“Let no man dare, when I am dead, to charge me with dishonour; let no man attaint my memory, by believing that I could have engaged in any cause but that of my country's liberty and independence; or that I could have become the pliant minion of power, in the oppression and misery of my country.”

Robert Emmet Day Event Booking

Robert Emmet Day

Robert Emmet Day Event Booking

Book your space at the event here.

Booking is free, but limited; the event is scheduled between 4.30 and 7.30pm

This event is now fully booked.
We are maintaining a waitlist.
Email: communications@courts.ie for details.

 

July 23 Programme:

Robert Emmet Day

July 23 Programme:

4.30pm - Doors open

4.45pm - 5.45pm - Tour of Green Street Courthouse

6.00pm - 6.50pm - Lecture  'The Emmet Family Tragedy' by Fergus Whelan, author of 'Dissent into Treason: Unitarians, King-killers and the Society of United Irishmen'

6.50pm - 6.55pm - Poetry reading by Angela Toibin, Robert Emmet Historical Society

7.00pm - 7.30pm - 'Óraid Robert Emmet roimh a Dhaoradh' léirithe ag Cuan Ó Seireadáin ('Speech from the Dock', a new translation by Tadhg Ó Murchadha, performed in Irish, by Cuan Ó Seireadáin)

Robert Emmet

Robert Emmet

Robert Emmet

Irish republican Robert Emmet was executed on September 20, 1803, after the rebellion he led against British rule failed. He ​was 25 years old. His impassioned speech from the dock moved sentencing Judge Lord Norbury to tears and inspired romantic poets, including Shelley and Coleridge. As a founding father of the Irish Republic, Emmet epitomised the idea of an Irish identity that could be “Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter’.

He faced his gruesome death with the words: “My friends, I die in peace with sentiments of universal love and kindness towards all men”. On July 23, 221 years after Emmet’s unsuccessful rebellion, the Courts Service is hosting a special programme of events at Green Street Courthouse, the site where Emmet delivered his famous oration.