"When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth,
then, and not til then, let my epitaph be written."
—Robert Emmet
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Robert Emmet's Speech From The Dock
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On September 8, 1803, Irish patriot Robert Emmet, age 25, wrote a letter from his cell in Kilmainham jail, Dublin. He addressed it to "Miss Sarah Curran, the Priory, Rathfarnham" and handed it to a prison warden, George Dunn, whom he trusted to deliver it. Dunn betrayed him and gave the letter to the government authorities, an action that nearly cost Sarah her life.