The Persistence of Identity

Wikipedia graphic showing evolution of United Kingdom

It was not until 1801 that Ireland was finally and formally absorbed into the United Kingdom. It had been a long and slow annexation, and as with the other home countries, the annexation was to be dressed up and disguised as an Act of Union, as if the first generation Celtic Irish and the second generation Anglo-Normans were equal and willing partners in the enterprise. As the 1641 rebellion, to take only instance, shows however, this was far from being the case. The treasonous Irish servants who burned down Richard West's house were reacting to what they saw as an invasion.

The terrorist versus freedom fighter dichotomy was to reach a kind of apotheosis many years later with the execution for treason of Sir Roger Casement in 1916. Sir Roger had been a loyal servant of the British Empire, until faced with the choice of whether he was British first, or Irish first, and chose the latter. It was, at the end of the day, and still is, all a question of identity.

When his remains were repatriated to Ireland in 1965, his body lay in state for five days, and his state funeral was attended by some 30,000 mourners. At the time of his execution, Irish independence was just six years away. Casement had chosen rightly, but not necessarily wisely.