Proclaiming Rebellion: Emmet, Pearse and the Road to 1916

The University of St. Thomas William J. Flynn Center for Irish Studies presents Proclaiming Rebellion: Emmet, Pearse and the Road to 1916.

Patrick Pearse believed that Robert Emmet was the patron saint of Irish nationality, and in 1916 he made plans for an insurrection “to erase the guilt of the Dublin people not rising in 1803”.

Emmet’s rebellion was one of six referenced in the 1916 Proclamation, but it was the one that inspired Pearse the most, even down to the idea of a Proclamation itself.  This lecture will explore the road to the 1916 Rising, looking at the rebellions that inspired it, the iconic Proclamation, and the connections between Emmet and Pearse, to provide a new interpretation of the events of Easter 1916.

Professor Patrick Geoghegan teaches history at Trinity College Dublin and presents the award-winning weekly history program, Talking History, on Irish radio (available to download at a podcast on iTunes).

An expert on the Anglo-Irish relationship in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as on the competing themes of constitutional nationalism and radical republicanism, his books include: The Irish Act of Union: A Study in High Politics, 1798-1801 (1999); Lord Castlereagh (2002); Robert Emmet: A Life (2003); King Dan: The Rise of Daniel O’Connell, 1775-1829 (2008); and Liberator: The Life and Death of Daniel O’Connell, 1830-1847 (2010).

His free online course ‘Ireland in Rebellion’ covers the period 1782 to 1923 and can be viewed on YouTube or iTunesU.