Editing Wolfe Tone (section)

=== Trial and death ===
At his court-martial in Dublin on 8 November 1798, Tone defended his desire to separate Ireland from Great Britain “in fair and open war" and his honour.<ref name="sampson2">{{cite web |year=1817 |title=Speech of Theobold Wolf Tone, To the Court-Martial, assembled to pass sentence on his life in ''Memoirs of William Sampson'' |url=http://rewinn.com/8043.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927012854/http://www.rewinn.com/8043.html |archive-date=27 September 2007 |access-date=8 April 2007 |edition=2nd}}</ref>

{{Pull quote|I entered into the service of the French Republic with the sole view of being useful to my country.  To contend against British Tyranny, I have braved the fatigues and terrors of the field of battle; I have sacrificed my comfort, have courted poverty, have left my wife unprotected, and my children without a father.  After all I have done for a sacred cause, death is no sacrifice.  In such enterprises, everything depends on success:  Washington succeeded – [[Tadeusz Kościuszko|Kosciusko]] failed.  I know my fate, but I neither ask for pardon nor do I complain.
}}

His one "regret" was the "very great atrocities" committed in the course of the summer rebellion, "on both sides". For "a fair and open war" he had been prepared; but if that had "degenerated into a system of assassination, massacre, and plunder" he did "most sincerely lament it".<ref name=":0" />{{rp|393}}

His one request was that, as a ranking French officer, he might  "die the death of a soldier" and be shot. The request was denied: found guilty of treason he was condemned to hang on the 12th. On what was to be the morning of his execution he was found with a wound to his throat, the result—although later a subject of some speculation<ref>{{Cite news |last=Balls |first=Richard |date=Feb 14, 1997 |title=Surgeon's report reopens debate on Tone |newspaper=The Irish Times |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/surgeon-s-report-reopens-debate-on-tone-1.42584 |url-status=live |access-date=10 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414213552/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/surgeon-s-report-reopens-debate-on-tone-1.42584 |archive-date=14 April 2019}}</ref><ref>O'Donnell, Patrick (1997), "Wolfe Tone: Suicide or Assassination", ''Irish Journal of Medical Science'', no. 57.</ref>—of an apparent attempt to take his own life.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ó Cathaoir |first=Brendan |date=17 March 2008 |title=The death of Wolfe Tone |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/the-death-of-wolfe-tone-1.904217 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201006212057/https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/the-death-of-wolfe-tone-1.904217 |archive-date=6 October 2020 |access-date=18 July 2020 |publisher=Irish Times}}</ref> The story goes that the doctor who bound the wound told Tone that if he talked it would re-open and he would bleed to death, to which Tone replied: "I can yet find words to thank you sir; it is the most welcome news you could give me. What should I wish to live for?".<ref>{{cite book |last=Tone |first=Theobald Wolfe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EJMEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA314 |title=The Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone |author2=William Theobald Wolfe Tone |publisher=Whittaker, Treacher and Arnot |year=1831 |location=London |pages=314–316}}</ref>

Theobald Wolfe Tone died on 19 November 1798 at the age of 35 in the Provost Prison of the [[Collins Barracks, Dublin|Royal Barracks, Dublin]], not far from where he was born. He is buried in the family plot in [[Bodenstown Graveyard|Bodenstown, County Kildare]], near his birthplace at Sallins, and his grave is in the care of the [[National Graves Association]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-06-20 |title=Remembering how Wolfe Tone's grave was saved on his birthday |url=https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/wolfe-tone-grave-saved-ballad |access-date=2023-12-23 |website=IrishCentral.com |language=en}}</ref>