First the big news—Oliver Cromwell has apologised to the Irish people for massacring them and sending them off to Barbados as slaves. Well, he has not spoken in person but the Arise Mission from his home town of Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, has issued an apology on his behalf and brought a letter to that effect to … Read more
Marianne Elliott (Profile, £20) ISBN 1861976437 Remember Emmet: images of the life and legacy of Robert Emmet Ruán O’Donnell (Wordwell Books, E15) ISBN 1869857593 The publication of Marianne Elliott’s Partners in Revolution, in 1982, not only established her reputation as a fine historian but also changed the way in which all subsequent histories would examine … Read more
Patrick M. Geoghegan (Gill and McMillan, E23.99) ISBN 0-7171-3387-7 Robert Emmet and the Rebellion of 1798 Ruán O’Donnell (Irish Academic Press, E59.50) ISBN 0-7165-2788-X Robert Emmet and the Rising of 1803 Ruán O’Donnell (Irish Academic Press, E27.50) ISBN 0-7165-2786-3 That Robert Emmet has been the subject of more than forty biographies is indeed incredible … Read more
The ghostliness of Robert Emmet is not just about the way he haunts the Irish historical imagination; it is sometimes suggested by the very evidence for his physical existence. It was Emmet himself who set the haunting note, insisting in his famous speech from the dock on a form of memorial absence—that his tombstone remain … Read more
A common observation about Robert Emmet is that he had a death-wish, that he was in thrall to blood sacrifice and the martyrdom complex. That version misunderstands the nature of his ethical dilemma. There is a clear distinction between being a martyr and being a suicide. Suicide you choose: martyrdom has to be inflicted on … Read more