The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-02-04
ROBERT EN- M let.
The Protestant Patriot Maj tyr Who
is the Patron Saint Of Irish
Nationality.
HIS BIRTHDAY CELEBRATED
BY His Catholic Oountrymen
Though of Cromwellian and
Puritan Extraction

AAA~AA
Though of Cromwellian and
Puritan Extraction.
4 writer in the Chicago Post gives the
following interesting sketch of Robert
Emmett and his famous family:
Emmett is the name dearest to the
hearts OF the people Of ireland and to the
many more millions Of men and women
of the irish race scattered over the
wide, wido world than can be found in
the old land to-day. Tt is tho name Of
the patron saint of Irish nationality and
typifies the patriotism, the poetry and
the romance of the national struggle.
The birthday OF Robert Emmet is cele-
bratei as q national festival by the sons
of the Gael throughout the world and
March has political Significance in
Irish eyes that is absent on st. Patrick's
day. All christians may join in honor
ing the great missionary who brought
the faith to Erin and banished the dru-
ids and tho snakes. Those who pray to
st.. Emmet are believers in the resur-
gence of an Irish nation. such as Thomas
Davis sang OF, "where ev'ry race and
ev'ry creed might be by love combined. !"
The history Of the Emmett family is
typical the process OF fusion of con-
querors and conquered, of Celt, Saxon
and Norman, which has been going on in
that strange little island for the past
seven hundred years, but more particu-
]arly during the last three centuries-the
conquered race showing a most extraor-
dinary power Of absorption and assimila-
tion. The Emmets came from England
in she ranks of a conquering army, and
participated in the most ruthless con-
quest and spoliation that ever marked
the relations OF the "sister islands" The
first Eminet was q captain OF Cromwell's g
troopers and WAS puritan OF the stern
est type. He took part in the long and
sanguinsry struggle which drove the old
Irish and Anglo-Irish ito hell or Con-
naught'' and ssttled down to the posses.
aion of fair tract of confscated land in
Cork. He died rs he had lived, hating
the people whom he had fought and
robbed ''in the name Of God,' and left q
remarkable will, disinheriting any Of his
children who should "contract marriage
with psrson who was Irish or papist.
Yet his descendants, in less than one
hundred and Atty years, were leaders in
one OF the most formidable instructions
against British rule in Ireland and the
family to-day are all Roman Catholics.
Wolfe Tone, Lord Edward Fitzgerald,
Father Mathew, John Mitchell and
Charles Stewart Parnell, all came of
similar stock, planted as an English gar
rison in the land, aud their lives stand
out as striking protests against the folly
OF English policy in Ireland.
The romance that sheds halo around
Robert Emmett has made him the favor
ite Of the Irish people, and foreigners
Judge the movement of which his at
tempt at insurrection was only the dying
epasm by the sad story of his life. But
his brother, Thomas Adds Emmett, was
q mu:h bigger man intellectually and
filed far moro important part in the
great conspiracy of the United Irish
men," The movement was founded by
Protestante for the establishment of an
Independent irish nation in which all
men should have equal rights, irrespec-
tive of race or creed. The great orgaai-
ger and diplomatist of the movement was
Theobald Wolfe Tone, the descendant OF
soldier who fought with William of Or
ange at the Boyne. The designated mil
itary leader was Lord Edward Fltzger-
aid, whose ancestors had come to Ireland
with Strongbow, who gained his military
experience as British officer in the
: American Revolutionary War, where he
first imbibed ideas of liberty. With
other aristocrats carried away by the
fervor of the French revolution. includ-
ing the ancestor of Stanhope, Lord Sails
bury's secretary of war in the last cabi-
net, the young Geraldine publicly re-
nounced his title in Paris and married
the beautiful Pamela, an illegitimate
daughter Of Philippe Egalite, ancestor
OF the present Comte de Paris. He was
mortally wounded in q desperate strug-
gle resisting arrest on the eve Of the pro
iected insurrection.
Tone, captured on q French warship in
y battle il LouRh Swilly, had vainly
4 sought death "a the fight and finally
.ssnded his life with his own hand II .
3 Dublin prison to prevent the indianity
Il beng hanged in the uniform Of the re:
81 hiioh he had 4 worn With homo,