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Chapter NiNe 309
of twenty-four, returned to Ireland from France in October 1802, where he had earlier led to avoid arrest. Once back in his native Dublin, Emmet quickly began his reorganizing pro- ject, initially amongst the people of the city and county, then the neighbouring counties, in tandem with the remnants of the movement which still existed in Belfast. In Belfast he was greatly assisted by Thomas Russell, one of the irst United Irishmen, who was referenced earlier as ‘The Man From God Knows Where,’ and by another ardent republican, a weaver named Jemmy Hope. In Wicklow he not only enlisted the help of the great Myles Byrne, but also the celebrated guerrilla ighter, Michael Dwyer, who, refusing to submit to the British when the ’98 Rebellion failed, gathered together his little band of rebels in the recesses of the Wicklow hills, from where they caused ininite trouble to the authorities, and where their troops had been unable to defeat or capture them.
Helped in no small way by £3,000 which he had inherited from his late father, Emmet purchased large quantities of arms, ammunition, and explosives, which he then stored in various depots throughout the city; he also began secretly manufacturing pikes on a large scale and its told that he even invented a hinged pike which could be folded and concealed beneath a cloak or coat.
His plan was to seize Dublin Castle and to give the signal for a general rising from there, and believing that French aid would arrive in August, 1803, that month was ixed for the ris-