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Banna Strand - or beach - in Tralee Bay in County Kerry is famed for its connection and monument to Sir Roger Casement. It was here, while the Great War raged in April 1916, that the Anglo-Irish diplomat landed and was arrested after travelling in a U-boat from Germany, who he鈥檇 persuaded to support an armed uprising against British rule in Ireland. After the Easter Rising, he was tried, found guilty and executed for treason in London.

Casement was born in Dublin, moved to Ballycastle in Country Antrim and went to school in Ballymena. A prominent campaigner for human rights, he had been in Germany for nearly two years in an effort to raise an 鈥淚rish Brigade鈥� from Irish prisoners of war. His recruitment drive largely failed and he sought to secure arms and ammunition for the forthcoming Easter Rising.

On 9th April a German ship, the SS Libau, disguised as a Norwegian vessel, Aud Norge, left Germany with thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition for Ireland. The plan was to meet Casement at Banna Strand where the munitions would be unloaded by Irish Republican Brotherhood volunteers.

But the Aud was intercepted by British war ships and escorted back to Queenstown (now Cobh) in County Cork. On the journey, its crew changed back into their German uniforms and scuttled the ship.

Casement was discovered close to where he had landed at Banna Strand and arrested. He was taken to London, tried for treason, found guilty, and hanged in Pentonville Prison in August 1916.

Regarded by some as an Irish patriot and others as a British traitor, his trial was a sensation at the time and was reported around the world. Many of Casement鈥檚 high profile friends and allies campaigned for clemency but this support faded when a number of controversial diaries detailing homosexual activities were made public. Due to public perception of homosexuality at the time, it turned opinion against him. These were to become known as The Black Diaries.

Although independent forensic tests conducted in2002 concluded that the diaries were genuine debate about whether or not they were forged still continues to this day.

In 1965, Casement鈥檚 body was repatriated to Ireland and, after a state funeral, was reinterred in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

Location: Banna Strand, Co. Kerry.52掳22'50.0"N 9掳49'53.3"W
Image: A marker stone of where Roger Casement was arrested in an old "Fairy fort" or Rath

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