Above : Painting Of John Fitzgibbon, The One Who Attacked The Volunteers

No course more injudicious OT more certain to provoke the hostility of Parliament could well have been conceived. It was absurd to expect that the legally established legislative assembly of the country would tamely submit to the dictation of an unauthorised, semi-military rival Parliament, sitting at its very doors ; unless indeed it were coerced by violence or moved by fear of such violence to do so. That no such fear appears to have been entertained by this unarmed body of legislators 6hows what confidence in the peaceable intentions of the Volunteers was felt, even by those who most strongly opposed them.

Above : Picture Of Thomas Addis Emmet, Older Brother Of Robert Emmet

In speaking of the Rebellion of 1798 mention has been made of Thomas Addis Emmet, one of the United Irishmen, who, arrested before the outbreak, escaped a capital sentence, and ended his days in exile. He had a younger brother, Robert, who in 1798 was a student of Trinity College, Dublin. Robert adopted with enthusiasm the French Revolutionary principles, and enunciated them so openly that he was expelled from the University and noted to the Castle authorities as a dangerous person.

Above : Painting Of Daniel O’Connell

We have seen how discouragement had come upon the Catholics after the successive failures of the petitions which they addressed to Parliament in the first two decades of the century, praying for the removal of their remaining disabilities. They were now to find amongst the men of their own faith a leader, who, using methods not hitherto employed, would bring about the triumph of their cause.