HIS final resting place remains one of the last great tales of republican intrigue and lately, a hot topic of discussion among the Irish in Britain.
Speculation has been growing in recent weeks that the final resting place of Robert Emmet had been confirmed at a quiet graveyard in North London.
Not only that, his remains were located within a few plots of the Irish inventor Louis Brennan who had only been paid a visit by the Taoiseach – and the ceremony attached to that tribute added even more fuel to the growing fire of speculation.
So, is Robert Emmet buried in North London? The Irish Post tracked down a distant relative Philip Emmet who lives in Wicklow and found that Mr Emmet was himself intrigued to hear of the story now doing the rounds in London.
“Yes, there is a Robert Emmet buried in St Mary’s Cemetery in Kensal Green,” he said from his Wicklow home. “But unfortunately it’s his great, great nephew,” he confirmed.
Mr Emmet agreed there had been some recent muddying of the water in respect of his ancestor’s burial site and was amused to hear the chatter from Britain.
“It would be wonderful in so many respects he said but the truth is we still don’t know where Robert Emmet the patriot is buried,” he said.
“There are two suggested locations but both are in Dublin, one is the site of an old vault at a family home in Augier Street and the other is on King Street.”
He continued: “I think at the time of his death, the British authorities didn’t want anyone to know where he was buried and it may have become a shrine. It would be lovely to find out where his final resting place is but the further away from his death we get, the harder it will be.”
Mr Emmet confirmed that his ancestors left Ireland to live in the US in the late 1700s and later, some settled in Britain, before returning across the Irish Sea.
“I’m very sorry to disappoint,” said Mr Emmet. “Yes, it would have been a huge story if it was true, but it’s all been a bit confusing. That man is a direct descendent of Thomas Addis Emmet.”
Anna Humphries from St Mary’s Cemetery completed a search of records and confirmed the final resting place of a Robert Emmet, who died aged 18, in 1915.
St Mary’s Cemetery was opened in 1858, fifty-five years after the death of the iconic patriot.
