Munster in 30 Artworks, No 14: Roger Casement at Ballyheigue, Co Kerry, by Óisín Kelly

Ironically, the statue of the 1916 gunrunner was unveiled on the same week that the Marita Anne was intercepted carrying arms to Kerry for the modern IRA

Roger Casement statue by Oisín Kelly at Ballyheigue in Co Kerry. Picture: Domnick Walsh

No one could have predicted the circumstances surrounding the unveiling by Tánaiste Dick Spring of Óisín Kelly’s bronze statue of the executed Irish nationalist Roger Casement in the village of Ballyheigue, Co Kerry on September 30, 1984.

Ballyheigue overlooks Banna Strand, where Casement was landed from a German U-boat on Good Friday 1916, the same day the British Navy intercepted a massive arms shipment he’d arranged to be delivered to Fenit pier, less than ten miles away. Bizarrely, the day before the unveiling of Casement’s statue, the Irish Navy intercepted a trawler called the Marita Ann off Fenit, importing arms from the US for the Provisional IRA.