Opinion

Tom Collins: The 'what if' of history revealed in papers

Tom Collins

Tom Collins

Tom Collins is an Irish News columnist and former editor of the newspaper.

HIS dying wish was to be buried at Murlough Bay on the north Antrim coast. But the body of Roger Casement lies in Glasnevin alongside other republican leaders.

Executed in Pentonville Prison, Casement remains of one the most enigmatic figures from a pivotal period in Ireland's history.

Casement was part of the British establishment, a diplomat whose humanitarian work alone singles him out as a figure of global importance.

His exposure of the exploitation of people in Congo by King Leopold revealed an appalling tale of abuse. Leopold was given free reign to exploit Congo for his own personal gain. It is an episode in history that besmirches the reputation of Belgium.

As consul-general in Brazil he brought to light the slavery of native peoples by the Peruvian Amazon Company. Indians were abused physically and sexually, and forced to work without pay. They were branded like cattle and killed at whim.

Casement's work for Irish freedom began while he was still working for the Foreign Office. That work and his arrest near Banna Strand, his trial and execution are well documented.

Britain was determined to exact maximum revenge on a man they believed had betrayed his country in the midst of war with Germany.

The scope of the Treason Act was broadened during his trial - Casement ruefully remarked he was the first person to be hanged because of the placement of a comma; pleas for clemency were refused; and the government used his sexuality to blacken his name.

He was not granted the 'dignity' of a firing squad, rather he was sent to his maker - having converted to Catholicism - by the common hangman and interred in Pentonville Prison yard.

It would be some 50 years before the British Government, under the premiership of Harold Wilson, agreed to his repatriation.

There was no chance of Casement's dying wish to be buried in County Antrim being granted. The Northern Ireland government made it clear it did not want him.

Instead, he was given a state funeral in Dublin. President de Valera gave the graveside oration. Turf from Murlough was laid on the grave.

I was reminded of Wilson's decision when going through the papers of former Guardian editor, Alastair Hetherington, for a conference in Manchester earlier this month.

Hetherington met Wilson on March 30 1965 and the two men had a long conversation about Ireland.

Ever the pragmatist, Wilson admitted that he had benefited politically from the decision to repatriate Casement.

Hetherington notes: "He said that by sending back Casement's remains he had 'doubled my majority in Huyton'. He had never had such a tremendous reception in Huyton as the next time he'd been there after returning Casement's remains."

Huyton was Wilson's Merseyside constituency.

Of more interest was their discussion about a reference he had made at a St Patrick's day event in an Irish Club that year when he had talked about bringing the north and the south together.

The Unionists had gone ballistic.

Wilson admitted he had gone to the event unprepared "and had just scribbled his notes on the back of an envelope as he sensed the atmosphere there".

Hetherington says: "He thought it was pretty bad if one couldn't make a friendly speech on St Patrick's day without the Ulster people getting upset."

Wilson had little interest in facing up to the issues of partition and discrimination in Northern Ireland.

As Hetherington reports: "He said 'I can tell you that there's one thing I shall not do'. He would not add to his many burdens the problem of the reunion of Ireland. He was got going to offer to try to solve that one."

One of the 'what ifs' of history is what would have happened if Wilson had intervened in Northern Ireland then, before the Troubles.

His interests were short term. Unionist MPs could hold the balance of power at Westminster, and Wilson knew it. He had won power in 1964 with a majority of four.

He was considering removing the right of Northern Ireland MPs to vote on laws relating to Great Britain after the next election.

"He really didn't see why the Irish should be allowed to vote on everything at Westminster and so jeopardise the Government's position."

He told Hetherington if his Government was brought down by Unionists, then "they would be asking for it".

As it turned out the Tories and Ted Heath won the next election. English votes for English laws would have to wait another 50 years.