Robert Emmet was the central figure in the uprising of 1803.  He was sentenced to death for treason, and on the eve of his execution he delivered this magnificent speech, ever after known as Emmet's "speech from the dock":

I am going to my cold and silent grave: my lamp of life is nearly exinguished: my race is run: the grave opens to receive me, and I sink into its bosom! I have but one request to ask at my departure from this world--it is the charity of its silence! Let no man write my epitaph: for as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them. let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times, and other men, can do justice to my character; when my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done.

Monument in Dublin erected on the site of Emmet's execution.