Monday March 1st 1965 The Miracle of Television

by Conor Kelly, 6 Jun 2009

After years of protest and political wrangling, a change in government to Labour in Westminster in 1964 saw a reversal in official policy towards the repatriation of the earthly remains of Roger Casement. After a 49-year stay at Her Majesty’s Prison Pentonville, Casement was to finally return to Ireland. Paraded by gun carriage to Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin, Casement’s belated coffin brought 665 000 people out onto the streets of the capital. With allegations of Casement’s homosexuality swept under the rug for the day and his distinguished diplomatic career in the British foreign service quietly set aside, the Irish public/Republic embraced their prodigal son and the miracle of television. The fledgling national broadcaster RTE beamed events across the country, as the ghost of Roger Casement became the unlikely star of the first televised state funeral in Irish history. As the cortège passed through O’ Connell Street, a roll of thunder and a bright flash of lightening provided a well timed element of pathetic fallacy to the TV drama.

At the time, unionist opposition prevented Casement’s remains being interred at Murlough Bay but this always looked an impossibility through the eyes of Westminster. A sod of turf was symbolically removed from the designated spot for his ‘return’ (the burial place of St. Mologe) at Murlough Bay and buried with the coffin at Glasnevin. The defunct TV prop gun carriage sits to this day near the grave, in honour of Casement’s last journey Looking through photographs of the event and stock footage, it seems a world away from the absence of marks at Murlough today.