Emmet

Emmet, ROBERT, an ill-fated Irish patriot, was born in Dublin in 1778, the youngest son of the physician to the viceroy. At fifteen he entered Trinity College, where Moore was a fellow-student, but an academic career of exceptional promise was soon cut short by his joining the United Irishmen. He next travelled on the Continent, interviewed Napoleon and Talleyrand in 1802 on behalf of the Irish cause, and returned the next year to devote his own fortune of £3000 to buying muskets and manufacturing pikes. With a few confederates he laid a plot to seize Dublin Castle, and secure the person of the viceroy, but the rising proved a complete failure, and Emmet, who had arrayed himself for the occasion in a green coat, white breeches, and cocked hat, had the mortification to see nothing result from his enterprise but a few ruffianly murders. He escaped to the Wicklow Mountains, but returning for a last interview with his sweetheart, Sarah Curran (q.v.), the daughter of the orator, was arrested, put on trial on 19th September 1803, condemned to death, and hanged the following day. Just before receiving sentence he delivered a speech which still thrills the reader by its noble and pathetic eloquence. See the biography in Madden's Lives of the United Irishmen, 3d series, vol. iii. (1846).