When Roger Casement was hanged in Pentonville Prison in 1916, he died an Irish hero and a traitor to the British Empire.

On Banna Strand in 2016, President Higgins described Casement as “not just a great Irish patriot, he was also one of the great humanitarians of the early 20th century”.

On Free State today, Joe and Dion look at the many lives of a man who so impressed a tribe of cannibals with his courage that they didn’t eat him. 

Casement’s lives were varied, and some of them were secret, but he also, as President Higgins said, exposed “the darkness that lay at the heart of European imperialism”. His biographer Roland Philipps joins Joe and Dion to talk about this modern story. A story of a man who exposed the rotten heart of empire. It was a life that changed Ireland and the world. Nobody will ever live a life like Roger Casement’s again.

Free State with Joe Brolly and Dion Fanning is a Gold Hat Production in association with SwanMcG.

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