A DUBLIN woman has spoken of her support for attempts to publish a book about Sir Roger Casement which was written more than 50 years ago by her father in law.
Mrs Brid Kavanagh said she was delighted that publishers were now expressing an interest in printing The Betrayal of Roger Casement, which former Irish Brigade sergeant Sean Kavanagh failed to get into print.
Her late husband Pearse opposed publishing the manuscript after his father's death in 1965, but she believed the climate, was now right for the author's greatest wish to be fulfilled.
Mrs Kavanagh, who lives in Palmerstown, Co Dublin, said: "My daughter, who lives in New York, was here with me 10 days ago and asked me if she could have the book, because she had been to see the Michael Collins film. I told her I was not ready to give it to her, because my husband had been opposed to it being published," she said.
"But now Eileen has done something with it, I don't mind. This is what his father would have wanted."
Sean Kavanagh was a sergeant in the Irish Brigade and it is thought that he met Casement in Germany, where he was attempting to recruit volunteers for the republican cause.
Kavanagh met and married a German woman, Marguerita Hollmann, and their first child Desmond, was born in Germany. They soon settled in Ireland and had four other children - Rita, Pearse, Gerhard and Metza.
At one time the family lived at Collinstown Airport (now Dublin Airport) where Kavanagh was a caretaker. Their son Pearse was born in Arbour Hill Barracks at a time when his father served in the Army. Later the family emigrated to England.
In 1960 Sean and Marguerita moved back to Dublin and went to live with Pearse and Brid. Sean was in his seventies when he died five years later. He was deeply hurt that his book had never been published. Marguerita died in 1978.
It is not clear when he wrote his account of Casement's chequered life, but the preface of the book is dated 1955. What is known is that it is accompanied by original photographs and that five copies were made.
"He was no writer as such and was not very literate. Somebody must have inspired him to do it. It is not particularly long, about 200 pages. It is written in a homely way," said Mrs Kavanagh.
Extracts were printed in the Evening Herald at the time that Casement's remains were returned to Ireland and he was buried at Glasnevin Cemetery. Kavanagh also gave the book to the actor Cyril Cusack when he was travelling to the US, but he failed to generate any interest among publishers.