[Cz-history] FW: Sir Roger Casement

[Larry Sanger]

Dear historians,

Please see below.  The mail, for what it's worth, concerns
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Easter_Rising

--Larry

-----Original Message-----
From: Muiris Mag Ualghairg [mailto:welshtranslator at gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 6:09 AM
To: sanger at citizendium.org
Subject: Sir Roger Casement


Dear Sir,

I have just discovered Citizendium having read about in an article in the
Times newspaper, I was heartened to see that there would be an academically
reliable online encyclopedia but was extremely shocked at the poor tone and
mistakes in the article on the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. I appreciate
that this article is unapproved but I do feel that it should be subject to
your approval procedure as soon as possible.

The article claims that Sir Roger Casement was an Englishman and uses this
to suggest that Irish soldiers in the British Army who were prisoners of war
of the Germans refused to join an 'Irish Brigade' because of this. However,
this is far from correct. Roger Casement was born in Ireland, born in what
is now Dun Laoghaire, his family were Northern Irish protestants and he was
fairly well known in Ireland and indeed within the UK, in diplomatic circles
and due to his high profile work on human rights abuses in the Belgium
Congo. I doubt that anyone at the time thought of him as 'English' and
indeed I have never seen him referred to as such in any reference material
that I have ever read on the matter, and I have read extensively on this
period of Irish history.

It is also stated that the Irish Rebels had reached agreement that a German
prince would become head of state in Ireland. Again, I have never heard of
such an agreement beyond a reported discussion during the rising in the GPO
about how best to prevent the English reconquering Ireland and someone
reportedly said that they could always get themselves a German to be the
King so they would have guaranteed German support. This was idle discussion
and is generally dismissed or not even reported by most historians, be they
'revisionist' or 'non-revisionist'.

I trust that you will act on my email and submit this biased and incorrect
account for editing.

Yours
Muiris