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In this episode, we're telling the story of Ireland through its records with Orlaith McBride, Dir...

Roland Philipps explores contradictions, complexity and character of an Irish hero in this compelling biography

Telling the story of Sir Roger Casement’s life is a challenge for any biographer. In the land of his birth, he is remembered as a national hero. His remains lie in the Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin beside the graves of Daniel O’Connell and Charles Stewart Parnell. He is there because he was hanged in Pentonville

Just before falling through the gallows to his death in 1916, Roger Casement delivered his final words: “I die for my country.” In the history of rebellion and martyrdom, it wasn’t an untypical last line; but, for Casement, it was a confident assertion of something that had evaded him throughout his life. The country with which he identified was Ireland – then reeling in the aftermath of the Easter Rising – and the country that compelled him to his death was Britain. And yet, Casement’s story wa