Cathedral to commemorate Sir Roger Casement

The Irish Chaplaincy in the UK is due to celebrate a Mass at Westminster Cathedral in remembrance of Sir Roger Casement, the British diplomat who was hanged for treason over his support for Irish nationalism, writes Liz Dodd.

The Mass on Monday morning is due to be followed by a reception hosted by the Irish Ambassador, Dan Mulhall.

Casement, who was knighted for his humanitarian work in Peru, was executed after he tried to secure German weapons for the 1916 Easter Rising during the First World War. He remains a controversial figure.

The chief executive of the Irish Chaplaincy in Britain, Eugene Dugan, said that the point of the Mass was to pray for Casement’s soul. The service was due to be attended by the Peruvian Ambassador and a delegation from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“We are going to put a focus on his humanitarian work,” he said. “For the Irish, he has heroic aspects to him. When someone asked me if he’d been pardoned, I said no, he’s still considered a someone who was rightly executed for High Treason on the British side.”