Sir, – The report on the auction of a Roger Casement South African letter (July 7th) has a deeper context that may be of interest to your readers.
Casement was introduced to the de Villiers family through the historian Alice Stopford Green. She had contacted the family during her investigation in 1900 of the conditions of Boer POWs held on the island of St Helena under British military authority. Mrs de Villiers became a confidant of Stopford Green and they maintained an intimate correspondence for years to come.
A substantial collection of letters is held in the National Library of Ireland from Stopford Green to Mrs de Villiers describing her role in the founding of the Irish Volunteers. During Casement’s trial, Stopford Green wrote three letters to Mrs de Villiers.
In the earliest one, she referred to him as “the friend whom you saw off on the boat”, suggesting she saw him off from Cape Town in May 1913. In a letter of July 4th, 1916, after Casement had been convicted of high treason, Stopford Green explained: “I cannot agree with what he did, but I cannot renounce old friendship.”
On August 9th, 1916 a few days after his execution, she wrote: “The days have been very dark. There are times when minds get perverted and passion lays hold of them, and truth seems to disappear”. The letter up for auction is undoubtedly important. Let us hope some centre for Irish studies or the National Library of Ireland will secure it for the nation.
I am very interested in learning more about both Mrs de Villiers and Alice Stopford Green, and if any of your readers can help me with my research, I would be most grateful.
– Yours, etc,
Dr ANGUS MITCHELL
Ballinacurra Terrace,
Limerick.