Book review: One Bold Deed of Open Treason: The Berlin Diaries of Roger Casement

EVER since Roger Casement was hanged in 1916, controversy had surrounded his diaries, but there was no controversy about a diary that he began while in Germany during the early months of World War I.

That diary was freely acknowledged and first published in Germany shortly after the Irish Free State was set up in 1922.

The diary provides interesting insights into Casement’s reasons for going to Germany and his initial reaction to what was happening there. “Germany is fighting the battle of European civilization at its best against European civilization at its worst,” Casement wrote in August 1914 before setting out for Berlin.