For the first time, all Roger Casement's Black Diaries are here published together, including the erotically-charged 1911 Diary. This volume provides both a comprehensive view of the texts, with explanations for many of the cast of characters, and a context for the author whose significance and seminal role in the political development of independent Ireland has been masked by the debates over the diaries' authenticity. For the first time, all Roger Casement's Black Diaries are here published together, including the erotically-charged 1911 Diary over which London threatened an obscenity prosecution, thus preventing previous publication. This volume provides both a comprehensive view of the texts, with explanations for many of the cast of characters, famous, infamous, and fleeting, and a context for the author whose significance and seminal role in the political development of independent Ireland has been masked by the debates over the diaries' authenticity. This is a uniquely fresh and original look at the Irish patriot and humanitarian, hanged in 1916 for treason. It was Casement whose reports on rubber slavery and genocide in the Congo and the Peruvian Amazon, in 1904 and 1911, reflected in two of the Black Diaries, that shocked Edwardian England. The book also deals with the neglected sides of Casement's life, his involvement in Ulster politics, his family background in Co. Antrim, his Belfast boyfriend Millar Gordon, and the sociopathic Norwegian sailor, Adler Christensen, as well as a comprehensive view of the authenticity controversies. Roger Casement had iconic status in life and after death was sanctified and vilified in equal measure. His real self was consequently obscured. This book combines a rigorous academic study of Casement, the public and political figure (with over 1,000 references and an extensive bibliography), alongside an account of his personal life, sexuality, and consular career, and an informed view of how they all interlocked and originated. It also provides a fresh assessment of the events of the Easter Rising, and an up-to-date account of the controversies that have swirled around Casement to this day, including the attempts made in Dublin, from the 1930s, to threaten the truth about the Black Diaries. No Roger Casement: No Easter Rising: Casement groomed the key personnel who set about creating the Irish Republic, from 1904 to 1923. He commissioned the first arms for the IRA - on two occasions, in 1914 and 1916. To know about Roger Casement is to know why Ireland achieved independence and why Ulster stayed separate remaining in the UK after partition. This volume therefore provides an insight into how the political conflict in the north could be diminished, and the arms (and rhetoric) might be decommissioned.

Author Biography

The author, Jeffrey Dudgeon, was born in Belfast in 1946 and educated at local primary schools, Campbell College, Magee University College, and Trinity College, Dublin. He joined the Northern Ireland Labour Party while at school, long campaigned for the right to join the Labour Party, and is still involved in local politics. In 1975, he co-founded the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association (NIGRA), and in 1981 was the winning plaintiff at the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg in a case against the British Government. This resulted in the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland in 1982 and was the first successful gay human rights case in Europe. A civil servant for many years, from 1995-8, he worked as parliamentary assistant and constituency office manager for the UK Unionist MP for North Down. He was engaged, full time, in researching this book for the following two years, returning in 2000 to the Department of Health at Stormont. Until recently, honorary secretary of the Irish Association's northern branch, Jeff continues to live in Belfast, working with NIGRA on legal and police issues. His email address for contact, or comment, is jeffreydudgeon@hotmail.com