22/09/2025
On Saturday we passed by the anniversary of the ex*****on by the English occupation forces of Robert Emmet, United Irishman.
Emmet had been condemned to death for planning an insurrection for Irish self-determination which the English Occupation called 'treason'.
Leaving behind in Kilmainham Gaol his comrade Anne Devlin, who had endured torture and death of family members without giving the authorities any information, Emmet was taken to the front of St. Catherine's Church on Thomas Street in Dublin's Liberties area on the west side of the city centre. The site chosen was sending a message to the populace of the area that had nationalist and republican sympathies.
There, in front of a huge crowd and many soldiers, Emmet was hanged and then beheaded, the ex*****oner holding up the dripping head to the crowd. His body was later returned to the Gaol before being later buried in Bully's Acres in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. Emmet's co**se was later secretly disinterred in secret and reburied elsewhere by friends or family and, despite a number of sites being speculated, its current location is unknown.
There is a monument to the ex*****on inside the grounds of the St. Catherine's building and a stone plaque on the wall outside it. Robert Emmet was very popular in Ireland at the time and his memory is still. A statue in his honour stands in Dublin's Stephens Green, a replica of another two at locations in the United States.
Anne Devlin endured three years in Kilmainham Gaol and according to Richard Madden (1798 – 5 February 1886), chronicler of the United Irishmen who sought her out, was followed everywhere in public by police, observing anyone who she spoke to, as a result of which many were afraid to speak to her. Her body lies in Glasnevin Cemetery.
"Bold Robert Emmet" is a traditional ballad in the martyr's honour and Anne Devlin also has a much more recent song in hers by Pete St.John.
