Roger Casement: A Rebel and a Traitor
Journalist and noted author Rory Carroll is the Ireland Correspondent for The Guardian. He has reported from the Balkans, Afganistan, Iraq (where he was kidnapped), Latin America and the United States. After twenty years as a foreign correspondent Rory came full circle and ended up back in Blackrock and Dun Laoghaire where he grew up.
Dun Laoghaire was also the point where former British diplomat Sir Roger Casement was taken in handcuffs from Ireland to the UK for his trial for treason and grisly execution at Pentonville prison. He was buried in quicklime four months after his secret landing on a Kerry beach and just five years after the award of a knighthood for his fight against slavery and exploitation in the Congo and in the Amazon.
Rory will talk about his new book “A Rebel and a Traitor” which covers the background to this tragedy and the stealthy chase to catch Casement by British Intelligence led by the innovative, capable and all too dangerous Reginald “Blinker” Hall as the deadline of the Easter Rising loomed. It also deals with the reputational damage and loss of support sustained by the patriot when details of his private life were exposed in the ‘Black Diaries’
The book follows Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown published to great acclaim three years ago. His previous book on Hugo Chávez called “Comandante“ was published by Cannongate and Penguin.
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