Madam, - In relation to the mystery surrounding the note-taker at the trial of Robert Emmet allow me to provide some information regarding some early imprints of what Kevin Myers calls his "unproven" speech from the dock (July 24th).
It would appear that the many editions of the Trial that appeared throughout the 19th century all carry some variants in the wording of the speech attributed to Emmet. Interestingly, those that give the printer's name invariably contain less than favourable comments on the French. These early issues are accepted as fabrications issued purely in the interests of the government of the day. Two 1803 editions exist which in both cases carry printer's names and the expected unfavourable references to La France. One of these editions cites a Mr John Angell, Professor of Stenography, as having been responsible for recording the speech, which is itself offered only in part.
This is not the case with editions where little or no information is given regarding either printer or place of publication. These editions, "printed at the request of his friends", are accepted as providing the truest renditions of Emmet's address to the court and were issued as the "Genuine Speech" having been "carefully taken in Short Hand by a Professional Gentleman". As has been determined from an examination of both type and paper used in these issues, a publication date of 1803 can be reasonably accepted. Subsequent reprints of the text of this edition appearing in 1821 and in 1879 have been noted by F.S. Bourke in his The Rebellion of 1803: An Essay in Bibliography, published in Dublin At The Sign Of The Three Candles in 1933.
From information happily provided by a Dublin antiquarian bookseller's catalogue entry from the mid-1960s, this "first correct edition of Emmet's famous speech" issued in the year of his trial and execution is understood "to have been printed by the old United Irishman, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, on his private press as soon as he was allowed to return to Ireland.
"The elaborate title page was supplied by a friend who was engaged in a newspaper office. The "Professional Gentleman" who recorded the speech was the son of Leonard McNally, the defender of the United Irishmen and celebrated informer." - Yours etc.,
PATRICK HAWE, Larkfield Ave., Harold's Cross, Dublin.
Madam, - Your columnist Kevin Myers has embarrassed himself once again. His attempt to prove that Emmet never made a lengthy speech from the dock, because shorthand note-taking hadn't been invented, reveals an appalling ignorance.
In fact, John Angell, the son of a celebrated author on stenography, was present in the courtroom and recorded a version of the speech for Emmet's friends. Myers asks why the government permitted such note-taking. Why not?
After all, the government always recorded the key state trials and one of the prosecuting attorneys, John Ridgeway, also took extensive notes which became the official version.
Trying to demolish myths should always be commended. A laughable knowledge of any history that happened before the twentieth century should not. - Yours etc.,
PATRICK GEOGHEGAN, Greenfield Road, Mount Merrion, Dublin.