A new exhibition that displays items that have not been seen together since the trial of Robert Emmet in 1803 was officially opened in Kilmainham Gaol yesterday by Environment and Local Government Minister, Mr Cullen.
Among the items on display in the exhibition are courtroom sketches of the accused - contained in a gold locket - the trial jury's Bible, and the bar of the dock from which Emmet gave his famous speech.
Minister Martin said that Emmet's assertion - that his epitaph should not be written until Ireland takes its place among the nations of the earth - had haunted successive generations of Irish men and women.
"Each generation has been compelled to ask itself whether the time is at last come when that epitaph can be written. Have the ideals of an Irish Republic, so clearly enunciated in the proclamation Emmet issued on the eve of that brief rebellion, been achieved?"
The exhibition contains dozens of items that are being displayed for the first time in Kilmainham Gaol, where Emmet was held after his arrest. Many of them are on loan from the Emmet family who were described as "stunningly generous" by the museum's archivist, Ms Niamh O'Sullivan.
Mr Philip Emmet, a sixth generation descendant of Robert Emmet, praised the museum for the work it had done in assembling the collection.
"It's a wonderful way of bringing all these scattered items together," he said.
However, he added that - sadly - it was not yet time to write his famous ancestor's epitaph.
"We haven't reached the high point of his ideal. We're getting there, but we haven't reached the point yet," he said. Kilmainham Gaol's " Emmet" exhibition is just one of the events organised to mark the bicentenary of Robert Emmet's death. It runs until the end of September.