Roger Casement assured his defence counsel at his trial that the so-called ‘black diaries’ were a forgery.
Casement’s trial for high treason at the Old Bailey became one of the most famous trials in British legal history and attracted worldwide attention.
Casement was arrested at Banna Strand in Co Kerry by the Royal Irish Constabulary on Good Friday 1916, having been landed ashore by a German U-boat.
After the execution of the leaders of the Easter Rising, pleas for clemency for Casement came from multiple quarters – particularly in the United States.
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In order to sway public opinion the British government leaked the ‘black diaries’, which purported to portray Casement as a homosexual and sexual deviant during his time in Peru and Congo.
Debate over the authenticity of the diaries resurfaced almost 40 years later when British publishing house Sidgwick & Jackson released The Black Diaries of Roger Casement edited by Alfred Noyes.
The imminent publication prompted a letter from American attorney Michael Francis Doyle to Noyes.
Doyle was a prominent Philadelphia lawyer who sailed to Britain in 1916 to defend Casement. He represented Casement along with George Gavan Duffy, a barrister and future signatory of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Doyle stated that during the trial he spent more time with Casement than anyone else.
“Several times during the trial and afterwards, Gavan Duffy and I demanded to see this diary, but without success,” he stated.
“He (Casement) frankly denied to me that he ever wrote such a diary. I believe him – and still do. Efforts have been made by numerous persons since his execution to see this alleged diary from the officials of the Home Office which has never been granted. The obvious reason is because it did not exist.”
The black diaries never surfaced at his trial but they were circulated far and wide by the Home Office to discredit Casement, who became a cause célèbre around the world.
The lengths to which the British went to sway public opinion in the US relating to Casement was revealed by Captain Colpoys Cleland Walcott, a former Royal Navy captain.
Walcott stated that in July 1916, he was called to Scotland Yard and told by the Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Basil Thomson to escort photographic copies of the black diaries to the US.
As a cover, he was told to take £20 million in bonds from the Bank of England to a banker in New York.
He left Liverpool in the Red Star liner Lapland on July 17th, 1916, and was given four marines as a special guard during the voyage. On arrival in New York he handed over the copies to the Naval Attache in Washington, Commodore Sir Guy Gaunt.
Walcott added: “Sir Cecil needed them to prove to Irish Americans that the diaries were not faked. When I handed them over I believe Sir Cecil remarked, ‘Thank goodness I have got something to show them.’”
To this day the black diaries remain a matter of controversy. In 2002 forensic scientist Dr Audrey Giles, working from handwriting analysis, declared the diaries were “genuine throughout” and not forgeries.