As previously stated, the 1956 stamp series portrayed many different leaders throughout Irish history in an effort to link the Rising to the risings and rebellions of the past, including the Rising associated with Robert Emmet. Robert Emmet was an Irish republican nationalist. He was a martyr from the 1803 Rebellion, for which he was found guilty and hung for treason. Emmet came from a wealthy Anglo-Irish Protestant family, who felt compelled to provide the Irish Catholics with fair representation in the Irish government and Parliament. The Emmets were also a secular family and admired the “rebels” from the American Revolution. He is best known for his “Speech from the Dock”, in which he told the Irish people, “Martyred heroes who have shed their blood on the scaffold…in defense of their country”[1] were the most worthy of those executed by the British government. Additionally, he is quoted to have said, “if there is a true Irishman present, let my words cheer him in the hour of his affliction”[2], putting forth the notion that there those who possess truly Irish qualities and those who do not.
[1] Regan, Stephen. Irish Writing: An Anthology of Irish Literature in English 1789-1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004., 17-23.
[2] Ibid.