A historically significant, unpublished letter written by Roger Casement in 1913 – three years before he was hanged for treason – has sold at auction for $11,025 (about €10,100).
South Africa-based online auctioneers antiquarianauctions.com said the letter was sold to a private buyer in Ireland. Although headquartered in Cape Town, the company's pricing is US dollar-based. The letter had been expected to sell for $5,500 and had a reserve price of $3,750.
Casement wrote the eight-page letter to friends in South Africa while returning from a trip there in May 1913. It sheds new light on his growing disenchantment with the British empire and hints at his eventual downfall. Among the revealing quotes is his statement: “I only want to be ‘an Irishman’ – to me it is the proudest title upon Earth.”
Dublin-born Casement was knighted, in 1911, by King George V for his services as a British consul but he subsequently left the foreign office and helped to found the Irish Volunteers.
In 1916 he was arrested in Co Kerry after attempting to import arms from Germany. He was convicted of treason, stripped of his knighthood and hanged on August 3rd, 1916.
