Emmet was born in Sam's Cross, near Clonakilty in West Cork in 1778. His father served as surgeon to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and to members of the British Royal Family on their visits to Ireland but despite his privileged position in Irish society Emmet, like many of his contemporaries, was attracted to revolutionary republican politics.

His education at Trinity College, Dublin was cut short when he joined the patriotic society, the Society of United Irishmen who had initially campaigned for parliamentary reform and an end to religious discrimination against Catholics (though Emmet and many United Irishmen were Protestants). However, when the United Irishmen were banned following the British declaration of war on Revolutionary France in 1793, the organisation was forced underground and now aimed for full Irish independence, preparing for insurrection with French aid. Robert Emmet's brother Thomas Addis Emmet was a senior member of the United Irishmen and had to flee for France to escape government repression. The rebellion of 1798 was crushed but Emmet and others sought exile in France, joining the groups of emigre revolutionaries in Paris.

In 1802 during a brief lull in the Napoleonic Wars Emmet joined an Irish delegation to Napoleon asking for support. However the delegation returned unsuccessfully when Napoleon signed a peace treaty with Britain.

1803 rebellion

When European conflict was renewed in May 1803, Emmet returned to Ireland and together with other revolutionaries such as Thomas Russell and James Hope , prepared to launch a new rebellion. Emmet began to manufacture weapons and explosives at a number of premises in Dublin and even innovated a folding pike which could be concealed under a cloak due to being fitted with a hinge. Unlike in 1798, the preparations for the uprising were successfully concealed, but a premature explosion at one of Emmet's arms depots killed a man and forced Emmet to bring forward the date of the rising before the authorities' suspicions were aroused.

Emmet was unable to secure the help of Michael Dwyer's Wicklow rebels and many Kildare rebels who had arrived turned back due to the scarcity of firearms they had been promised but the rising went ahead in Dublin on the evening of July 23, 1803. Following a failed attempt to seize Dublin Castle, the rising degenerated into confusion and general rioting. The Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Lord Kilwarden, chief prosecutor of William Orr in 1797, was dragged from his carriage and hacked to death. Emmet personally witnessed a dragoon being pulled from his horse and piked to death, the sight of which prompted him to call off the rising to avoid further bloodshed.

Emmet's fate

Emmet fled into hiding but was captured on 25 August, near Harold's cross. he endangered his life by moving his hiding place from Rathfarnam to Harold's Cross so that he could be near his sweetheart, Sarah Curran. He was tried for treason on 19 September; the Crown repaired the weaknesses in its case by secretly buying the assistance of Emmet's defense attorney, Leonard Macnally, for £200 and a pension. On 20 September Emmet was executed by hanging and beheading in Dublin. The remains were then secretly buried.

After he had been sentenced Emmet delivered a speech, the Speech from the Dock, which is especially remembered for its closing sentences and secured his posthumous fame among the pantheon of Irish republican martyrs;

"Let no man write my epitaph... When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then shall my character be vindicated, then may my epitaph be written".

The whereabouts of his remains has remained a mystery. It was suspected that it had been buried secretly in the vault of a Dublin Anglican church. When the vault was inspected in the 1950s a headless corpse that could not be identified, but which was suspected of being Emmet's, was found. In the 1980s the church was turned into a night club and all the coffins removed from the vaults. What was done with the mysterious corpse is unknown. Although Emmet's rebellion was a complete failure, he became an heroic figure in Irish history. His speech from the dock is one of the finest speeches in world history. The bravery and fortitude of Emmet's housekeeper, Anne Devlin, in the face of torture, also earned her a unique place in Irish history.

Part of Robert Emmet's brave Speech from the Dock: