Editing Robert Emmet (section)

==Revolutionary career==
===Emissary for the new United Irish Executive===
In April 1798, Emmet was exposed as the secretary of a secret college committee in support of the [[Society of United Irishmen]] (of which his brother and Tone were leading executive members). Rather than submit to questioning under oath that might inculpate others, he withdrew from Trinity.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Helen |first=Landreth |title=The Pursuit of Robert Emmet |publisher=McGraw Hill |year=1948 |location=New York, London |pages=73}}</ref>

Emmet did not participate in the disordered [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|United Irish uprising]] when it broke out in counties to the south and north of a heavily-garrisoned Dublin in May 1798. But after the suppression of the rebellion in the summer, and in communication with state prisoners held at [[Fort George, Highland|Fort George in Scotland]] (including his brother), Emmet joined [[William Putnam McCabe]] in re-establishing a United Irish organisation. They sought to reconstruct the Society on a strict military basis, with its members chosen personally by its officers' meeting as the executive directorate. Following the example not only of Tone but also of [[James Coigly]], their aim was to again solicit a French invasion on the prospective strength both of a rising in Ireland and of a radical conspiracy in Britain. To this end McCabe set out for France in December 1798, stopping first in London to renew contact with the network of English [[Jacobin (politics)|Jacobins]], the United Britons.<ref name="Elliott">{{cite journal|last1=Elliott|first1=Marianne|date=May 1977|title=The 'Despard Plot' Reconsidered|journal=Past & Present|issue=75|pages=46–61|doi=10.1093/past/75.1.46}}</ref>

On the new United Irish executive in Dublin, Emmet assisted veterans Thomas Wright (from April 1799, an informer)<ref>{{Cite web|title=Wright, Thomas |work=Dictionary of Irish Biography|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/wright-thomas-a9136|access-date=2021-06-12 |archive-date=12 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612105013/https://www.dib.ie/biography/wright-thomas-a9136|url-status=live}}</ref> and Malachy Delaney (a former officer in the Austrian army),<ref>{{Cite web|title=Delaney, Malachy |work=Dictionary of Irish Biography|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/delaney-malachy-a2508|access-date=2021-06-12|archive-date=12 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612105013/https://www.dib.ie/biography/delaney-malachy-a2508|url-status=live}}</ref> with a manual on insurgent tactics. In the summer of 1800, as secretary to Delaney, he set out on a secret mission to support McCabe's efforts in Paris. Through his foreign minister [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord|Talleyrand]], Emmet and Delaney presented Napoleon with a memorial which argued that the [[Acts of Union 1800|parliamentary Union with Great Britain]], imposed in the wake of the rebellion, had "in no way eased the discontent of Ireland", and with lessons drawn from the failure of '98, the United Irish were again prepared to act on the first news of a French landing.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Kleinman|first=Sylvie|date=2013-02-22|title=French Connection II: Robert Emmet and Malachy Delaney's memorial to Napoleon Buonaparte, September 1800|url=https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/french-connection-ii-robert-emmet-and-malachy-delaneys-memorial-to-napoleon-buonaparte-september-1800/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-11|website=History Ireland|archive-date=11 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210611234129/https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/french-connection-ii-robert-emmet-and-malachy-delaneys-memorial-to-napoleon-buonaparte-september-1800/}}</ref>

Their request for an invasion force almost double that commanded by [[Lazare Hoche|Hoche]] in the aborted [[French expedition to Ireland (1796)|1796 Bantry expedition]] possibly told against them.<ref name=":2" /> The [[French Consulate|First Consul]] had other priorities: securing a temporary respite from war (the [[Treaty of Lunéville|treaties of Lunéville]] in 1801 and [[Treaty of Amiens|of Amiens]], March 1802) and [[Saint-Domingue expedition|re-enslaving Haiti]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Girard|first=Philippe R.|title=Napoléon Bonaparte and the Atlantic World|date=2019-08-28|url=http://oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/view/document/obo-9780199730414/obo-9780199730414-0317.xml|work=Atlantic History|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0317|isbn=978-0-19-973041-4|access-date=2021-06-11}}</ref>

===Connection with English radicals and with France===
In January 1802 the arrival in Dublin of William Dowdall, following his release from [[Fort George, Highland|Fort George]], injected new life into the United Irishmen, and by March, contact was re-established with the United Britons network in England. In July, McCabe, returning to Paris from a visit to Dublin, brought news to [[Manchester]] that the United Irishmen were ready to rise again as soon as the continental war was renewed. In this expectation, preparations in England were intensified, including in London where [[Edward Despard]] sought to enlist in the republican conspiracy soldiers of the guards' regiment stationed at [[Windsor Castle|Windsor]] and the [[Tower of London]].  In October, Emmet (one of the few in exile against whom charges were not pending in Ireland)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Parkhill |first=Trevor |date=2003 |title=The Wild Geese of 1798: Emigrés of the Rebellion |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25746923 |journal=Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=118–135 [129] |jstor=25746923 |issn=0488-0196}}</ref> was dispatched from Paris to assist Dowdall with the Dublin preparations.<ref name="Elliott3">{{cite journal|last1=Elliott|first1=Marianne|date=May 1977|title=The 'Despard Plot' Reconsidered|journal=Past & Present|issue=75 |pages=46–61 [56–60]|doi=10.1093/past/75.1.46}}</ref>

In November 1802 the government moved on the conspirators in London. It did not discover the full extent of the plot, but the arrest of Despard and his execution in February 1803 may have weakened English support. Emmet's emissaries from Dublin found a cooler reception in London and the mill towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire than they had expected.<ref name="Elliott3" />

In May 1803 the war with France was renewed. McCabe appeared to enjoy Napoleon's favour,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kelly|first=James|date=2012|title=Official List of Radical Activists and Suspected Activists Involved in Emmet's Rebellion, 1803|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23317181|journal=Analecta Hibernica|issue=43|pages=129–200, 149|issn=0791-6167|jstor=23317181|access-date=8 June 2021|archive-date=12 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512192052/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23317181|url-status=live}}</ref> and had had assurances of his intention to help Ireland secure her independence. From his own interviews with Napoleon, and with [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord|Talleyrand]], in the autumn of 1802, Emmet emerged unconvinced. He was persuaded that the [[French Consulate|First Consul]] was considering a Channel crossing for August 1803, but that in the contest with England there would be scant consideration for Ireland's interests.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Webb|first=Alfred|date=1878|title=Robert Emmet - Irish Biography|url=https://www.libraryireland.com/biography/RobertEmmet.php|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-11|website=www.libraryireland.com|archive-date=4 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604180027/https://www.libraryireland.com/biography/RobertEmmet.php}}</ref> (Sympathetic to the cause, [[Denis Taaffe]] proposed that if ever France took possession of Ireland she would trade it for a West Indian sugar island).<ref name=":22">{{Cite web|last=Ceretta|first=Manuela|date=2009|title=Taaffe, Denis {{!}} Dictionary of Irish Biography|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/taaffe-denis-a8433|access-date=2022-01-11|website=www.dib.ie}}</ref>

Disputing with [[Arthur O'Connor (United Irishman)|Arthur O'Connor]], who in Paris insisted on a guarantee of a French landing,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Geohegan|first=Patrick|title=Robert Emmet|publisher=Gill & Macmillan|year=2002|isbn=0717133877|location=Dublin|pages=111–112}}</ref> when war was resumed Emmet sent his own emissary, Patrick Gallagher, to Paris, to ask for "money, arms, ammunition and officers" but not for large numbers of troops. After the rising in Dublin misfired, and with no further prospects at home, in August Emmet did send [[Myles Byrne]] to Paris to do all he could to encourage an invasion.  But at his trial, while he conceded that a "connection with France was, indeed, intended" it was to be "only as far as mutual interest would sanction require":<ref name="Quinn 2002 267">{{Cite book|last=Quinn|first=James|title=Soul on Fire: a Life of Thomas Russell|publisher=Irish Academic Press|year=2002|isbn=9780716527329|location=Dublin|pages=267}}</ref>  no man should "calumniate" his memory by believing that he had "hoped for freedom from the government of France".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Elliott|first=Marianne|title=Partners in Revolution: the United Irishmen and France|publisher=Yale University Press|year=1982|location=New Haven|pages=314}}</ref>

Michael Fayne, a Kildare conspirator, later testified that Emmet used talk of French assistance only to "encourage the lower orders of people", as he often heard him say that as bad as an English government was, it was better than a French one", and that his object was "an independent state brought about by Irishmen only".<ref name=":10">{{Cite book|last=Geoghegan|first=Patrick|title=Robert Emmet, a Life|publisher=Gill & Macmillan|year=2002|isbn=9780717133871|location=Dublin|pages=112}}</ref>

===Decision to proceed with a rising in Dublin===
[[File:Emmet in Thomas Street.jpg|thumb|Emmet in Thomas Street, The Shamrock, Dublin, 1890]]
{{main|Irish rebellion of 1803}}
After his return to Ireland in October 1802, assisted by [[Anne Devlin]] (ostensibly his housekeeper), and with a legacy of £2,000 left to him by his father, Emmet laid preparations for a rising. According to the later recollection of [[Myles Byrne]], on St Patrick's Day, 17 March 1803, Emmet gave a stirring speech to his confederates justifying the renewed resort to arms. If Ireland had cause in 1798, he argued it had only been compounded by the legislative union with Britain. As long as Ireland retained in its own parliament a "vestige of self-government", its people might entertain the hope of representation and reform. But now "in consequence of the accursed union": <blockquote>[S]even-eights of the population have no right to send a member of their body to represent them, even in a foreign parliament, and the other eight part of the population are the tools and taskmasters, acting for the cruel English government and their [[Protestant Ascendancy|Irish Ascendancy]]--a monster still worse, if possible than foreign tyranny.<ref>quoted in Geoghegan (2002), pp. 120-121</ref></blockquote>In April 1803, [[James Hope (Ireland)|James (Jemmy) Hope]] and [[Myles Byrne]] arranged conferences, at which Emmet promised arms, with [[Michael Dwyer]] (Devlin’s cousin), who still maintained a [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla resistance]] in the Wicklow Mountains,<ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-02-22|title=Michael Dwyer of Imaal|url=https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/michael-dwyer-of-imaal/|access-date=2021-06-08|website=History Ireland|archive-date=8 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608141225/https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/michael-dwyer-of-imaal/|url-status=live}}</ref> and with [[Thomas Cloney]], a veteran of the Wexford rebellion in '98.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Byrne|first=Miles|date=3 June 1907|title=Memoirs of Miles Byrne|url=http://archive.org/details/memoirsofmilesby01byrniala|publisher=Dublin : Maunsel|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Hope and Russell headed north to rouse the United veterans of Down and Antrim.

In Dublin, Emmet believed his hand was forced on the 16th of July when gunpowder in the rebel arms depot in [[Patrick Street, Dublin|Patrick Street]] accidentally detonated, arousing the suspicion of the authorities. He persuaded the majority of the leadership to bring forward the date for the rising to the evening of Saturday, July 23, a festival day, which would provide cover for the gathering of their forces.<ref>{{Cite web|last=hÉireann|first=Stair na|date=2021-07-16|title=#OTD in 1803 – Irish Rebellion of 1803 {{!}} Following an explosion at his arms depot on this date, Robert Emmet brings forward his planned rebellion in Dublin to 23 July.|url=https://stairnaheireann.net/2021/07/16/otd-in-1803-irish-rebellion-of-1803-following-an-explosion-at-his-arms-depot-on-this-date-robert-emmet-brings-forward-his-planned-rebellion-in-dublin-to-23-july-5/|access-date=2021-12-01|website=Stair na hÉireann {{!}} History of Ireland|language=en-GB}}</ref> The plan, without any further consideration of French aid, was to storm [[Dublin Castle]], make hostage of [[Privy Council of Ireland|Privy Council]], and signal the country to rise.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=Bardon|first=Jonathan|title=A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes|publisher=Gill & Macmillan|year=2008|isbn=9780717146499|location=Dublin|pages=334–336}}</ref>

=== Moved by "a sinister hand"? ===
As preparations were made early in July, according to one of his many biographers, Helen Landreth, Emmet believed that "he had been tricked into the conspiracy", that he had been "a pawn moved by some sinister hand". Such may have been the suggestion of Hope's later remarks to the historian [[Richard Robert Madden|R. R. Madden]]. Emmet, according to Hope, realised that "the men of rank and fortune" who had urged him to head a new rising had had ulterior motives, but that, with Russell, he nonetheless placed his confidence in the great mass of the people to rise.<ref>Landreth (1948), pp. 153-154</ref> This would have been despite Emmet's recognition that: "No leading Catholic is committed. We are all Protestants".<ref>{{Cite book |last=MADDEN |first=Richard Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9pUAAAAcAAJ&dq=Madden,+the+United+Irishmen,+Their+Lives+and+Times,+Volume+3&pg=PA424 |title=The United Irishmen, Their Lives and Times. Volume 3 |year=1858 |pages=357 |language=en}}</ref>

Parts of his plan were known, through spies and informers, to an undersecretary at Dublin Castle, Alexander Marsden and in turn by the Chief Secretary for Ireland, [[William Wickham (1761–1840)|William Wickham.]] Yet they kept reports from the Lord Lieutenant and stayed the hand of the Town [[Henry Charles Sirr (town major)|Major, Henry Sirr]], who had wished to move against the rebels following the St. Patrick Street explosion.<ref>Landreth    (1948), p. 179</ref>

Drawing on research in the 1880s by Dr Thomas Addis Emmet of [[New York City]], a grandson of Emmet's elder brother, Landreth believes that Marsden and Wickham conspired with [[William Pitt the Younger|William Pitt]], then out of office but anticipating his return as Prime Minister, to encourage the most dangerously disaffected in Ireland to fatally compromise the prospects for an effective revolt by acting in advance of a French invasion. Landreth believes that Emmet was their unwitting instrument,<ref name=":9" /> drawn home from Paris for the purpose of organising a premature rising by the calculated misrepresentations of [[William Putnam McCabe]] and [[Arthur O'Connor (United Irishman)|Arthur O'Connor]].<ref>Landreth (1948), pp. 121, 121n, 246n, 247n</ref> Her evidence, however, is circumstantial, relying not least on Pitt's reputed cynicism in accepting the prospect of a rebellion in 1798 in order to frighten the Irish Parliament into dissolving itself.<ref name=":9">Landreth (1948), pp x-xi</ref>

Emmet biographer, Patrick Geoghegan, finds it entirely "implausible" that Pitt, in or out of office, would risk the credibility of the union he had accomplished, and perhaps much else, for "some negligible security gains".<ref>Geoghegan (2002) pp. 40-41.</ref> He argues that Wickham was genuinely complacent and notes that, while he may have too long delayed moving against the rebels in the hope of discovering the full scope of their conspiracy, on the 23rd Marsden did sound the alarm in advance of the day's action.<ref>Geoghegan (2002), pp. 152, 166-167</ref> Madden, however, did suggest that the [[Orange Order|Orange]]-[[Protestant Ascendancy|Ascendancy]] faction around Marsden, alarmed by Pitt's attempt to include Catholic emancipation in the Acts of Union, had hopes that insurrectionary attempt would harden British policy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Madden |first=Richard Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N6YDAAAAYAAJ |title=The Life and Times of Robert Emmet, Esq |date=1847 |publisher=James Duffy, 10, Wellington Quay. |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|102}}<ref name=":134">{{Cite book |last=Clifford |first=Brendan |title=Thomas Russell and Belfast |publisher=Athol Books |year=1988 |isbn=0-85034-0330 |location=Belfast}}</ref>{{rp|78-79}}

=== Proclamation of the Provisional Government ===
Emmet issued a [[proclamation]] in the name of the "Provisional Government". Calling upon the Irish people "to show the world that you are competent to take your place among the nations . . . as an independent country", Emmet made clear in the proclamation that they would have to do so "without foreign assistance":  "That confidence which was once lost by trusting to external support . . . has been again restored. We have been mutually pledged to each other to look only to our own strength".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Robert Emmet, the 1803 Proclamation of Independence and the ghost of 1798 – The Irish Story|url=https://www.theirishstory.com/2014/02/27/robert-emmet-the-1803-proclamation-of-independence-and-the-ghost-of-1798/#.YMNptjZKjVo|access-date=2021-06-11|language=en-GB|archive-date=11 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210611143813/https://www.theirishstory.com/2014/02/27/robert-emmet-the-1803-proclamation-of-independence-and-the-ghost-of-1798/#.YMNptjZKjVo|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Proclamation also contained "allusions to the widening of the political agenda of Emmet and the United Irishmen following the failure of 1798".<ref name=":0" /> In addition to democratic parliamentary reform, the Proclamation announced that tithes were to be abolished and the land of the established [[Church of Ireland]] nationalised. This, it has been suggested, marked the influence upon Emmet of [[Thomas Russell (rebel)|Thomas Russell]], although as a radical campaigner for economic and social reform, Russell might have wished to go further.<ref>Quinn, James (2007), "Revelation and Romanticism", in Dolan et al (eds.), ''Reinterpreting Emmet: Essays on the Life and Legacy of Robert Emmet'', University College Dublin Press, ISBN 978-1904558637, p. 27</ref> Emmet remained intent on giving the rising a universal appeal across both class and sectarian divisions: "We are not against property – we war against no religious sect – we war not against past opinions or prejudices – we war against English dominion."<ref name=":0" />

The Government sought to suppress all 10,000 printed copies of the Proclamation. Only two are known to survive.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|last=Whelan|first=Kevin|date=6 September 2003|title=A poltergeist in politics|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/a-poltergeist-in-politics-1.373901|access-date=2021-06-13|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en}}</ref>

===The Rising===
At 11 on the morning of 23 July 1803, Emmet showed men from Kildare an arsenal of pikes, grenades, rockets, and gunpowder-packed hollowed beams (these were to be dragged out onto the streets to prevent cavalry charges).  They noted only the absence of recognisable firearms and were unimpressed by Emmet, a "youngster" whose inexperience would place "the rope around the neck of decent men".<ref>Geoghegan (2002), p. 166</ref> They left to turn back other Kildare insurgents on the road to Dublin. The plan to surprise [[Dublin Castle]], and seize the [[Lord Lieutenant of Ireland|viceroy]], was botched when the assailants prematurely revealed themselves.<ref name=":6" />

By evening Emmet, Malachy Delaney and [[Myles Byrne]] (turned out for the occasion in gold-trimmed green uniforms) were outside their [[Thomas Street, Dublin|Thomas Street]] arsenal – with just 80 men.<ref name=":6" /> [[Richard Robert Madden|R.R. Madden]] describes "a motley assemblage of armed men, a great number of whom were, if not intoxicated, under the evident excitement of drink".<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal|last=Beiner|first=Guy|date=2004|editor-last=Elliott|editor-first=Marianne|editor2-last=Geoghegan|editor2-first=Patrick M.|editor3-last=McMahon|editor3-first=Sean|editor4-last=Brádaigh|editor4-first=Seón Ó.|editor5-last=O'Donnell|editor5-first=Ruán|title=The Legendary Robert Emmet and His Bicentennial Biographers|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29736249|journal=The Irish Review|issue=32|pages=98–104, 100, 102|doi=10.2307/29736249|jstor=29736249|issn=0790-7850|access-date=13 June 2021|archive-date=13 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613225450/https://www.jstor.org/stable/29736249|url-status=live}}</ref> Unaware that [[John Allen (Irish nationalist)|John Allen]] was approaching with a band, according to one witness, of 300,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hammond|first1=Joseph W.|last2=Frayne|first2=Michl.|date=1947|title=The Emmet Insurrection|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30083906|journal=Dublin Historical Record|volume=9|issue=2|pages=59–68|jstor=30083906|issn=0012-6861|access-date=30 July 2021|archive-date=30 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210730191732/https://www.jstor.org/stable/30083906|url-status=live}}</ref> and shaken by the sight of a lone [[dragoon]] being pulled from his horse and piked to death, Emmet told the men to disperse.<ref name="ricorso2">{{cite web|year=2010|title=Robert Emmet|url=http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/index.htm|access-date=6 October 2010|publisher=Ricorso|archive-date=25 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725083231/http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/index.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> He had already stood down sizeable insurgent groups straddling the main suburban roads by pre-arranged signal, a solitary rocket.<ref name=":52">{{Cite web|last=O'Donnell|first=Ruan|date=2021|title=The Rising of 1803 in Dublin|url=https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/the-rising-of-1803-in-dublin/|access-date=2021-11-30|website=History Ireland}}</ref>

Sporadic clashes continued into the night. In one incident, the [[Lord Chief Justice of Ireland]], [[Lord Kilwarden]], was dragged from his [[carriage]] and stabbed by pikes. Found still alive, he was taken to a watch-house where he died shortly thereafter. Kilwarden had used his position to help his cousin, [[Wolfe Tone]], to avoid prosecution in 1794. He was nonetheless reviled for the prosecution and hanging of [[William Orr (United Irishman)|William Orr]] in 1797 and, in the wake of 1798, of several Catholic [[Defenders (Ireland)|Defenders]]. Kilwarden's nephew, the Rev. Mr Wolfe, was also killed,  although his daughter was not harmed.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rewind: The murder of Lord Kilwarden|url=https://www.echo.ie/show/article/rewind-the-murder-of-lord-kilwarden|access-date=2021-06-08|website=www.echo.ie|date=26 March 2020|language=en-gb|archive-date=8 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608141217/https://www.echo.ie/show/article/rewind-the-murder-of-lord-kilwarden|url-status=live}}</ref>

Emmet fled the city arriving in Rathfarnham with a party of 16 men. When he heard that Wicklowmen were still planning to rise, he issued a countermanding order to prevent needless violence.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Geohegan|first=Patrick|title=Robert Emmet|publisher=Gill & Macmillan|year=2002|isbn=0717133877|location=Dublin|pages=185}}</ref> Instead he ordered [[Myles Byrne|Byrne]] to Paris to again solicit the French.<ref name="Quinn 2002 267"/>