The publication of The Amazon Journal of Roger Casement explodes the myth of the controversial and sexually explicit “Black
Diaries” which played a distinct role in his downfall, questioning his framed trial, the besmirching of his name and subsequent execution which defines Anglo-Irish history. Roger Casement investigated atrocities committed in Africa and South America in the supposed name of commerce and civilisation. This public and controversial exposure of two Colonial powers namely Belgium and Britain confirms the suspicion that the “Black
Diaries” were forged to destroy the public reputation of the traitorous former British Consul, and diverted from the language of colonialism and “the white man’s burden”. The diarist of The Amazon Journal not only seems a
different person to the protagonist of the ‘Black Diaries’ he was a different person. The U.K.’s Open Government Initiative in 1994 released Roger Casements 4 Black Diaries. The Anglo-Irish peace process broke down in 1996, republican elements in Anglo-Irish history (including Casement) were subject to bad press. 3 of these diaries dealt with Casement’s voyages into the Amazon to investigate the Putumayo atrocities in 1910 and 1911. The National Library of Ireland contains two large containers of Casement’s papers sufficient to confirm his style of writing and suggesting Casement was the victim of a British Intelligence scheme to prevent Casement’s martyrdom upon his execution for supporting the Easter 1916 rebellion against British rule in Dublin, Ireland. Casement was captured by British forces on landing in Ireland from a WW1 German submarine. The diaries were written in a style in which homosexuality was considered sexually degenerate. The Black Letts Desk Diary, 1911 first entry uses different ink and hand writing for its first entry 1/1/1911. How did this diary come into the possession of its supposed author? This era had given us Oscar Wilde.