Robert Emmet

The Irish nationalist Robert Emmet (1778-1803) was executed after leading an unsuccessful revolution against British rule. His youth, passionate oratory, and courage in the face of death have made him a permanent symbol of romantic, revolutionary, Irish nationalism.

Robert Emmet was the youngest of 18 children born to a prominent Anglo-Irish Protestant family. His father, Dr. Robert Emmet, was state physician of Ireland. In 1793 Emmet enrolled at Trinity College, Dublin. He excelled in his studies and won a reputation as a fiery orator. Emmet was influenced by the liberal views of the Enlightenment and the conduct of an older brother who was a member of the Society of United Irishmen. In 1796 Emmet joined the radical group.

Inspired by the examples of the American and French revolutions, the United Irishmen demanded an Ireland free of English influence and governed by a reformed Parliament representing both Protestant and Catholic opinion, elected by a democratic franchise. Frightened by the increasing militancy of the United Irishmen, the intensity of Catholic discontent, and the threat of internal insurrection supported by French invasion, the Irish government adopted measures restricting civil liberties. The Earl of Clare, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, began to investigate student opinion at Trinity, and in 1798 Emmet was forced to leave the college.

Emmet maintained United Irishmen connections but apparently did not participate in the 1798 revolution. After the Irish and British parliaments passed the Act of Union, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1800) and completely destroying the legal existence of the Irish nation, Emmet and his friends considered revolution even more imperative. He left for the Continent to confer with Irish exiles. Napoleon and other French leaders expressed a willingness to assist an Irish revolution. In 1802 Emmet returned to Dublin to create an army of liberation, hoping for French assistance:

Emmet used his own funds to buy weapons, mostly pikes. He asked the Dublin proletariat to strike a blow for liberty. Unfortunately, he failed to establish effective communications with United Irishmen outside the metropolitan area and was unaware that the government had infiltrated his organization. When authorities discovered a cache of arms, Emmet decided to raise the standard of revolt. On July 23, 1803, he issued a proclamation establishing a provisional government for an Irish Republic; he put on a general's uniform of green and white with gold epaulets and led his band of about 80 men out to battle. No help arrived and the revolt was crushed by British soldiers. Emmet managed to escape but refused to leave for America, insisting on remaining close to his fiancée, Sarah Curran, daughter of the famous barrister, John Philpot Curran. On August 25 British soldiers captured Emmet.

On Sept. 19, 1803, the government brought Emmet to trial. Sadistic Lord Norbury was the judge, and Leonard MacNally, an informer, was defense counsel. The jury delivered a guilty verdict. Before sentencing, Emmet brilliantly defended his nationalism. He said that he was prepared to die for the future of Irish freedom, closing with the words: "Let no man write my epitaph…. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written." On September 20 he was hanged.

Emmet's image among Irish nationalists far exceeds the merits of his performance as revolutionary. He was naive, impractical, flamboyant, excessively talkative, and a poor organizer. British vengeance, however, converted a pathetic effort into a triumph of martydom. Thomas Moore's poems about Emmet enhanced the image of noble and tragic martyr. Irish exiles in America were particularly loyal to Emmet's memory, learning the words of his speech and naming their children and patriotic organizations after him. Emmet's example of blood sacrifice watered Irish nationalism, motivating Fenians and the men of the Easter Rebellion of 1916 and the Anglo-Irish war.

Further Reading

Helen Landreth, The Pursuit of Robert Emmet (1948), claims that British government spies and informers acted as agents provoking revolt to further William Pitt the Younger's Irish policy and that Emmet was an unknowing victim of British duplicity and tyranny. Owen Dudley Edwards in "Ireland" in Celtic Nationalism (1968) recognizes Emmet's contribution to the romantic myths of revolutionary nationalism but compares his total impact unfavorably when measured against Wolfe Tone's. See also Leon O'Broin, The Unfortunate Robert Emmet (1958), and R. Jacobs, The Rise of the United Irishmen (1937). □

Emmet, Robert

A United Irishman and the leader of a failed rebellion in 1803, Robert Emmet (1778–1803) was the younger brother of Thomas Addis Emmet, a prominent United Irishman of 1798. Robert joined the United Irishmen in December 1796 and led the society at Trinity College, Dublin, but fled the country in April 1798 and was in France during the rebellion of that summer. In the autumn of 1798 he became involved in a movement to revive the United Irishmen and initiate a second rebellion. He was back in Ireland by the spring of 1799 and worked actively toward this goal. He left Ireland again in August 1800 and traveled around much of Europe over the next two years, arranging for support from United Irish exiles and foreign governments. Emmet returned to Ireland for the final time in October 1802 and, in cooperation with James Hope, William Putnam McCabe, and Thomas Russell, created a formidable revolutionary network embracing as many as nineteen counties. His immediate strategy was based on the idea of a quick seizure of Dublin, followed by rebellion in outlying counties, all coinciding with a French landing. An accidental explosion in one of several arms depots he had established in Dublin, in addition to the work of spies, led both to the government's discovery of Emmet's plot and to his hurried decision to initiate the rebellion on 23 July 1803 rather than in August (when he mistakenly expected a French landing). After a brief struggle in Dublin the rebel mobilization disintegrated and Emmet and more than two dozen other leaders fled, but they were rounded up within a few weeks. Emmet was tried and found guilty. Before his execution in October, he made one of the most famous of all Irish patriotic speeches from the dock. For this reason as well as because he was among the first to conceive of the Irish separatist struggle as one that must be based primarily on Irish efforts rather than foreign assistance (despite his own intense efforts to secure such assistance), he occupies an important place in the story of Irish nationalism.

SEE ALSO United Irish Societies from 1791 to 1803; Primary Documents: Speech from the Dock (19 September 1803)

Bibliography

Elliott, Marianne. Partners in Revolution: The United Irishmen and France. 1988.

Madden, R. R. The Life and Times of Robert Emmet. 1847.

Daniel Gahan

Emmet, Robert (1778–1803). Irish patriot. Emmet, a middle-class protestant republican, came to prominence after the failure of the 1798 rising. He was influential in reactivating the United Irish movement in 1799, and in 1801 journeyed to Paris in order to revive French support for the Irish republican cause. After March 1803 Emmet and other United Irish veterans of the 1798 rising began to prepare a second revolt. This occurred in a haphazard fashion on 23 July in Dublin, and although swiftly suppressed, caught Dublin castle ill prepared. Emmet escaped into the Dublin mountains, but was captured in August, and tried for treason. A lengthy state trial was held: Emmet, who readily accepted his guilt, was convicted and hanged. His youth and liaison with Sarah Philpot Curran have encouraged portrayals of the rebellion as a romantic, impulsive, and idealistic gesture. But Emmet had maintained a high standard of secrecy and professionalism in his preparations, and had an élitist conception of Irish independence far removed from that of the catholic democrats who later idealized his actions.

Alvin Jackson