Editing Robert Emmet

{{Short description|Irish Republican, orator and rebel leader (1778–1803)}}
{{Other people}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=May 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox military person
| name          = Robert Emmet
| birth_date    = {{birth date|df=y|1778|03|04}}
| death_date    = {{death date and age|df=y|1803|09|20|1778|03|04}}
| image         = RobertEmmetWatercolor.png
| caption       = A watercolour miniature of Emmet made during his trial.
| birth_place   = [[Dublin]], [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]]
| death_place   = Dublin, Ireland
| death_cause   = [[Execution by hanging]]
| allegiance    = [[File:Green harp flag of Ireland.svg|22px]] [[United Irishmen]]
| branch        = 
| serviceyears  = 1793–1803
| rank          = [[Commander]]
|religion      = [[Church of Ireland]]
| commands      = [[Irish Rebellion of 1803]]
| battles       = 
|placeofburial     =Unknown; possibly [[Bully's Acre, Dublin]] or [[St. Peter's Church, Aungier Street, Dublin|St. Peter's Church, Aungier Street]]
| awards        = 
| relations     = [[Thomas Addis Emmet]] (brother)<br>[[Christopher Temple Emmet]] (brother)<br>[[Mary Anne Holmes|Mary Anne Emmet]] (sister)
| laterwork     = 
| alma_mater    = [[Trinity College Dublin]]
}}

{{Irish republicanism|People}}
'''Robert Emmet''' (4 March 1778{{snd}}20 September 1803) was an [[Irish republicanism|Irish Republican]], orator and rebel leader. Following the suppression of the [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|United Irish uprising in 1798]], he sought to organise a renewed attempt to overthrow the [[The Crown|British Crown]] and [[Protestant Ascendancy]] in Ireland, and to establish a nationally representative government. Emmet entertained, but ultimately abandoned, hopes of immediate French assistance and of coordination with radical militants in Great Britain. In Ireland, many of the surviving veterans of '98 hesitated to lend their support, and his [[Irish rebellion of 1803|rising in Dublin in 1803]] proved abortive.

Emmet’s Proclamation of the Provisional Government to the People of Ireland, his Speech from the Dock, and his "sacrificial" end on the gallows inspired later generations of Irish republicans. His memory was invoked by [[Patrick Pearse]] who in 1916 was again to proclaim a provisional government in Dublin.

==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" />

==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"/>

==Capture, trial, and execution==
[[File:Robert Emmet find house, Harold's Cross.jpg|thumb|Site of Mrs. Palmer's house in [[Harold's Cross]] where Emmet was arrested, with memorial marker.]]
While Emmet hid in Rathfarnham, yeomen sought to extract information from Anne Devlin, prodding her with bayonets and half hanging her until she passed out.<ref name=":6" /> Had he not insisted on taking his leave of his fiancée [[Sarah Curran]] (daughter of the disapproving [[John Philpot Curran]])<ref name=Webb/> he may have succeeded in joining Dowdall and Byrne in France. Emmet was captured on 25 August and taken to the Castle, then removed to Kilmainham. Vigorous but ineffectual efforts were made to procure his escape.[[File:Robert Emmet - Trial.jpg|thumb|Depiction of Robert Emmet's trial|left]]
Emmet was tried and convicted for [[High treason in the United Kingdom|high treason]] on 19 September. The evidence against him had been overwhelming, but the Crown took the extra precaution of suborning his defence attorney, [[Leonard McNally]], for £200 and a pension.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Robert_Emmet.aspx |title=The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2008 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=2014-02-10 |archive-date=17 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917093618/http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Robert_Emmet.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref> McNally's assistant [[Peter Burrowes]] could not be bought and represented Emmet as best he could.<ref name="ricorso2"/>

Emmet's instruction, however, was not to offer a defence: he would not call any witnesses, "or to take up the time of the court". When on announcing this, McNally proposed that the trial was concluded, the prosecuting counsel [[William Plunket, 1st Baron Plunket|William Plunket]] took to his feet. In what was widely regarded as an unnecessary attack on a doomed man, Plunket, who was to see himself appointed [[Solicitor-General for Ireland|Solicitor-General]], mocked Emmet as the deluded leader of a conspiracy encompassing "the bricklayer, the old clothes man, the hodman and the hostler".<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=255–256}}</ref>

{{Anchor|Speech from the Dock}}Emmet's ''[[s:Speech from the Dock (Emmet)|Speech from the Dock]]'' is especially remembered for his closing remarks. Historian Patrick Geoghehan has identified over seventy different versions of the text,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/which-speech-from-the-dock/ |title=History Ireland, autumn 2003 |date=22 February 2013 |access-date=8 April 2015 |archive-date=22 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222224231/http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/which-speech-from-the-dock/ |url-status=live }}</ref> but in an early printing (1818) based on notes taken by Burrowes, Emmet concludes:<ref>Phillips, C. ''Recollections of Curran'' (1818 Milliken, Dublin) pp.256–259.</ref>

<blockquote>I am here ready to die. I am not allowed to vindicate my character; no man shall dare to vindicate my character; and when I am prevented from vindicating myself, let no man dare to calumniate me. Let my character and my motives repose in obscurity and peace, till other times and other men can do them justice. Then shall my character be vindicated; then may my epitaph be written.</blockquote>Chief Justice [[John Toler, 1st Earl of Norbury|Lord Norbury]] sentenced Emmet to be [[hanged, drawn and quartered]], as was customary for conviction of treason.  The following day, 20 September, Emmet was executed in Thomas Street in front of [[St Catherine's Church, Dublin (Church of Ireland)|St. Catherine]]'s. He was hanged and then beheaded once dead.<ref name="Bully's acre">{{Cite web |url=http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/irhismys/emmet.htm |title=Murphy, Sean. "The Grave of Robert Emmet", ''Irish Historical Mysteries'', Dublin, Ireland; 2010 |access-date=6 October 2010 |archive-date=3 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190603074014/http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/irhismys/emmet.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> As family members and friends of Robert had also been arrested, including some who had nothing to do with the rebellion, no one came forward to claim his remains out of fear of arrest.

On the eve of his execution, Emmet wrote from [[Kilmainham Gaol|Kilmainham]] to the [[Chief Secretary for Ireland]], [[William Wickham (1761–1840)|William Wickham]], whose "fairness" he acknowledged. He appears to have made a profound impression.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|last=Whelan|first=Kevin|date=2013-02-22|title=Robert Emmet: between history and memory|url=https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/robert-emmet-between-history-and-memory/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-13|website=History Ireland|archive-date=13 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613225453/https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/robert-emmet-between-history-and-memory/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Geohegan|first=Patrick|date=2009|title=Wickham, William {{!}} Dictionary of Irish Biography|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/wickham-william-a9030|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-16|website=www.dib.ie|archive-date=12 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612105318/https://www.dib.ie/biography/wickham-william-a9030}}</ref>

In December Wickham resigned his post, confessing to friends that "no consideration upon earth" could induce him "to remain after having maturely reflected" on the contents of the note he had received. He could not enforce laws "unjust, oppressive and unchristian" and intolerable to the memory of a man he had been "compelled by the duty of my office to pursue to the death". Wickham was persuaded that Emmet had been attempting to save Ireland from "a state of depression and humiliation" and that, had he himself been an Irishman, he "should most unquestionably have joined him".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)|title=T.2627/5/Z/18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)|title=T.2627/5/Z/25}}</ref>

==Burial and Shelley's later eulogy==
Emmet's remains were first delivered to Newgate Prison and then back to Kilmainham Gaol, where the jailer was under instructions that if no one claimed them they were to be buried in a nearby hospital's burial grounds called [[Bully's Acre, Dublin|Bully's Acre]]. Family tradition has it that in 1804, under cover of the burial of his sister, [[Mary Anne Holmes]], Emmet's remains were removed from Bully's Acre and re-interred in the family vault (since demolished) at [[St. Peter's Church, Aungier Street, Dublin|St Peter's Church]] in Aungier Street.<ref name="Bully's acre" />

After searching for Emmet's grave in Dublin, early in 1812, [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] revised his elegiac poem “The Monarch's Funeral: An Anticipation”: "For who was he, the uncoffined slain, /That fell in Erin's injured isle /Because his spirit dared disdain/ To light his country's funeral pile?"<ref name=":02"/>  In "On Robert Emmet's Grave" Shelley proposed that, because unknown, Emmet's grave would "remain unpolluted by fame ''/''Till thy foes, by the world and by fortune caressed, /Shall pass like a mist from the light of thy name.''"''<ref>Esdaile manuscript book by Dowden, "Life of Shelley", 1887; dated 1812</ref>

When Shelley returned to London from Dublin in 1812, it was with an account of Emmet's trial containing his famous speech, and Emmet appears again as the “patriot” in ''[[The Devil's Walk]],'' a lengthy broadside against a corrupt and un-reforming government.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal|last=Morgan|first=Alison|date=2014-07-03|title="Let no man write my epitaph": the contributions of Percy Shelley, Thomas Moore and Robert Southey to the memorialisation of Robert Emmet|journal=Irish Studies Review|volume=22|issue=3|pages=285–303|doi=10.1080/09670882.2014.926124|s2cid=170900710|issn=0967-0882|doi-access=free}}</ref> (At the same time, while in Dublin, Shelley had gone round streets and pubs of the city handing out ''An Address, to the Irish People,'' a 22-page pamphlet in which he pleaded with the Irish people not to repeat Emmet's attempt:  "I do not wish to see things changed now, because it cannot be done without violence, and we may assure ourselves that none of us are fit for any change, however good, if we condescend to employ force in a cause we think right").<ref>{{Cite book|last=Holmes|first=Richard|title=Shelley, the pursuit|publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson|year=1974|isbn=0297767224|location=London|pages=120}}</ref>

A search of the family vault at St Peter's Church in 1903 could not find Emmet's remains, and his actual burial place is still unknown, inspiring the phrase, "Do not look for him. His grave is Ireland."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/his-grave-is-ireland-the-search-for-robert-emmet-s-body-1.4174037|title=‘His grave is Ireland’: The search for Robert Emmet’s body|website=The Irish Times}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[[File:Eire Robert Emmet.jpg|thumb|Robert Emmet was honoured on two [[Postage stamps of Ireland|Irish postage stamps]] issued in 1953, commemorating the 150th anniversary of his death]]
Emmet’s rebellion infuriated Lord Castlereagh because he "could not see the change that his own great measure the Union has effected in Ireland".<ref name=":5" />  Despite having so badly misfired, the 1803 rising suggested that the [[Acts of Union 1800|Act of Union]] was not going to be the palliative Castlereagh and [[William Pitt the Younger|Prime Minister William Pitt]] had intended. Castlereagh advised that "the best thing would be to go into no detail whatever upon the case, to keep the subject clearly standing on its own narrow base of a contemptible insurrection without means or respectable leaders",<ref name=":5" /> an instruction Plunket appears to have followed in Emmet's prosecution. This was to be a stance taken not only by [[Unionism in Ireland|unionists]].

[[Daniel O'Connell]] who was to lead the struggle for [[Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829|Catholic Emancipation]] and for repeal of the Union in the decades following Emmet's death, roundly condemned the resort to "physical force".  O'Connell's own programme of mobilising public opinion, fuelled by sometimes violent rhetoric and demonstrated in "monster meetings",  might have suggested that constitutionalism and physical force were complementary rather than antithetical.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Swift|first=John|date=2008|title=Review of Reinterpreting Emmet: Essays on the Life and Legacy of Robert Emmet|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25660568|journal=Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review|volume=97|issue=386|pages=232–235|jstor=25660568|issn=0039-3495|access-date=13 June 2021|archive-date=13 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613225455/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25660568|url-status=live}}</ref> But O'Connell remained content with his dismissal of Emmet in 1803 as an instigator of bloodshed who had forfeited any claim to "compassion".<ref>O'Connell Correspondence, Vol I, Letter No. 97</ref>

Emmet's political rehabilitation begins in the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Famine]]-years of the 1840s with the [[Young Ireland]]ers. In 1846 they had finally broken with O'Connell declaring that if Repeal could not be carried by moral persuasion and peaceful means, a resort to arms would be "a no less honourable course".<ref>O'Sullivan, T. F. (1945). ''Young Ireland''. The Kerryman Ltd. pp. 195-6</ref> The Young Irelander publisher [[Charles Gavan Duffy (Australian politician)|Charles Gavan Duffy]] repeatedly reprinted Michael James Whitty's popular chapbook ''Life, Trial and Conversations of Robert Emmet Esq.'' (1836), and promoted R.R. Madden's ''Life and Times of Robert Emmet'' (1847) which, despite its devastating account of the Thomas Street fiasco, was hagiographic.<ref name=":4" />

In carrying forward the tradition of physical-force republicanism from the debacle of the Young Irelander "[[Young Ireland rebellion|Famine Rebellion]]" in 1848, the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]] (the [[Fenian]]s) also carried forward admiration for Emmet. On the $20 bonds they issued in 1866 in the United States in the name of the Irish Republic, his profile appears opposite that of Tone.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fanning|first=Charles|date=2004|title=Robert Emmet and Nineteenth-Century Irish America|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20646472|journal=New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua|volume=8|issue=4|pages=53–83|jstor=20646472|issn=1092-3977|access-date=13 June 2021|archive-date=13 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613225452/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20646472|url-status=live}}</ref>

Robert Emmet's older brother, [[Thomas Addis Emmet]] emigrated to the United States shortly after Robert's execution. He eventually served as the [[New York State Attorney General]]. His descendants (who included the prominent American portrait painters [[Lydia Field Emmet]], [[Rosina Emmet Sherwood]], [[Ellen Emmet Rand]], and [[Jane Emmet de Glehn]]) helped advance his standing among the Irish diaspora, which in turn may have been one factor in ensuring that he was one among the "ghosts" invoked in the run-up to [[Easter Rising|1916 Easter Rising]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Mitchel|first=Angus|date=2013-02-22|title=Robert Emmet and 1916|url=https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/robert-emmet-and-1916/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-13|website=History Ireland|archive-date=18 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418104034/https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/robert-emmet-and-1916/}}</ref>

In the Emmet Commemoration speech he delivered in [[New York City]] in March 1914, [[Patrick Pearse|Pearse]] described how the spirit of Irish patriotism called in Emmet "to a dreamer" and  "awoke a man of action"; called to "a student and a recluse" and brought forth "a leader of men"; "called to one who loved the ways of peace" and found "a revolutionary". Emmet was a man unwilling to "surrender of one jot or shred of our claim to freedom even in return for all the blessings of the British peace". His attempt in 1803 was to be regarded, not as a failure but as "a triumph for that deathless thing we call Irish Nationality".<ref name=":11">{{Cite web |last=Pearse |first=Patrick |date=2 March 1914 |title=Robert Emmet and the Ireland of to-day. An Address delivered at the Emmet Commemoration in the Academy of Music, Brooklyn, New York |url=https://celt.ucc.ie/published/E900007-002/text001.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608192929/https://celt.ucc.ie/published/E900007-002/text001.html |archive-date=8 June 2021 |access-date=2021-06-08 |website=celt.ucc.ie}}</ref>

As Pearse parleyed with the British for terms at the end of [[Easter Rising|Easter week, 1916]], his Dublin commander [[James Connolly]] is recalled lying wounded in a house in [[Moore Street]] with a portrait of Emmet hanging over his bed.<ref name=":42">{{Cite book |last=Edwards |first=Ruth Dudley |title=Patrick Pearse, The Triumph of Failure |publisher=Poolbeg |year=1990 |isbn=9781853710681 |location=Swords, Co. Dublin |pages=307}}</ref> 

==Representation in popular culture==
[[File:Brandon Tynan's Robert Emmet (3).jpg|left|thumb|Brandon Tynan's ''Robert Emmet, The Days of 1803.'' Chicago 1903]]
In a speech on Emmet in New York City in 1904, [[W. B. Yeats]] famously observed that "Emmet died and became an image".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Foster|first=R. F.|title=W. B. Yeats, A Life, I: The Apprentice Mage 1865-1914|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1998|isbn=9780192880857|pages=312–314}}</ref> This was the work first, and foremost, of [[Thomas Moore]].<ref name=":02" /> In his popular ballad "O! Breathe Not His Name",<ref>{{Cite web|title=Oh, Breathe Not His Name|url=https://www.contemplator.com/ireland/breathe.html|access-date=2021-12-08|website=www.contemplator.com}}</ref> Moore made his former Trinity College friend the touchstone of national sentiment: "Oh breathe not his name! let it sleep in the shade, / Where cold and unhonoured his relics are laid! [...] / And the tear we shed, though secret it rolls, Shall keep his memory green in our souls". Dwelling upon the heartache of Sarah Curran, his "She is Far From the Land Where Her Young Hero Sleeps" also made Emmet an icon of romantic love.<ref>{{Cite web|title=O! Breathe Not His Name. Thomas Moore (1779-1852). September 20. James and Mary Ford, eds. 1902. Every Day in the Year: A Poetical Epitome of the World's History|url=https://www.bartleby.com/297/523.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613225452/https://www.bartleby.com/297/523.html|archive-date=13 June 2021|access-date=2021-06-13|website=www.bartleby.com}}</ref>

In Irish America where, together with Emmet's Speech from the Dock, "O! Breathe Not His Name" became part of the canon of parochial education, Moore had innumerable imitators. Of these, one of the most ambitious was [[John Boyle O'Reilly]], a member of the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]] who had escaped from penal servitude in [[Western Australia]]. O'Reilly wrote a publicly performed eighty-four line poem, "The Patriot's Grave" (1878) in which he both echoes the defiance of Emmet's last words while attempting to bring the defence of physical force within a broader tradition that embraced constitutional agitation (to add Emmet to a Pantheon that included "[[Henry Grattan|Grattan]], [[Henry Flood|Flood]] and [[John Philpot Curran|Curran]]").<ref name=":8">{{Cite journal|last=Fanning|first=Charles|date=2004|title=Robert Emmet and Nineteenth-Century Irish America|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20646472|journal=New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua|volume=8|issue=4|pages=53–83|jstor=20646472|issn=1092-3977}}</ref> Emmet was also a frequent character on the patriotic stage. Typical of his green-uniform presentation was [[Brandon Tynan|Brandon Tynon]]'s melodrama, ''Robert Emmet, the Days of 1803'', which premiered on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] in 1902.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Robert Emmet – Broadway Play – Original {{!}} IBDB|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/robert-emmet-5603|access-date=2021-12-08|website=www.ibdb.com}}</ref>

In the nineteenth century, the Emmet story also found its way into prose. On both sides of the Atlantic John Doherty's 1836 ''Life, Trial and Conversation and Times of Robert Emmet'', and [[Richard Robert Madden|R. R. Madden's]] 1844 ''Life and Time of Robert Emmet'' became the standard references. With less patience for historical or political background, what tended to be drawn out in subsequent works was the notion of  "pure sacrifice". In ''Robert Emmet, A Survey of his Rebellion and of His Romance'' (1904), [[Louise Imogen Guiney]] classes Emmet with [[Charlotte Corday]] and [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]].<ref name=":8" />

In the early twentieth century, Moore's Emmet appeared in pioneering film. While focusing on the Emmet-Curran love story, the 1911[[Thanhouser Company|Thanhouser film]] (USA) ''Robert Emmet'' depicts Emmet's expulsion from Trinity College, his meeting with Napoleon, his part in the rising and his capture, trial and execution.<ref>{{Cite web|title=ROBERT EMMET|url=https://www.thanhouser.org/tcocd/Filmography_files/kefl3p.htm|access-date=2021-12-08|website=www.thanhouser.org}}</ref> Some of the same storyline features in ''[[Ireland a Nation]]'' (1914) written and produced in London and Ireland by Walter MacNamara,<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Rockett|first1=Kevin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-dkAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Ireland,+A+Nation%22+1914|title=National Cinema and Beyond|last2=Hill|first2=John|date=5 December 2004|publisher=Four Courts|isbn=9781851828739|via=Google Books}}</ref> and Sidney Olcott's  ''[[Bold Emmett Ireland's Martyr]]'' (1915, Sid Films, USA).<ref name=":7">{{Cite web|last=Rockett|first=Kevin|date=2013|title=Emmet on film|url=https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/emmet-on-film/|access-date=2021-12-08|website=History Ireland}}</ref><ref>Arthur Flynn (2005)'', The Story of Irish Film'', Currach Press, Dublin. {{ISBN|1-85607-914-7}}.</ref>

Many decades later there was a step away from hagiography. In her screen drama ''Anne Devlin'' (1984), the Irish [[feminist]] filmmaker [[Pat Murphy (director)|Pat Murphy]] offers an implicit criticism of patriotic politics that operates "largely at the level of signs and representations". In one scene, Emmet enters a room as Devlin is holding up his splendid green uniform in front of a mirror. Asked what she thinks of it, Devlin (cousin of the guerrilla leader Michael Dwyer) replies that it looks like a green version of an English Redcoat, and will be seen "a mile off". "We should", she argues, "be rebel as ourselves’".<ref name=":7" />

Emmet is "bold Robert" in the song ''[[Back Home in Derry]]'', written by [[Bobby Sands]] in [[HM Prison Maze]] before his fatal [[1981 Irish hunger strike|hunger strike in 1981]].<ref name="TEN1">{{cite web|last1=Deboick|first1=Sophia|date=14 June 2020|title=Londonderry: A city where music has been shaped by trauma|url=https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news/londonderry-a-city-where-music-has-been-shaped-by-trauma-83046|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801051157/https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news/londonderry-a-city-where-music-has-been-shaped-by-trauma-83046|archive-date=1 August 2021|access-date=1 August 2021|website=[[The New European]]|location=[[London]]|language=en-UK}}</ref> The lyrics, describing the feelings of rebels convicts as leave Ireland for Australia, were recorded by [[Christy Moore]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2012-02-17|title=Back Home In Derry|url=https://www.christymoore.com/lyrics/back-home-in-derry/|access-date=2021-12-08|website=Christy Moore}}</ref>

==Honours==
Places named after Emmet in the United States include [[Emmetsburg, Iowa|Emmetsburg]], Iowa;<ref name="irishamerica">{{cite web|title=A Small Town Struggles to Preserve Its Irish Heritage|url=http://www.celticcousins.net/paloalto/emmetstatue.htm|work=Irish America Magazine Sept/Oct. 1993|access-date=9 March 2007|archive-date=7 April 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070407012201/http://www.celticcousins.net/paloalto/emmetstatue.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Emmet, Nebraska|Emmet]], Nebraska;<ref>Campbell, Dorine. [http://casde.unl.edu/history/counties/holt/emmet/ "Emmet".] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100717084726/http://casde.unl.edu/history/counties/holt/emmet/ |date=17 July 2010 }} [http://casde.unl.edu/history/index.php Nebraska...Our Towns] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618011632/http://casde.unl.edu/history/index.php |date=18 June 2010 }} Retrieved 2010-06-16.</ref> [[Emmet County, Iowa|Emmet County]], Iowa; Emmett, Michigan and [[Emmet County, Michigan|Emmet County]], Michigan,<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n118 119]}}</ref> and Emmet Street in the historic French neighborhood of  [[Soulard, St. Louis]].<ref>{{Google maps|url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/Emmet+St,+St.+Louis,+MO+63104/@38.6098753,-90.2076948,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x87d8b39ff74174a5:0x29ab3a761d021d10!8m2!3d38.6098753!4d-90.2055061 |title=Map of Emmet Street with pin |access-date=26 April 2021}}</ref> The Robert Emmet Elementary School in [[Chicago, Illinois]] was named for him. Two time All Ireland Club Camogie Champions [[Slaughtneil GAC|Robert Emmet's GAC Slaughtneil]] is named after him. [[Emmet Park]] in Savannah, Georgia, was named after Emmet in 1902 in preparation for the centennial of his death.

Statues were erected in his honour:
* A life-size bronze statue of Robert Emmet by [[Jerome Connor]] stands in [[St Stephen's Green]], Dublin, the parkland beside which Emmet was born. A copy stands in [[Emmetsburg, Iowa]].
* A bronze statue of Emmet by Jerome Connor stands in Washington, DC on Embassy Row (Massachusetts Avenue NW and S Street NW). A public commemoration of Emmet's execution and legacy is held annually on the fourth Sunday in September by the Irish American Unity Conference.
* A copy of this statue was installed on the Music Concourse in front of the [[California Academy of Sciences]] in [[San Francisco]]'s [[Golden Gate Park]].

<gallery class="center">
File:Robert Emmet.JPG|Bronze statue of [[Robert Emmet (Connor)|Robert Emmet]], 1916, by [[Jerome Connor]], from the collection of the [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]]. It is installed in [[Washington, DC]]'s Embassy Row.<ref name=SAAM>{{cite web|title="Robert Emmet" by Jerome Connor|url=http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=5236|website=Smithsonian American Art Museum|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|access-date=13 June 2015|archive-date=16 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150616000556/http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=5236|url-status=live}}</ref>
File:Robert Emmet, Stephens Green, Dublin.jpg|Statue of Robert Emmet in [[St Stephens Green]], [[Dublin]]
File:Photo of Robert Emmet statue San Francisco Golden Gate Park.jpg|Reproduction of Robert Emmet statue in San Francisco's [[Golden Gate Park]]
</gallery>
* A statue of Robert Emmet is in the courthouse square in Emmetsburg, Iowa.

==See also==
{{wikisource author}}
{{Commons category}}
{{EB1911 poster|Emmet, Robert}}
* [[Despard Plot]]
* [[Irish rebellion of 1803|Irish Rebellion of 1803]]
* [[John Allen (Irish nationalist)|John Allen]]
* [[Thomas Russell (rebel)|Thomas Russell]]
* [[List of monuments and memorials to the Irish Rebellion of 1803]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
* [[Elliott, Marianne]], (2004) ''Robert Emmet: The Making of a Legend''
* Geoghegan, Patrick. (2004). ''Robert Emmet: A Life'' 
* Gough, Hugh & David Dickson, editors, (1991). ''Ireland and the French Revolution''
* Landreth, Helen, (1948), ''The Pursuit of Robert Emmet''
* McMahon, Sean, (2001) ''Robert Emmet''
* O Bradaigh, Sean, (2003). ''Bold Robert Emmet 1778–1803''
* O'Donnell, Ruan, (2003). ''Robert Emmet and the Rebellion of 1798''
* _____.(2003) ''Robert Emmet and the Rising of 1803''
* _____.(2003). ''Remember Emmet: Images of the Life and Legacy of Robert Emmet''
* Smyth, Jim, (1998). ''The Men of No Property: Irish Radicals and Popular Politics in the Late Eighteenth Century''
* [[ATQ Stewart|Stewart, A.T.Q.]] (1993). ''A Deeper Silence: The Hidden Origins of the United Irish Movement''

==External links==
{{Integrate section|date=October 2015}}
* [http://www.libraryireland.com/biography/RobertEmmet.php Robert Emmet]
* [http://www.historyireland.com/category/robert-emmet/ Robert Emmet] index of articles in ''History Ireland''
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20070407032455/http://www.dublincastle.ie/history13.html History of Dublin Castle, Chapter 13. Emmet's execution]}}
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20040205204953/http://www.breakingnews.ie/2003/08/03/story108430.html DNA tests to tell if skull is Emmet's]}}
* [http://www.unitedirishmen.org/ Emmet's 'Proclamation of Independence']
* [[s:Speech from the Dock (Emmet)|Robert Emmet's Speech (Unabridged) From the Dock]]
* [http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/4aa/4aa94.htm Bronze sculpture of Robert Emmet (1916), by Jerome Stanley Connor, in Emmet Park, Washington, DC] [http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0001558.htm (photos)]
* [http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist10/devalera.html Éamon De Valera unveils statue of Robert Emmet in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, 20 July 1919]
* [http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=123851K26E758.103053&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100009~!1193668~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!siartinventories&term=Robert+Emmet%2C&index=ALTIT Smithsonian American Art Museum's Art Inventories Catalog record of the Robert Emmet Statue in Washington, D.C.]
* {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120302054242/http://robertemmetmuseum.org/ Robert Emmet Museum]}}
* {{Librivox author |id=12076}}

{{Irish Rebellion of 1798|state=expanded}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emmet, Robert}}
[[Category:1778 births]]
[[Category:1803 deaths]]
[[Category:Emmet family]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College Dublin]]
[[Category:Executed people from County Dublin]]
[[Category:Executed revolutionaries]]
[[Category:Irish Anglicans]]
[[Category:19th-century executions by the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:People executed by the United Kingdom by hanging]]
[[Category:Protestant Irish nationalists]]
[[Category:United Irishmen]]
[[Category:Politicians from Dublin (city)]]