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27th July, 1916 Mrs Stofford Green, 36 Grosvenor Road, Westminster. Madam,
By direction of the
Urlingford Board of
Guardians, and at the
suggestion of Mr J.F. Sweetman
of Mount St. Benedict,
Gorey, Co Wexford, I send
you herewith, the attached
Petition unanimously adopted
by
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by them at their meeting
today, on the proposition
of Mr. T. Harrington, J.P.Co.C.,
seconded by Mr Wm O'Connell,
J.P., D.C., pleading for
clemency for Roger
Casement, and urging
that the sentence passed
on him may not be
carried out. - I am, Madam,
Your obedient Servant, James Walsh,
Clerk of Union
This letter was addressed to Alice Stopford Green (1847-1929). Green was the wife
of historian John Richard Green (1837-1883). In addition to this she was a nationalist,
involved in the Howth gun-running and a historian in her own right. She was shocked
by the 1916 Rising and horrified that Casement had been plotting to obtain German
assistance. Nonetheless, she visited Casement in prison and lobbied hard to prevent
his execution. Author of the letter James Walsh (b. 1880) was a clerk in Urlingford
Union, County Kilkenny. The letter is in regard to a petition gathered by the Urlingsford
Board of Guardians for clemency to be shown to Rodger Casement in response to his
death sentence.Rodger Casement (1864-1916) had been imprisoned in London after he
had been arrested while landing on the coast of Kerry in a submarine on the eve of
the Easter Rising. A campaign was launched featuring many prominent figures such as
Alice Stopford Green, W. B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw to secure a reprieve for
Casement but he was hanged on 3 August 1916