Happy New Year!
We’re delighted to kick off 2023 with a fantastic online event. Join us on Tuesday 24th of January at 8pm for ‘Roger Casement Queer Icon of the 1916 Rising – A Disputed Legacy’.
Who was Roger Casement?
A traitor to the British establishment or an Irish republican hero? A martyr for Catholic Ireland or a rampant homosexual? An internationally recognised fighter for human rights or an abuser of native people?
For years, both before and following his death, the debate has raged about Roger Casement – a
Northern Irish Protestant was recognised and feted by the British Empire and was executed for treason and buried in a London prison yard.
Roger Casement and the Black Diaries
A hero of the Irish Easter Rising of 1916 debate raged in Irish republican circles about his sexuality. His infamous Black Diaries, held for years by the British government, detailed his sexual adventures in both the Congo and Latin America. His writings were used by the British government to discredit him at his trial. For years the Irish government and supporters of Irish independence proclaimed that they were British forgeries and that there was no way that the heroic Casement could be gay. However, research led by the Irish government itself, proved their authenticity, opening up a whole new debate about Casement, the gay hero of the 1916 Rising.
Using excerpts from the diaries themselves, which even today are quite explicit and shocking,
we will discuss who Casement was and how his sexuality contributed to his downfall.
Our own resident historian, Dr. Joseph Healy, will deliver the talk and no doubt, there will be a lively discussion afterwards.
Dr Joseph Healy comes from Dublin and studied Eastern European history at UCC and Glasgow University, along with Russian and German. He was a veteran activist in Ireland’s fledgling movement for LGBTQ rights in the early 1980s and since then has been active in the HIV+ rights movement and as a trade union activist sitting on the London and Eastern regional LGBT committee of UNITE as well as the national committee.
He has worked in the charity sector for 18 years, recently retiring. He’s a founder member of the London Irish LGBT Network and has contributed papers and talks for a number of LGBT History Month events over the years.
Book Your Free Tickets
Audience participation is always welcome at our events. As always, we strive to ensure that our events are a safe space for our LGBTQ community and friends. In order to do this, we ask that you register for the event beforehand. You can read our privacy policy here.
You can book your FREE tickets online or in the widget below or on Eventbrite.
London Irish LGBT Network 