Robert Emmet

Born: 1778
Died: September 20, 1803, Dublin

     Robert Emmet was both a student and one of the foremost rebels at Trinity College. Robert and his brother, Thomas, traveled to France in 1799 to petition the government for help in another insurrection. (The two of them actually spoke to Napoleon and his foreign minister, Talleyrand.) Eventually, Emmet declined help from other nations and set about planning a rebellion himself. Initially, his strategy seemed sound but he did not realize Bernard Duggan, a supposed friend and ally, was actually a spy for the British. Duggan ratted Emmet out and he fled to escape prosecution. He was caught when he came back to Dublin to visit a girlfriend and Emmet was charged with treason. On September 20, he was executed.

     For more on Emmet, please see http://www.robertemmet.org.
     To read Emmet's famous speech, please see http://www.robertemmet.org/speech.htm.