Editing Robert Emmet (section)

==Early life==
Emmet was born at 109 [[St. Stephen's Green]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Kilfeather|first=Siobhán Marie|title=Dublin: a cultural history|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-518201-9|page=108|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8QWZRVAPa6sC&pg=PA108|access-date=17 October 2015|archive-date=20 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160520112111/https://books.google.com/books?id=8QWZRVAPa6sC&pg=PA108|url-status=live}}</ref> in [[Dublin]] on 4 March 1778. He was the youngest son of Dr Robert Emmet (1729–1802), physician to the [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland|Lord Lieutenant]], and his wife, Elizabeth Mason (1739–1803). The Emmets were financially comfortable, members of the [[Protestant Ascendancy]] with a house at St Stephen's Green and a country residence near [[Milltown, Dublin|Milltown]].

Dr Emmet supported the cause of American independence and was a well-known figure on the fringes of the Irish patriot movement. [[Wolfe Tone|Theobald Wolfe Tone]], a friend of Emmet's elder brother, [[Thomas Addis Emmet]], and an advocate of more radical reform, including [[Catholic emancipation|Catholic Emancipation]], was a visitor to the house.<ref name="Webb">{{Cite web |url=http://www.libraryireland.com/biography/RobertEmmet.php |title=Webb, Alfred. ''A Compendium of Irish Biography'', M.H. Gill & Son, Dublin, 1878 |access-date=24 July 2014 |archive-date=26 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170526220509/http://www.libraryireland.com/biography/RobertEmmet.php |url-status=live }}</ref> So too, as a friend of his father, was Dr [[William Drennan]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Whelan|first1=Fergus|title=May Tyrants Tremble: The Life of William Drennan, 1754–1820|date=2020|publisher=Irish Academic Press|isbn=9781788551212|location=Dublin|pages=59}}</ref> the original proposer of the "benevolent conspiracy--a plot for the people"<ref name="9bSrV">{{cite web|date=February 2020|title=Category Archives: William Drennan|url=https://www.irishphilosophy.com/category/person/long-18th-century/william-drennan/|access-date=10 May 2020|website=assets.publishing.service.gov.uk|pages=15–16|archive-date=1 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101134817/https://www.irishphilosophy.com/category/person/long-18th-century/william-drennan/|url-status=live}}</ref> that was to call itself, at Tone's suggestion, the [[Society of United Irishmen]].

Robert Emmet was educated first at Oswald's School in Dapping Court, near Golden Lane, and then at the ‘English grammar school’ of Samuel Whyte (qv) at 75 Grafton Street, a well-reputed school attended by the children of Dublin notables; here he learned oratory, fencing, astronomy, music, etc. One of his schoolmates was the poet and national bard [[Thomas Moore]]; [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Arthur Wellesley]] was a pupil a few years earlier. After this he was tutored by the Rev Mr Lewis of Camden Street.<ref>Dictionary of Irish Biography https://www.dib.ie/index.php/biography/emmet-robert-a2921</ref>

Emmet entered [[Trinity College Dublin]] in October 1793 as a precocious fifteen-year-old and excelled as a student of history and chemistry. In December 1797 he joined the College Historical Society. His brother Thomas and Wolfe Tone, preceding him in the society, had maintained its lively tradition (stretching back to [[Edmund Burke]]) of defying the College's injunction against discussing questions of "modern politics".<ref name="duffy_p34">''Young Ireland'', Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co 1880 pg.34</ref>

Fellow Society member [[Thomas Moore]] recalled that men "of advanced standing and reputation for oratory, came to attend our debates, expressly for the purpose of answering [Robert] Emmet". His eloquence was unmatched.<ref name=":1" />  In the preface to his ''Irish Melodies'' (1837), he recounts Emmet "ardently" taking the side of Democracy in the debate "Whether an Aristocracy or a Democracy is most favourable to the advancement of science and literature?"  and, in "another of his remarkable speeches", saying, "When a people, advancing rapidly in knowledge and power, perceive at last how far their government is lagging behind them, what then, I ask, is to be done in such a case? What, but to pull the government ''up'' to the people?"<ref>{{Cite web |last=Moore |first=Thomas |date=1837 |title=Preface to Irish Melodies |url=https://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moorepre2.html |access-date=2022-12-15 |website=www.musicanet.org}}</ref>

Robert Emmet is described by his contemporaries as slight in person; his features were regular, his forehead high, his eyes bright and full of expression, his nose sharp, thin, and straight, the lower part of his face slightly pock-marked, his complexion sallow.<ref name="Webb" />