By Shaun Ivory
Roger Casement was born in Dublin on September 1, 1864. He served for many years as a distinguished British Consul in Mozambique, Angola and the Congo Free State (he came to further prominence in the latter, forcing the King of Belgium by sheer diplomacy and bluff, to re-consider the appalling treatment of the Congolese people in 1908.) and later Brazil.
For his services to Britain he was awarded a knighthood in 1911, retiring from the diplomatic service through ill-health and settling once more in Dublin. Despite his proven loyalty to the Crown, however, he chose to take up the Republican cause, helping to establish the Irish National Volunteers in 1913.