Robert Emmet Statue

A statue of Robert Emmet, one of Ireland’s most venerated heroes and the namesake of Emmetsburg, Iowa, stands in the Palo Alto County Courthouse square in the heart of downtown, looking west over Broadway Street (Iowa Highway 4). The memory of patriot Robert Emmet and his struggle to free Ireland of harsh British rule, resulting in his own death, was still alive in the minds of Irishmen in the middle and late 19th century. Still clinging to the memory of Emmet, Emmetsburg's Irish settlers decided the town should have a statue of him. Jerome Connor, an Irish sculptor, had just completed a life-size bronze statue of Emmet for the Smithsonian and agreed to make a copy for the Emmetsburg people. In total, four statues were cast from the mold. The three others are located in San Francisco, Washington DC and Dublin, Ireland.