A COMMEMORATION will take place next Wednesday night (August 3) to mark the 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”.
The commemoration has been organised by the Roger Casement Commemoration and Re-interment Association (RCCRA).
It will take place in the grounds of Casement Social Club on the Andersonstown Road at 7pm.
RCCRA Committee member, Jim McGreevy said: "We were established to commemorate and promote the life of Roger Casement who was executed in 1916 for his participation in the Easter Rising, and to campaign for his re-interment in Murlough Bay in North Antrim in accordance with his own wishes.
"The commemoration takes place next Wednesday evening at Casement Social Club.
"Everyone is welcome to attend."
