Robert Emmet was the "best-known Irishman of the 19th century", even more so than Parnell or O'Connell, claims historian Dr Ruán O'Donnell.
"He had more books, plays and poems written about him," said the University of Limerick lecturer whose two-volume "contextualised" biography of the romanticised Irish patriot was launched last night at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin.
It was an appropriate venue for the launch, coinciding with the exhibition to mark the bicentenary of Emmet's execution after the failed rising of 1803. "His speech from the dock is one of the most famous in the English language," says Dr O'Donnell, who believes he was "at least as important as Wolfe Tone", the leader of the United Irishmen and the 1798 rebellion.
He was deemed to be a romantic figure, but, according to Dr O'Connell, that was the propaganda of the time: "I don't care that Robert Emmet died young (aged 25). I don't care that his girlfriend (Sarah Curran) was sad. This is irrelevant." What was relevant, he said, was to "contextualise" Emmet in the politics of his time.
He was not a romantic in the "classical" sense, says Dr O'Donnell. Emmet was of the "physical force" tradition, an "anti-British, Republican separatist".
"Abraham Lincoln learnt by rote Emmet's speech from the dock," said the historian and broadcaster, Dr John Bowman, who launched the two volumes, Robert Emmet and the Rebellion of 1798 and Robert Emmet and the rising of 1803.
Dr Bowman, who described Emmet as an iconic figure in the "pantheon of patriots", said that, up to now, Emmet's importance has been in the manner of his death and his speech at the dock. "His importance was what we all made of him after his death."
These biographies "are giving us back the young Emmet, aged 18 to 25". The biography was the first approach to "evaluate him from his life, rather than the manner of his extraordinary and noble death".
