Robert Emmet was one of the most romantic of all Irish revolutionaries. He was the youngest son of Ireland’s state physician and was educated privately at Trinity College Dublin.
In the revolutionary year of 1798, when three different insurrections broke out in Ireland, he was expelled from Trinity College, thus ending his prospects of a professional career. He organised and led the doomed insurrection of May 1803 but Emmet’s rising was quickly crushed.
After he was publicly hanged outside St Catherine's Church in Thomas Street on September 20th, 1803, his head was displayed to the crowd by the hangman Thomas Galvin. The remains of Emmet's body was taken to Bully's Acre in the grounds of what is now the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and buried there.
His youth, passionate oratory, and courage in the face of death have made him a permanent symbol of romantic, revolutionary, Irish nationalism.
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