John Martin

In examining the suspect ‘Black Diaries’ it has to be accepted that there will be mistakes.  To err is human!  When considering mistakes the first question that arises is:  is the mistake more likely to be made by a forger or an authentic diarist?

In a previous issue of the Irish Political Review it was noted that there was a calculation error in a document from the National Library of Ireland.  It was concluded that this was more likely to have been committed by an authentic writer than a forger and therefore it was not convincing evidence that the document was a forgery.

But there are some errors that are much more likely to have been committed by a forger than an authentic diarist.

Paul Hyde, in his book Anatomy Of A Lie:  Decoding Casement, contends that the idea for forging the Diaries may have been conceived at the end of October 1914.  Typescripts for what became known as the Black Diaries were first shown at the end of May 1916.  The typescripts formed the basis for the handwritten Diaries which were written subsequently.

What are known as the Black Diaries relate to the years 1903, 1910 and 1911.  (The ‘Army Notebook’, which has no sexual material, relates to a prior period.)

So, if the Diaries are forgeries, they were conceived at least three years after the events they describe.  On the other hand, if they are authentic, they are a contemporaneous account of the events they describe.  It follows that errors in dates are much more likely to be done by a forger than an authentic diarist writing about current events.

In an earlier article in the Irish Political Review (December 2025), errors in dates were described for some entries in the 1911 Diary.  It was noted that there was an attempt to correct the errors—suggesting that the writer was conscious that the Diary would be scrutinised by a wider audience.  This, of course, would not have been a concern of an authentic diarist.

Paul Hyde describes similar errors in an entry for 7th November 1910.  This describes a lunar rainbow.

Unlike for the 1911 entries, the 1910 Black Diary has an undisputed authentic diary for the same period.  The authentic ‘White Diary’ for 1910 records the correct date for the lunar rainbow—which was Sunday the 6th of November.

Apart from the problem of why anyone would want to record the same event in two separate diaries it is a little surprising that the same person would put different dates for the same event!

Remarkably, it seems that the author of the 1910 Black Diary, like the author of the 1911 Black Diary realised his mistake and made a crude attempt to correct it retrospectively.  But, as is often the case, the attempted cover-up compounds the error made when perpetrating the crime!

The Black diary entry for Monday the 7th is overwritten in blue crayon with the words “This is on Sunday Night”.

But, of course, this interpolation affected subsequent entries.  The entry on Tuesday 8th of November is crossed out and followed by the explanation:  “Made a mistake of a day since Saturday”.

The fact that the author of the Black Diaries made the mistake in the first place is suspicious.  But the frantic attempts to correct the errors suggests that they were not written by an authentic diarist but by someone who was aware that they would be shown to other parties.

Another remarkable feature of the entries for November 1910 is that the corrections are written on the handwritten Black Diary manuscript.  They are not written on the typescripts.  This seems to prove that the manuscripts were written after the typescripts! 

The official position is that the typescripts were copies of the handwritten diaries which, it is claimed, were discovered by the authorities .  .  .   Well, the official position is a little unclear.  But, at the earliest, it is said that the typescripts were made at the beginning of 1915;  and, at the latest, it is said to have been after Casement was arrested in April 1916.

So, the official position is that the typescripts could not have been typed up before 1915. 

If it is now accepted that the handwritten Black Diaries were written after the typescripts, the case for forgery becomes unanswerable.

John Martin