Burial
Emmet's remains were first delivered to Newgate Prison and then back to Kilmainham Gaol, where the jailer was under instructions that if no-one claimed them they were to be buried in a nearby hospital's burial grounds called 'Bully's Acre' in Kilmainham. A later search there found no remains as it appeared that Emmet's remains were secretly removed from Bully's Acre and reinterred in St Michan's, a church with strong United Irish associations, though it was never confirmed.
There is much mystery and speculation regarding the whereabouts of Emmet's remains. It was suspected that they were buried secretly in the vault of a Dublin Anglican church. When the vault was inspected in the 1950s a headless corpse was found, suspected of being Emmet's, but could not be identified. Widely accepted as the most plausible theory put forth was that Emmet's remains were transferred to the Church of Ireland in St Peter's Church in Dublin under cover of the burial of Robert's sister, Mary Anne Holmes, in 1804. In the 1980s the church was turned into a night club and all the coffins removed from the vaults. The church has since been demolished.
Read more about this topic: Robert Emmet
Famous quotes containing the word burial:
“I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day,
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And, turning from my nursery window, drew
A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu!”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)
“How shall my animal
Whose wizard shape I trace in the cavernous skull,
Vessel of abscesses and exultation’s shell,
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“On the beach at night,
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—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)