For over one hundred years the British State has claimed that the so-called Black Diaries (consisting of:  a Cash Ledger;  an Army notebook;  and three other diaries) were written by Roger Casement. 

The modus operandi of the Black Diaries is to include pieces of information that are factually correct along with dubious sexual elements designed to discredit Casement.  The reader is thus invited to believe that, since the innocuous parts of the Diaries are true, that must mean that the sexual parts are true also. 

 One element in the Black Diaries controversy is the  suggestion that Casement had a homosexual relationship with a young bank clerk called Joseph Millar Gordon who was resident in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Apart from the Black Diaries there is no evidence of this.  What we do know is that Casement did indeed know Gordon through the latter’s mother.  We also know from a letter (dated November 1913) from Gordon to Casement that the latter paid Gordon or his mother substantial amounts of money to buy various paintings on his behalf.  It seems Casement trusted Gordon’s taste in art.  Gordon says in his letter that his mother “concurs” with what he had done.  So, even though the letter indicates that Gordon has spent money on Casement’s behalf, it is only with the approval of his mother. 

There is no suggestion of any sexual relationship in Gordon’s letter or that the money given to Gordon was a gift. 

It appears that Casement was in the habit of addressing Gordon by his middle name “Millar”.  In the National Library of Ireland there is an undisputed document in which Casement lists 10 undated payments.  One of the payments is for £25 for “Millar”.  This is a substantial amount of money amounting to about £3,800 in today’s money.  The other amounts, which are unrelated to “Millar” are also substantial.  The document is just one page, the purpose of which was to give a rough idea of outgoings in anticipation of his trip to South America.  Although the payments are undated, it appears they relate to the period June and July of 1911.

But then we come to the Cash Ledger which is a disputed, “Black Diary” item. 

Before looking at the content of this, the question arises as to why anyone would keep such a cash ledger which records personal expenses and other items that don’t have any tax implications.  The other curious aspect is that the payments recorded in the National Library of Ireland document are not recorded in the cash ledger.  The only possible exception is the £25 mentioned above, but as we shall see the Cash Ledger has a different payee. 

There are, of course, people who like to keep a record of personal expenditure as a means to help budget.  But if substantial payments are left out the exercise is completely pointless! 

So, without even looking at the content of the Cash Ledger, it appears to be suspect.  It does not appear to be written for the purpose of household budgeting but for some other reason. 

In the disputed Cash Ledger there is the following entry on 3.6.1911:

“Cyril Corbally and his motor bike for Millar £25.0.0”

As Paul Hyde remarks in an article in Village magazine (https://villagemagazine.ie/the-devil-and-mr-roger-casement/), that is a lot of information.  Hyde thinks that all that is necessary to record is the amount and the payee.  But, for some reason, the author of the cash ledger wanted to establish a connection between Casement and Joseph Millar Gordon.  In Hyde’s opinion that is not something which Casement would be interested in doing. 

But here we have an example of the modus operandi of the Black Diaries in one sentence!  Within that one sentence there are facts that are indisputable as well as information that is not corroborated by anything outside the Black Diaries. 

So it is indisputable that Joseph Millar Gordon acquired a motor cycle.  We know that because in July 2011 he is registered as the owner with Essex County Council. 

We also  know for a fact that in 1910 Cyril Corbally registered his ownership of the motor cycle with Essex County Council. 

Corbally was originally from Dublin but was resident in England at the time, where he worked at Bishop’s Stortford golf club in Essex.

And there are no owners registered between Corbally and Gordon.  Does that mean that Corbally sold his motorbike to Gordon?  Not necessarily. 

In my opinion it is far more likely that a motor dealership bought the motor cycle from Corbally and sold it on to Gordon.

A motor dealership is entitled to buy and sell vehicles without registering its ownership.  All that it is required to do is ensure that a non-trade purchaser registers his ownership.  In general the dealership does all the paperwork on behalf of the new owner. 

It is, of course, possible that Corbally sold his motor cycle directly to Gordon.  But in my view that is highly unlikely.  Think of it from Corbally’s point of view.  How does he go about selling it?  In order to reach someone in Northern Ireland he would have to advertise in the National papers which would be more expensive than advertising locally.  Secondly, telephones were not that widespread in 1911.  How does he arrange for his potential buyers to view the machine?  Do they just turn up at his house?

And now look it at it from Gordon’s point of view.  Is it likely that he would buy the motorcycle without even seeing it?  And, if he doesn’t, is it likely that he will travel all the way from Northern Ireland to South East England (long before Ryanair!) to view it? 

Paul Hyde in his book Anatomy of a Lie: Decoding Casement thinks that it is possible that it was advertised in a motorcycle magazine.  But, following extensive research for the year 1911, he notes:

“There are no private adverts bearing Corbally’s name for such a motorcycle in those publications in the period April to early July, although there are several from motor traders in that period.”

I would say it is almost certain that Corbally sold his motor cycle to a motor dealership in Essex, most probably the same dealership that he bought the second-hand  motorcycle from in 1910.  If the dealership was nationwide it would very likely transfer trading stock  to other parts of the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland) as the need arose. 

So one fine day in June 1911 Gordon stepped into a Belfast showroom and saw the motorcycle that he liked and decided to purchase it. 

As per custom and practice, the dealership handles the paperwork.  Naturally it registers the new owner with the County Council of its Head Office in Essex.  (If Gordon had bought the vehicle directly from Corbally he would have had to do the paperwork himself and would have registered his ownership in a Council in Northern Ireland).  

And then the time would come for payment.  There is no possibility that the cheque would have been made out to Corbally.  The cheque would, of course, have been made out to the motor dealership.  Gordon or Casement would have been blissfully unaware of the existence of Corbally. 

And there is no evidence that Casement and Gordon ever knew Corbally. 

But the forger of the Cash Ledger didn’t think of that.  As a policeman, he had access to the vehicle registration details of the motorcycle.  All he saw were the names Corbally and Gordon and made the fatal error of pretending that Casement made a cheque out to Corbally. 

The believers of the authenticity of the Black Diaries are committed to the view that Casement (“the Sugar-daddy”)  paid Corbally for the motorcycle as a present for Gordon.  One of these believers is Jeffrey Dudgeon who wrote a book with the slightly unwieldy title: Roger Casement: The Black Diaries—with a Study of his Background, Sexuality and Irish Political Life. 

However Paul Hyde points out in the Village magazine article that, in the third edition of his book, Dudgeon excised the following sentence:

“It is possible that Millar bought the motor bike from Corbally and that Casement was repaying him as a separate note listing expenditure simply reads ‘Millar 25.0.0’…”

The believers in the Diaries cannot afford to draw attention to any contradiction indicating that Casement did not pay Corbally for the motorcycle. 

If Casement did not pay—indeed could not have paid—Corbally the £25 for the motor cycle, then the Cash Ledger must be a forgery.  In this case the common law principle “falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus” [one false fact discredits the whole] must apply. 

It is hardly possible that the British would forge the Cash Ledger when the other four items in the ‘Black Diary’ collection are genuine.  Either all five items are forgeries or they are all authentic. 

Unfortunately for the proponents of authenticity, the rickety old structure that supports the Black Diaries is collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions. 

After more than one hundred years the proposition that the Black Diaries are forgeries is no longer a theory but has assumed the status of a fact. 

John Martin