Roger Casement is another historical figure who features in one of the chapters of The Rings of Saturn. The inclusion of this character is perhaps an example by the author how our accepted version of history can be so misleading, could in fact be a misrepresentation or at the very least is a gloss over deeper truths.
Roger Casement was the last man to be hung in the British Isles for High Treason, where he connived with the German Reich to support the Irish Easter Uprising (fighting the English Rule of the time). What we discover through the authors investigations is that Roger Casement had a passing acquaintance with the author Joseph Conrad, whom he had met whilst working as a diplomatic envoy to the Congo. Casement unequivocally opposed the colonial expansion into the Congo, pointing to the oppression of the Congolese peoples, and afterwards, when sent to the Amazon formed the same opinions. Despite being awarded medals and a knighthood for his work overseas, Casement turned down these honours and instead worked to highlight the plight of the Southern Irish under British Rule in the British Isles at the turn of the twentieth century. His continual opposition to the British monarchy, colonialism in all of its forms and his siding with an armed rebellion earned him his eventual death for High Treason. In his prosecution a diary was revealed where he was said to have plotted the uprising and was also a secret homosexual (still a crime at that time). The author attempts to paint a full picture of Roger Casement's life and his previous attitudes about the world hegemony to better understand why he felt so strongly as to approach the German Reich for help in his personal crusade.
