Robert Emmet (1778-1803) was one of the most romantic of all Irish revolutionaries. In 1798, he went to the Continent where he met both Napoleon and Talleyrand and returned to Dublin where he organised and led the doomed insurrection of May 1803.

No foreign help came. Emmet's rising was quickly crushed. He was tried and executed, but not before making a speech from the dock which has resonated through subsequent Irish history.