Events to mark the bicentenary of the execution of United Irishman Robert Emmet take place in Dublin.
On this day two hundred years ago nationalist and rebel leader Robert Emmet was tried for high treason for his part in leading an insurrection against British rule in 1803 and found guilty.
A re-enactment of his trial in Green Street Courthouse took place today, including his famous speech.
This Robert Emmet oration became so well-known in the period following his execution, that United States President Abraham Lincoln became familiar with it.
As one historian tells RTÉ News the 16th president exercised leniency in the case of one Confederate soldier during the American Civil War,
He commuted a a soldier from the Confederate army's life sentence, because the soldier knew it by heart.
Richard Stockton Emmet and Philip Emmet are fourth cousins and direct descendants of Robert Emmet’s older brother Thomas Addis Emmet. Richard Stockton Emmet recalls learning about his famous ancestor from an early age,
We had an old 78 record...’Robert Emmet’s Farewell To His Love’.
Other commemorations this weekend include a service tomorrow, the date of Robert Emmet’s execution, outside Saint Catherine’s Church on Thomas Street. Also tomorrow in Kilmainham Gaol actor Stephen Rea and cellist Neil Martin will take part in 'An Evening of Emmet’.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 19 September 2003. The reporter is Teresa Mannion.
