It was this time around twenty years ago, with Robert Emmet’s 200th anniversary coming up, that I began to wonder, like many Irish people, about the death and burial of that singular Irish historical figure. The conundrum of the patriot’s last speech from the dock is rivalled only by the mystery of his final resting place. There are various theories, and while personal investigations, interviews with historians and even Emmet’s ancestors were fascinating, they were inconclusive. My research produced a series of illustrations that I was planning to use in a study of the subject, and while the study was never in fact completed, I would like to present them today to commemorate the birth of one of Ireland’s most remarkable rebels: Robert Emmet.
