The continuing mystery of where the patriot, Robert Emmet, is buried featured in a symposium in Dublin yesterday.
The three-day event commemorating the bicentenary of Emmet's rising and subsequent execution heard the search is on-going and now there is the possibility that tests could be carried out on a head found in a Co Kerry graveyard.
Prof Marianne Elliot, University of Liverpool, said that part of the fascination with the events surrounding Emmet's death is that his grave had never been found. She said that despite numerous efforts over the years and the legends surrounding the events, still nobody knew where he was buried.
The symposium heard that with the bicentenary, people were beginning to ask again about the whereabouts of his body.
In 1982, the head of a young man was found in a box in a graveyard at Blennerville, near Tralee. The box was reburied but now there is a possibility that there could be DNA comparison and reconstruction of the skull.
Prof Elliot said Emmet's famous injunction: "Let no man write my epitaph" takes on a whole new meaning, as there never was a grave. One story was that Robert Emmet's remains were taken back to Kilmainham after his execution and that his severed head was removed by somebody to make a death mask. As his body was unclaimed, it was said to have been buried in an unmarked grave on land near the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. Others said his body was later dug up and moved again.
There were other legends but nobody knew the truth, she said. Some debated whether his remains were in St Michan's, St Peter's or Glasnevin. The symposium continues today in Trinity College.