d matters.

Autumn 1914 found Sir Roger (who, as we have already seen, had founded a
body of volunteers in Ireland) in Berlin, where he was not only received
at the German Foreign Office, but, in answer to an inquiry regarding the
Kaiser's attitude to Ireland, was assured by the Foreign Department and
the Imperial Chancellor that "Germany would never invade Ireland with
the object of conquering it," and that, "supposing the fortune of war
should ever bring German troops to Ireland's coasts, they would land as
the forces of a Government inspired by goodwill towards a land and a
people for whom Germany only wishes national welfare and national
freedom." That he was not acting in any way as the representative of the
nation whose ambassador he was supposed to be was amply proved by his
repudiation after this adventure by the Irish leaders at home and such
bodies as the Council of the United Irish League in America.

Such was the dream or delusion, however, which changed one of the most
respected of British Consuls into a rebel traitor to the Empire. There
is no need to insinuate selfishness or vilify his character, for he must
have known his effort was bound to fail and counted the cost beforehand.
The great point to remember is that the Irish people were free to make
their choice and use their judgment, and they decided against him, not
personally, but on the merits of the case he put before them, and there
was nothing to do but to pay the penalty; and it is better on the whole
for Englishmen to accept Ireland's own verdict upon Sir Roger Casement
than to place him in the same rank as those who really represented
Ireland against England, failed, and paid the price only too willingly.

The same might apply equally well to P. H. Pearse and James Connolly,
neither of whom was by nature militant nor, indeed, "Separatist," save
as a protest against not so much the theory as the reality of what went
by the name of "Unionism." There seems a certain tendency among the
middle classes and the mediocrities of mind in Ireland to class, ever
since the days of Jim Larkin, the whole Labour Movement in Ireland as a
species of hooliganism, though, strange to say, no one ever appealed
more successfully or was received with more genuine enthusiasm in
England than the socialist leader when he was pleading the cause of the
children of the Dublin slums.

When Jim Larkin went to America, his mantle fell upon his right-hand
man, James Connolly