Portrait of Robert Emmet
Full portrait of Robert Emmet, which currently hangs in Leinster House.
Portrait of Robert Emmet
Portrait of Robert Emmet
Full portrait of Robert Emmet, which currently hangs in Leinster House.
Another attempt to take control of the castle was staged by Robert Emmet and a small troop of men in 1803. Emmet was determined to organise a rising and decided to act on July 23 1803. The rising was to consist of planned attacks on Dublin Castle, Pigeon House Fort and the Islandbridge Barracks. Only a small proportion of the expected number of insurgents took part in the rebellion and as a result it failed.
Prisoner in the Tower
Drawing of Anne Devlin
Anne Devlin was born in Wicklow in 1778. She moved to a farm in Rathfarnham with her family after the 1798 Rebellion. In 1803, Robert Emmet rented the nearby Butterfield House. Anne became his faithful servant and friend and assisted him in his preparations for his ill-fated insurrection. She was arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham for high treason. She married some years after her release, but eventually died in poverty in the Liberties in Dublin.
© South Dublin Libraries.Drawing of Anne Devlin
© South Dublin Libraries.
© South Dublin Libraries.
Drawing of Anne Devlin
Anne Devlin was born in Wicklow in 1778. She moved to a farm in Rathfarnham with her family after the 1798 Rebellion. In 1803, Robert Emmet rented the nearby Butterfield House. Anne became his faithful servant and friend and assisted him in his preparations for his ill-fated insurrection. She was arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham for high treason. She married some years after her release, but eventually died in poverty in the Liberties in Dublin.
© South Dublin Libraries.
Record Tower and Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle
The Record Tower is the last intact tower of Dublin Castle. It is also the last intact tower of the city. It was used as a high security prison. The walls are 4.6 metres thick. <br> <br> The Chapel Royal was completed in 1814. It was the the official Anglican chapel of the Household of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland until Dublin Castle was handed over to the Free State Government in 1922. It became a Catholic Church in 1943. Masses are no longer celebrated there.
Record Tower and Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle
Record Tower and Chapel Royal, Dublin Castle
The Record Tower is the last intact tower of Dublin Castle. It is also the last intact tower of the city. It was used as a high security prison. The walls are 4.6 metres thick. <br> <br> The Chapel Royal was completed in 1814. It was the the official Anglican chapel of the Household of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland until Dublin Castle was handed over to the Free State Government in 1922. It became a Catholic Church in 1943. Masses are no longer celebrated there.
After the rebellion, Emmet went into hiding in the Dublin Mountains. Emmet's helper and accomplice, Anne Devlin was jailed in the Record Tower at Dublin Castle, and later Kilmainham, but she refused to give information to the authorities about Emmet, despite being subjected to torture and the deprivations of prison life.
After her imprisonment, Anne Devlin's experiences were taken down in her own words by Brother Luke Cullen.
In the following passage she describes conditions in the Tower:
...in five minutes more I was in the Tower, in a little closet just the length of my pallet and about two feet broader.
There was no light but from the door, and as for a fire I never had the luxury of one even in my most debilitated state. There was an empty room adjoining mine and from which it was boarded off. I was sometimes allowed to crawl around this room, leaning against the walls.
From "Anne Devlin: Patriot and Heroine" by John Finegan.