John Martin (Ireland) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

John Martin was an Irish nationalist activist who progressed from early militant support for Young Ireland

Young Ireland

Young Ireland was a political, cultural and social movement of the mid-19th century. It led changes in Irish nationalism, including an abortive rebellion known as the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. Many of the latter's leaders were tried for sedition and sentenced to penal transportation to...

and Repeal, to non-violent alternatives such as support for tenant farmers' rights and eventually as the first Home Rule

Home Rule League

The Home Rule League, sometimes called the Home Rule Party, was a political party which campaigned for home rule for the country of Ireland from 1873 to 1882, when it was replaced by the Irish Parliamentary Party.-Origins:...

MP, for Meath

Meath (UK Parliament constituency)

Meath was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, which from 1801 to 1885 returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.-Members of Parliament:-References:...

1871-1875.

Early life

John Martin was born into a landed Presbyterian family, the son of Samuel and Jane (née Harshaw) Martin, in Newry

Newry

Newry is a city in Northern Ireland. The River Clanrye, which runs through the city, formed the historic border between County Armagh and County Down. It is from Belfast and from Dublin. Newry had a population of 27,433 at the 2001 Census, while Newry and Mourne Council Area had a population...

, County Down

County Down

-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...

. He first met John Mitchel

John Mitchel

John Mitchel was an Irish nationalist activist, solicitor and political journalist. Born in Camnish, near Dungiven, County Londonderry, Ireland he became a leading member of both Young Ireland and the Irish Confederation...

while attending Dr Henderson's private school in Newry. He received an Arts degree at Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

in 1832 and proceeded to study medicine, but had to abandon this in 1835 when his uncle died and he had to return to manage the family landholding.

In 1847 he was moved by the Famine to join Mitchel in the Repeal Association

Repeal Association

The Repeal Association was an Irish mass membership political movement set up by Daniel O'Connell to campaign for a repeal of the Act of Union of 1800 between Great Britain and Ireland....

but subsequently left it with Mitchel. He contributed to Mitchel's journal "The United Irishman", and then following Mitchel's arrest on 27 May 1848, Martin continued with his own anti-British journal, "The Irish Felon" and established "The Felon Club". This led to a warrant for his arrest, and he turned himself in on 8 July 1848.
Martin was sentenced on 18 August 1848 to 10 years transportation to Van Diemen's Land

Van Diemen's Land

Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania...

Van Diemen's Land and exile

Martin arrived on the Elphinstone with Kevin Izod O'Doherty

Kevin Izod O'Doherty

Kevin Izod O'Doherty was an Irish Australian politician.-Biography:O'Doherty was born in Dublin on 7 September 1823, although other sources indicate that he may have been born in June 1824 and Charles Gavan Duffy, in his My Life in Two Hemispheres, states that O'Doherty was still under age when he...

in Hobart, Tasmania in November 1849. He accepted a "ticket of leave" which allowed him to live in relative freedom at Bothwell

Bothwell, Tasmania

Bothwell, Tasmania is a small town with a population at the 2006 census of 376. Situated in central Tasmania on the River Clyde, it is notable for hunting and being a lake district. It is part of the municipality of Central Highlands Council...

provided he promised not to escape.

While in Tasmania Martin continued to meet in secret with his fellow exiles Kevin Izod O'Doherty

Kevin Izod O'Doherty

, Thomas Francis Meagher

Thomas Francis Meagher

-Young Ireland:Meagher returned to Ireland in 1843, with undecided plans for a career in the Austrian army, a tradition among a number of Irish families. In 1844 he traveled to Dublin with the intention of studying for the bar. He became involved in the Repeal Association, which worked for repeal...

and John Mitchel

John Mitchel

. He chose not to join Mitchel when Mitchel revoked his ticket of leave and escaped. Instead he remained in Tasmania until he was granted a "conditional pardon" in 1854. This allowed him to leave for Paris, and he returned to Ireland on being granted a full pardon in 1856.

Later Life and Parliament

On return to Ireland Martin became a national organizer for the Tenant Right League

Tenant Right League

The Tenant Right League, established in 1850, was an organisation which aimed to secure reforms in the Irish land system. Formed by Charles Gavan Duffy and Frederick Lucas , it united for a time Protestant and Catholic tenants, Duffy calling his movement The League of North and South.The political...

. He began to write for The Nation

The Nation (Irish newspaper)

The Nation was an Irish nationalist weekly newspaper, published in the 19th century. The Nation was printed first at 12 Trinity Street, Dublin, on 15 October 1842, until 6 January 1844...

in 1860. He formed the National League with others in January 1864 - it was mainly an educational organization but Fenians disrupted its meetings. He remained in contact with Mitchel in Paris through 1866. Martin opposed the Fenians

Fenian Rising

The Fenian Rising of 1867 was a rebellion against British rule in Ireland, organised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood .After the suppression of the Irish People newspaper, disaffection among Irish radical nationalists had continued to smoulder, and during the later part of 1866 IRB leader James...

support of armed violence yet together with A M Sullivan

Alexander Martin Sullivan (Irish politician)

Alexander Martin Sullivan was an Irish politician, lawyer and journalist from Bantry, County Cork.He was the son of Daniel and Ann Sullivan, and brother to Timothy Daniel Sullivan, who was Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1886 to 1888....

, in December 1867 he headed the symbolic funeral march honouring the Manchester Martyrs

Manchester Martyrs

The Manchester Martyrs – William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien – were members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an organisation dedicated to ending British rule in Ireland. They were executed for the murder of a police officer in Manchester, England, in 1867, during...

, as it followed the MacManus

Terence MacManus

Terence Bellew MacManus was a radical Irish rebel who participated in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848. Sentenced to death for treason, he and several other participants were given commuted sentences in 1849 and transported for life to Van Diemen's Land in Australia...

route to Glasnevin Cemetery Dublin. He was briefly arrested for these activities but the charges were dropped.

Martin was in the United States in December 1869 when he was nominated by Isaac Butt

Isaac Butt

Isaac Butt Q.C. M.P. was an Irish barrister, politician, Member of Parliament , and the founder and first leader of a number of Irish nationalist parties and organisations, including the Irish Metropolitan Conservative Society in 1836, the Home Government Association in 1870 and in 1873 the Home...

and his nationalists as the Irish nationalist Home Rule candidate to oppose Greville-Nugent

Reginald James Macartney Greville-Nugent

Reginald James Macartney Greville-Nugent was an Irish politician, the younger son of Fulke Southwell Greville-Nugent, 1st Baron Greville....

, who was supported by the Catholic clergy, in the Longford

Longford (UK Parliament constituency)

Longford was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885, and one MP from 1918–1922.- MPs 1801–1885 :- MPs 1918–1922 :...

bye-election. Greville-Nugent initially won the vote but the result was nullified by Judge Fitzgerald on the grounds that voters had been illegally influenced (i.e. bribed and/or coerced) in the non-secret voting process. In the May 1870 rerun Butt's second candidate, Edward Robert King-Harman

Edward Robert King-Harman

Edward Robert King-Harman was an Irish landlord and Irish Nationalist and later Unionist politician who sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1877 to 1888.-Early life:...

, like Martin a Protestant landlord, was also defeated but this time legally.

These contradictions and factionalism were symptomatic of the struggle for influence and leadership at the time between the waning Church of Ireland

Church of Ireland

The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...

and the rising Irish Catholic Church

Roman Catholicism in Ireland

The Catholic Church in Ireland is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, the Christian Church with full communion with the Pope, currently Benedict XVI...

; secular Protestant and Catholic organizations with differing social bases and attitudes to violence; between those who wished to challenge and maintain the sociopolitical status quo; constitutional reform versus revolution; elite versus grassroots movements; landowners versus tenants; Home Rule versus Repeal. Hence a secular Protestant land-owning non-violent elite reformist nationalist who desired Home Rule like Martin, could find himself both sympathetic to and at odds with a militant organization like the Fenians with their Jacobin

Jacobin (politics)

A Jacobin , in the context of the French Revolution, was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary far-left political movement. The Jacobin Club was the most famous political club of the French Revolution. So called from the Dominican convent where they originally met, in the Rue St. Jacques ,...

and American influenced ideas of revolutionary republicanism and different social roots. Until Parnell

Charles Stewart Parnell

Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...

, the Isaac Butt-originated Home Rule forces could not obtain the support of the Catholic Church

Roman Catholicism in Ireland

The Catholic Church in Ireland is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, the Christian Church with full communion with the Pope, currently Benedict XVI...

under the anti-Fenian Cardinal Paul Cullen or manage to achieve more than short-term tactical alliances with Fenians, leading to a split and uncoordinated opposition to British rule. Protestants like Martin and John Mitchel, with their early political roots in Young Ireland

Young Ireland

, were, whatever their political ideals, not part of the majority Catholic mainstream, which were largely tenants rather than landlords.

In the January 1871 bye-election Martin was elected by a margin of 2–1 to the seat of County Meath

Meath (UK Parliament constituency)

Meath was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, which from 1801 to 1885 returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.-Members of Parliament:-References:...

in the British parliament as the first Home Rule MP, representing first Isaac Butt

Isaac Butt

's Home Government Association and from November 1873 the Home Rule League

Home Rule League

. This was unusual for a Protestant in a Catholic constituency, and is a measure of the popular esteem Martin was held in. He retained his seat in the February 1874 General Election

United Kingdom general election, 1874

-Seats summary:-References:* F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher *...

as one of 60 Home Rule members. He was commonly known as "Honest John Martin". In parliament Martin spoke strongly for Home Rule for Ireland and opposed Coercion Bills. He died in Newry

Newry

, County Down

County Down

-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...

in March 1875, homeless and in relative poverty, having forgiven tenant fees during preceding years of inflation and low farm prices.

Martin's parliamentary seat of County Meath was taken up by Charles Stewart Parnell

Charles Stewart Parnell

Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...

Quotes

John Martin's statement from the dock before sentencing on 19 August 1848.

"Then, my lords, permit me to say, that admitting the narrow and confined constitutional doctrines, which I have heard preached in this court, to be right, I am not guilty of the charge according to this Act! In the article of mine, on which the jury framed their verdict, which was written in prison, and published in the last number of my paper, what I desired to do was this, to advise and encourage my countrymen to keep their arms; because that is their inalienable right, which no Act of Parliament, no proclamation can take away from them. It is, I repeat, their inalienable right. I advised them to keep their arms; and further, I advised them to use their arms in their own defence against all assailants - even assailants that might come to attack them unconstitutionally and improperly, using the Queen's name as their sanction.

"My object in all my proceeding has been simply to establish the independence of Ireland for the benefit of all the people of Ireland - noblemen, clergymen, judges, professional men - in fact, all Irishmen. I sought that object first, because I thought it was our right; because I thought, and think still, national independence was the right of the people of this country. And secondly, I admit, that being a man who loves retirement, I never would have engaged in politics did I not think it necessary to do all in my power to make an end of the horrible scenes the country presents - the pauperism, and starvation, and crime, and vice, and the hatred of all classes against each other. I thought there should be an end to that horrible system, which while it lasted, gave me no peace of mind, for I could not enjoy anything in my country, so long as I saw my countrymen forced to be vicious, forced to hate each other, and degraded to the level of paupers and brutes. This is the reason I engaged in politics".

John Martin's address to the crowd at Glasnevin Cemetery

Glasnevin Cemetery

Glasnevin Cemetery , officially known as Prospect Cemetery, is the largest non-denominational cemetery in Ireland with an estimated 1.5 million burials...

, Dublin in honour of the Manchester Martyrs

Manchester Martyrs

8 December 1867:-

... "The three bodies that we would tenderly bear to the churchyard, and would bury in consecrated ground with all the solemn rites of religion, are not here. They are away in a foreign and hostile land (hear, hear), where they have been thrown into unconsecrated ground, branded by the triumphant hatred of our enemies as the vile remains of murderers (cries of 'no murderers,' and cheers). Those three men whose memories we are here to-day to honour - Allen, O'Brien, and Larkin - they were not murderers (great cheering). (A Voice - Lord have mercy on them.) Mr. Martin - These men were pious men, virtuous men - they were men who feared God and loved their country. They sorrowed for the sorrows of the dear old native land of their love (hear, hear). They wished, if possible, to save her, and for that love and for that wish they were doomed to an ignominious death at the hands of the British hangman (hear, hear). It was as Irish patriots that these men were doomed to death (cheers)...

... "You will join with me now in repeating the prayer of the three martyrs whom we mourn - 'God save Ireland
God Save Ireland
"God Save Ireland" is an Irish rebel song. It served as an unofficial Irish national anthem for Irish nationalists from the 1870s to the 1910s. During the Parnellite split it was the anthem of the anti-Parnellite Irish National Federation....

!' And all of you, men, women, and boys and girls that are to be men and women of holy Ireland, will ever keep the sentiment of that prayer in your heart of hearts."

Books By Young Irelanders (Irish Confederation)

External links

"John Martin Biography", Newry Journal.
T. D. Sullivan
Timothy Daniel Sullivan
Timothy Daniel Sullivan was an Irish nationalist, journalist, politician and poet who wrote the Irish national hymn "God Save Ireland", in 1867...

, Recollections of troubled times in Irish politics, 1905.
Jenny Marx-Longuet, Articles on the Irish Question, 1870.
Malcolm Brown, The Politics of Irish Literature. Chapter 15 - The Ballot Box Once More - Isaac Butt.
P. A. Sillard, The Life and Letters of John Martin, 1893.