Sir, - The publication, by Roger Sawyer and Angus Mitchell, of editions of the 1910 "black" and "white" diaries has rekindled the Casement diaries controversy. The selection of material now made available to a wider public - and it is only a portion of the relevant evidence - will, one hopes, allow a fresh examination of the question.
But it is with a sinking heart that one notes the seemingly inevitable recourse to dismissive language in your letter columns. I must take issue with John Garton's characterisation (October 11th) of Roger Sawyer's biography of Casement as a "novelettish black comedy of the `flawed hero'". He is even more negative about what he describes as "the Beaverbrookish blather of Rene MacColl or the West Britonism of Brian Inglis".
Not only does Roger Sawyer's book provide a scholarly overview of Casement's life, drawing on some previously unused sources, it also places deserved central emphasis on a number of dimensions of Casement's career which were under-emphasised by earlier biographies. Two of these are: (i) the consular context of Casement's career, which engaged his daily energies for many years and helped shape his attitudes; and (ii) his interest in indigenous peoples and his contribution to the defence of their human rights. Time may (or may not) tell whether Sawyer is correct in his judgment on the authenticity of the "black" diaries.
Can we not recognise the positive contribution made by writers such as Sawyer, Inglis and, indeed, MacColl (whose biases, by now, stand out sharply), without dismissing them primarily because of their judgments on the diaries question?
In conclusion, it seems to me that there is no necessary incompatibility between accepting Casement's "selflessness and humanitarianism" (Garton) - though he did have a strain of vanity in him - and in accepting him as a "flawed hero" (Sawyer), though one can debate the nature of his flaws. -Yours, etc.,
Department of Anthropology, Ollscoil na hEireann, Ma Nuad, Co Cill Dara.