How Roger Casement's arrest ended German involvement

On April 15th 1916, Sir Roger Casement, who had been in Germany on a failed mission to recruit Irish prisoners of war for a rising in Ireland, set sail from Wilhelmshaven in a German U-boat bound for Tralee Bay. The submarine was to rendezvous off the Kerry coast with a cargo ship, the Liebau (disguised as a Norwegian steamer, the Aud), which had left Hamburg on March 30th with rifles and ammunition. Casement, who had been strongly opposed to the idea of a rising without a substantial German military involvement, decided after all to go back to Ireland and join an insurrection he knew to be planned for Easter Sunday.

The Liebau dropped anchor off Inishtooskert Island in Tralee Bay on Thursday, April 20th. At midnight, the submarine reached the rendezvous point just northwest of the island. The two boats, however, failed to make contact with each other either that night or during the clear daylight of Good Friday. The Irish rebels who were expected to be on the shore to signal to the German boats failed to materialise. Casement went ashore on a dinghy during the night, landing at Banna Strand. With no one to meet him, he was quickly arrested, even though the police had no idea who he was. The disaster got worse when three insurgents who had been sent from Dublin to seize wireless equipment in Caherciveen and make radio contact with the German ships, drove off Ballykissane pier in the dark and drowned. At 6pm on Saturday evening, the Liebau, still drifting around the Blasket islands, was captured by two British sloops. They escorted it to Queenstown (now Cobh), where its captain scuttled his ship, ending German involvement in plans for the Rising.