The “Black Diaries” attributed to Roger Casement
I came accross an interesting article which cast forensic tests, carried out in 2002, on the so called "Black Diaries" into question. Indeed, it points out that these tests were so shabbily carried out that they cannot be relied on in any way: http://home.wmin.ac.uk/marketingresearch/2179casement.htm Of course, Casement's sexuality makes no difference to his place as one of Ireland's greatest patriots, but if the diaries were, even in part authentic, it would shed a lot of light on the psychology of this great man. There is a human tendancy to reduce heroes to a single dimention, to make them a symbol rather than a rounded and complex human being. This tendency should be resisted. I find it strange that this text has not yet been properly studied, and yet bland and patently false claims are routinely made that the diaries have been forensically authenticated. The fact that the text is still in enemy hands, of course, makes a proper study very difficult and dependent on the good will of a government with a good deal to lose if found guilty of forgery. On a different topic. Why was Casement not buried in the Republican plot in Glasnevin, when his remains were returned to Ireland? Could it be that Dev secretly suspected that the diaries were, at least, in part authentic and did not want a homosexual included in a Republican plot that he made so much political capital out of (mostly by corrupting everything they lived and died for.)
I came accross an interesting article which cast forensic tests, carried out in 2002, on the so called "Black Diaries" into question. Indeed, it points out that these tests were so shabbily carried out that they cannot be relied on in any way: http://home.wmin.ac.uk/marketingresearch/2179casement.htm Of course, Casement's sexuality makes no difference to his place as one of Ireland's greatest patriots, but if the diaries were, even in part authentic, it would shed a lot of light on the psychology of this great man. There is a human tendancy to reduce heroes to a single dimention, to make them a symbol rather than a rounded and complex human being. This tendency should be resisted. I find it strange that this text has not yet been properly studied, and yet bland and patently false claims are routinely made that the diaries have been forensically authenticated. The fact that the text is still in enemy hands, of course, makes a proper study very difficult and dependent on the good will of a government with a good deal to lose if found guilty of forgery. On a different topic. Why was Casement not buried in the Republican plot in Glasnevin, when his remains were returned to Ireland? Could it be that Dev secretly suspected that the diaries were, at least, in part authentic and did not want a homosexual included in a Republican plot that he made so much political capital out of (mostly by corrupting everything they lived and died for.)