A programme of events and activities to mark the bicentenary next year of the execution of Robert Emmet was launched yesterday by the Taoiseach.
Robert Emmet was executed on September 20th, 1803, 199 years ago yesterday.
At the launch of "Emmet 200", Mr Ahern said no event in Irish history is as closely associated with one man as the rebellion of 1803. He said our position in the EU and the UN today are visible demonstrations of our place "among the nations of the world", as alluded to by Emmet in his speech from the dock.
The launch was hosted by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr Dermot Lacey, and attended by members of the Emmet family, Mrs Justice Susan Denham, the French ambassador and public representatives.
The Robert Emmet Association and a commemoration committee, which includes Dr Martin Mansergh, is co-ordinating the activities. The Taoiseach said the bulk of his Department's commemoration budget would be spent on Emmet commemorations next year.
The administrator of the Emmet Association, Mr Frank Connolly, told The Irish Times that, through the good offices of the educational publishers Folens, next month every school in the State will receive a copy of Robert Emmet's Proclamation of the Republic, which predated the 1916 Proclamation by more than a century. It was based on the American Declaration of Independence, he said.
Other events later this year will include the publication of a biography of Emmet by Dr Patrick Geoghegan of Trinity College Dublin, and a book on his legacy by historian and Wolfe Tone biographer, Dr Marianne Elliott. There will be a series of public lectures in public libraries in January, February and March of next year, along with a re-enactment, in Trinity College, of the debate in which Emmet won a Gold Medal.