Edward Martyn - Irish Nationalist

Irish Nationalist

Martyn was descended from Richard Óge Martyn (c.1604-1648), a leading Irish Confederate, and Oliver Óge Martyn (c.1630-c.1709), a Jacobite who fought in the Williamite War in Ireland. Yet by his lifetime, the family were unionists. Martyn's outlook began to change in the 1880s by studying Irish history, as well as living through the events of the Irish Land War. He came out as an Irish nationalist when he famously refused to allow God Save The Queen to be sung after a dinner party at Tullira.

By this stage he was involved with the political work of Maude Gonne and Arthur Griffith, and was a vocal opponent of the visit of Queen Victoria to Ireland in 1897. He likewise protested the visit of Edward VII in 1903, this time as chairman of the People's Protection Committee.

He was the first president of Sinn Féin from 1905 to 1908 (the party only taking that name in the latter year). In 1908 he resigned from the party and politics in general to concentrate on writing and his other activities.

He became close friends with Arthur Griffith, funding the publication of the latter's seminal The resurrection of Hungry in 1904, an important landmark in the development of Irish nationalism.

In 1906 he was at the centre of a well-publicised court case over an off-the-cuff remark than any Irishman who joined the British Army should be flogged. This led to his (illegal) suspension by the Kildare Street Gentleman's Club, of which he was a member, along with many leading Anglo-Irish army officers. The court case was resolved in his favor; Martyn wittily stated he only pursued the case to continue membership as it served the best caviar in Dublin.

He was on close personal terms with Thomas McDonagh, Joseph Mary Plunkett and Patrick Pearse, and deeply mourned their deaths in the aftermath of the Easter Rising of 1916. A parish hall and church that he founded at Labane, near Tullira, was attacked and burned by the Black and Tans. He supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.