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Roger Casement & Eva Gore-Booth 2005 Leadership Awardee John J. McNeill |
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Roger Casement(1864-1916) |
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Eva Gore-Booth(1870-1926) |
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Executed in London on August 3, 1916, Roger Casement memory and legacy has been obscured because he was gay. While growing up in Dublin and Antrim, he inherited longing for Irish independence from England.
During his 20’s, while working in the “Belgian Congo”, he was horrified by the abuse of the native Africans by colonialists. In 1904, his reporting of slavery, punishments, and executions caused an uproar in London and elsewhere. He became an international spokesperson for the rights of indigenous peoples. In 1911, against his own wishes, he was knighted for his work. Between sojourns in Africa and the Putomayo in the Amazon he took an increasing interest in the Irish struggle for independence. He learned to speak Irish and supported the Gaelic Revival movement. When he retired from consular work in 1913 he took up the cause for an independent Ireland. In 1914 he traveled to America seeking support for the cause. While in New York he met Alfred Christiansen, the gay man who would later betray him to British authorities.When the war broke out between Britain and Germany he urged Irish support for Germany. Bound for Ireland with a shipment of arms to aid the Easter uprising of 1916, he was arrested in Banna Strand, Tralee, Co. Kerry. He was tried for treason in London and sentenced to death by hanging. The universal outcry that followed probably would have ben successful were it not for the release of excerpts from his personal diaries. These excerpts detailed accounts of sexual affairs with men around the world. Sympathy evaporated. Roger Casement was hanged on August 3, 1916...an Irishman seeking independence and a gay man refusing shame. I only know ‘tis death to give My love; yet loveless can I live? I only know I cannot die And leave this love God made, not I |
John J. McNeill For more than 30 years, John J. McNeill, an ordained priest and psychotherapist, has been devoting his life to spreading the good news of God's love for lesbian and gay Christians. One year after the publication of The Church and the Homosexual (1976), McNeill received an order from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican ordering him to silence in the public media. He observed the silence for nine years while continuing a private ministry to gays and lesbians which included psychotherapy, workshops, lectures and retreats. In 1988, he received a further order from Cardinal Ratzinger directing him to give up all ministry to gay persons which he refused to do in conscience. As a result, he was expelled by the Vatican from the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) for challenging the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church on the issue of homosexuality, and for refusing to give up his ministry and psychotherapy practice to gay men and lesbians. McNeill had been a Jesuit for nearly 40 years. McNeill's major works on the subject of gay and lesbian liberation, self-acceptance and spiritual maturity are as follows: |
Eva Selina Gore-Booth came from a wealthy land owning family and was born in Lissadell house in Co. Sligo. Both she and her sister, Constance, who later married and became Countess Markievicz, reacted against their privileged background and devoted themselves to helping the poor and disadvantaged. Eva became especially involved in campaigning for women’s rights and, in 1890, with help of Constance, founded a suffrage society in Sligo.
In 1895, Eva became seriously ill with tuberculosis. In the following year, while convalescing in Italy, she met and fell in love with Esther Roper, a young English woman who was then secretary of the North of England Society for Women’s Suffrage. Instead of returning to Ireland as planned. Eva went to live in Manchester with Esther. They became joint secretaries of the Women’s Textile and Other Workers Representation Committee and edited the Women’s Labour News. In the midst of this activity, Eva was also busy writing poetry. Her first published volume was highly praised by Yeats. After the war, Eva and Esther became members of the Committee for the Abolition of Capital Punishment and worked for prison reform. As she grew weaker, Eva was forced to give up active work but continued writing poetry. Esther took care of her throughout her long illness and they were together at the end. After Eva’s death, Esther collected many of her poems for publication and wrote a biographical introduction to them. Esther was extremely reticent, and little is known of her final years. Constance wrote of her: “The more one knows her, the more one loves her, and I feel so glad Eva and she were together, and so thankful that her love was with Eva to the end.” |
