AN annual commemoration has been held to mark the 107th anniversary of republican revolutionary Roger Casement.
In April 1916, Casement was captured by British forces after trying to smuggle 20,000 German rifles into Ireland near Banna Strand, County Kerry. He was subsequently hanged in Pentonville Prison in London on August 3 that year.
Casement’s body was buried in the prison but was repatriated in 1965 and reinterred in the republican plot at Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery.
However, his last wish was to be buried at Murlough Bay on the North Antrim Coast. The request was denied by British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, who feared reburial there would provoke “Protestant reactions”, before his remains were reinterred in Dublin.
The annual commemoration is organised by the Roger Casement Commemoration and Reinterment Association (RCCRA).
Chairman Alan Daly addressed a crowd of around 120 people. After the lowering of the tricolour association member Pádraic MacCoitir gave the main speech, he spoke of the history of Roger Casement in relation to his work in Peru and then referenced his involvement in the 1916 Easter Rising.
James McCabe laid a wreath on behalf of the RCCRA.
The poem 'Tóg do cheann, a Mhátair Éire' was read by Catherine Grieves and a recently designed poster was then fixed to the wall outside of Casement Park.
Chairman Alan Daly spoke about the very successful Pentonville Prison commemoration in which Bob Murray from Belfast spoke.
After Ambhran Na bhFiann was played and the National flag was raised Alan Daly called an end to proceedings by calling on every one to assist in "bringing Roger Casement home".
Wreaths on behalf of the Roger Casement Commemoration and Re-interment Association were also layed at Glasnevin, and Dún Laoghaire by association member Kevin Burke, who also travelled to Co Kerry where he met up with John Barrett and a number of other RCCRA members to lay a wreath at Banna Strand.
The RCCRA also held a wreath-laying ceremony at Murlough Bay, Co Antrim on Saturday.
