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Completing Casement’s work 100 years later
Lifestyle – Judy Murphy meets Galway human rights lawyer Brendan Tobin who aims to ensure that awful jungle atrocities are not forgotten
Uncovering the truth so that the dead can rest in peace, is the aim of Galway human rights lawyer, Brendan Tobin, who is determined to finish the work started in 1910 by Roger Casement to halt genocide in a remote, Colombian jungle.
Casement, who was executed by the British Government in August 1916, for his role in the Easter Rising, first came to public prominence in 1904 for his eye-witness report, highlighting human rights abuses and genocide by rubber barons in the Belgian Congo.
In 1910, Casement was sent to the Putunmayo region of South Colombia to examine similar allegations of abuse by rubber barons in that area – demand for rubber was being fuelled by the growing car industry.
What he witnessed in this region of the Amazon Basin was the final straw for Roger Casement, who had become increasingly involved in Irish nationalism after his experiences in the Congo.
The horrors he heard about in Columbia put him firmly on the path towards fighting for Irish independence, which ultimately led to his execution.
“It was where Casement really snapped with colonialism,” says Galway-city man Brendan Tobin, who first learned about Casement’s journey to Colombia about 10 years ago when he picked up The Amazon Journals of Roger Casement, edited by UL academic Angus Mitchell. Brendan had known about Casement’s work in Africa but “was astonished to learn the Dublin-born diplomat had been in the Amazon”.
Brendan’s own background in human rights law, specialising in indigenous people’s rights, as well as many years spent in Peru (where his two children live), gave him a special interest in the subject. Casement had reclaimed the humanity of indigenous peoples who were being exploited, and often butchered by the Peruvian Amazon Company. Brendan admired this and vowed to follow in his footsteps.
The Peruvian Amazon Rubber Company was founded by Julio Cesar Arana in the late 19th century, to harvest rubber from the Colombian rainforest. They used local people to access the rubber, bartering goods, such as hatchets with them.
“But these people only needed one hatchet each and the need for rubber was ongoing,” Brendan explains. Arana’s company continued to barter useless items with local people while imposing quotas on them. If they failed to collect the designated amount or rubber, they were beaten, put in the stocks, and many were killed with great cruelty.
Word of this eventually reached the outside world via the writings of an American eye-witness, Walter Hardenburg, and caused a furore in Britain.
The Peruvian Amazon Company (PAC) was registered in Britain, which meant that the UK had to take responsibility for its actions. In addition, many of the overseers with the PAC were from Barbados, which was a British colony. These men, British subjects, were as badly treated as local people.
The government established a commission, with Casement being the only independent observer, says Brendan. All others on the commission had interests in the industry. It was such a dangerous trip that he kept his revolver at the ready for fear he would be attacked.
This region of Colombia is remote and inaccessible today, and more than 100 years ago, it was even more isolated, says Brendan of Casement’s experience. The commission arrived in the Peruvian city of Iquitos, hugely wealthy because of rubber, and travelled upstream to La Chorrera, headquarters of the PAC.
Casement noted how the company made local people clear paths so the investigators could travel. They also carried food but weren’t offered any, until Casement started sharing with them.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
