When Ireland a Nation, a film made in 1914 that centred on the political and military events in Ireland from the late eighteenth century to the Famine, was screened at the Rotunda, Dublin, in January 1918, it was seized by the military authorities after just two days—despite having already received a permit from the press … Read more
Among the various ‘ghosts’ invoked in the build-up to 1916 the name of Robert Emmet was central to the imagining of a ‘New Ireland’. As important was the influence of the Emmet family in America, where sympathy for the advanced nationalist cause in terms of both funds and propaganda was vital to any potential political … Read more
Robert Emmet denied the French three times, twice in his speech from the dock and once from the gallows. His rejection of the French remains the most controversial and disputed aspect of his entire life. Only a close examination of the trial of Robert Emmet puts some of these problems into focus. The speech from … Read more
Robert Emmet entered Trinity College, Dublin, aged fifteen, in October 1793. One of the first books he read that year was John Locke’s Two treatises of government, a 1728 (‘5th’) edition, published by A. Betterworth, J. Pemberton and E. Symon of London. This copy was later bequeathed to Thomas Addis Emmet, Robert’s grandnephew, and the … Read more
The rising of 1803 bore as much resemblance to what had been planned by its chief military strategist, Robert Emmet, as the rebellion of 1798 did to Lord Edward Fitzgerald’s original plans. In both instances United Irish offensive activities had been envisaged as secondary to those of a sizeable French expeditionary force. Contingencies devised by … Read more