McInerney (Limerick) in the River Laune at Ballykissane Pier on Good Friday ’16.
The final event of the Tionól was the retracing of Casement’s last steps as a free man from the Banna Strand Monument to Lios Mhic Easmainn, Ard Fhearta. Local historian Seán Seosamh Ó Conchubhair, led the walking group on a beautiful ‘summer’ day. A number of local people took part in the day’s proceedings and some spoke about their feelings on the Casement ‘tragedy’.
We trust that the Casement Gathering of 2016 will be as successful and as enjoyable. Go mbeirimid beo ar an am seo arís!
THE annual celebration of Roger Casement will take place in Tralee at the end of August.
The Tionól Ruairí Mhic Easmainn will take place this year on 29th/30th August at Meadowlands Hotel where three Kerrymen with interest in and expertise on Roger Casement and his times will address The Gathering on Friday night and on Saturday morning.
“Roger’s Last Walk as a Free Man” will take place on Saturday afternoon and will be led by local historian Seán Seosamh Ó Conchubhair.
The Casement Gatherings of the last few years have been very well supported by locals and by outside interested people.
The following is the expected 2014 programme of lectures/talks/events taking place in The Meadowlands.
Friday 29th August at 8pm
Mr Tommy Martin [Castleisland], published author, playwrigtht, local history lecturer: “Roger Casement”
Saturday 30th August at 10.30am
An Canónach Tomás Ó Luanaigh, S.P. [An Daingean], author, historian, lecturer: “The Irish Volunteers and their Teething Troubles”
Saturday 30th August at 11.30am
An tUasal Seán Seosamh Ó Conchubhair [Trá Lí], staraí áitiúil, údar: “Roger Casement’s Last Hours”
Saturday 30th August 2014 at 2.30 p.m.
Guided walk: from Banna Strand Memorial to Casement Fort.
THE Roger Casement Commemoration will take place this Sunday at 3pm at the Banna Strand Memorial.
