Ireland: Closing the Account

Under glaring floodlights one chill night last week, three warders of London's Pentonville prison opened the grave of a hanged man. At midnight they reached the quicklimed corpse of Sir Roger Casement,* wrapped it in sacking, and placed it gently in a wooden coffin. Before his 1916 execution as a traitor, Casement's last request was: "When they have done with me, don't let my bones lie in this dreadful place. Take me back to Ireland and let me lie there." In a long-delayed but gracious gesture, Prime Minister Harold Wilson granted Casement's...

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