Robert Emmet

Robert Emmet 1778-1803, Irish nationalist and revolutionary. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, but left in 1798 because of his nationalist sympathies. In 1800 he went to France, where with exiled United Irishmen he planned a French-aided uprising in Ireland. Returning (1802) to Ireland, he scheduled the uprising for the summer of 1803. The insurrection, which took place in July, 1803, ended in utter confusion. Emmet himself, who had attempted a march on Dublin Castle with about 100 men, fled. However, he returned to Dublin soon after, partly to be near Sarah Curran, daughter of John Philpot Curran. He was captured, tried, and hanged. Leonard MacNally , his attorney, was in the pay of the crown, and many of Emmet's associates were informers for the British government. Emmet became a hero of Irish nationalists, largely on the basis of his stirring speech from the scaffold.

Bibliography: See biography by L. O'Broin (1958); study by H. Landreth (1964).

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

Emmet, Robert (1778–1803), United Irishman. The younger brother of Thomas Addis Emmet, he was expelled from Trinity College in a purge of suspected radicals in April 1798, and was one of the new group of leaders to emerge after the defeat of the insurrection of 1798. He travelled to France in August 1800 to solicit fresh military aid, but returned in October 1802, apparently with no clear plans. By early 1803, however, he was active, in association with such veterans of 1798 as Thomas Russell, Myles Byrne, and the Co. Kildare bricklayer Michael Quigley, in recruiting men and stockpiling weapons for a new insurrection.

Emmet's plan was for the seizure of Dublin Castle and other strategic sites in the capital, to be followed by a largely spontaneous popular rising throughout the country. Despite comments, at his trial and elsewhere, on the danger of exchanging one foreign tyranny for another, he also appears to have counted, initially at least, on French assistance. However, an explosion at his arms depot in Patrick Street on 16 July led Emmet to bring forward the planned insurrection to 23 July. Only a small minority of the expected insurgent force, from Dublin and the surrounding countryside, assembled on that evening, and the attack on Dublin Castle was abandoned following a premature gunshot. About 300 men took control of Thomas Street and James's Street for around two hours, but were dispersed by soldiers after an abortive attack on James's Street barracks. About 50 people were killed, including Lord Kilwarden, the former attorney‐general Arthur Wolfe (1739–1803), now lord chief justice, piked to death with his nephew when his coach was surrounded by insurgents.

Emmet, who had fled to the Wicklow Mountains as his plans unravelled, was arrested on 25 August, and executed on 20 September. Twenty‐one others, including Russell, were also executed. The defeat marked the end of the United Irishmen as a serious revolutionary conspiracy. Emmet's speech from the dock became a classic of nationalist literature, although there is no definitive text and some much quoted passages are almost certainly later additions. Emmet himself was remembered as a noble but impractical dreamer, his romance with John Philpot Curran's daughter Sarah contributing to the aura of romantic tragedy. Recent accounts emphasize the place of his conspiracy, like that of Despard, in a still formidable revolutionary movement. But his talents as a strategist and military planner remain open to question.

Bibliography

Elliott, Marianne , Partners in Revolution: The United Irishmen and France (1982)