Edward Martyn

Martyn, Edward (1859-1923), play-wright. Born in Co. Galway into a wealthy Catholic family exempted from the Penal Laws by an Act in the reign of Queen Anne, he was educated in Oxford, but returned to Tulira, his ancestral home, and involved himself in every aspect of the Irish literary revival. He became fluent in Gaelic, serving as President of Sinn Féin, 1904-8; co-founded Feis Ceoil, the annual festival of traditional music; endowed the Palestrina choir in the pro-Cathedral, Dublin (of which John McCormack was a member); and led a crusade to improve the quality of ecclesiastical art in Ireland. With Lady Gregory and Yeats, Martyn co-founded the Irish Literary Theatre (1899). Martyn's The Heather Field was produced with Yeats's The Countess Cathleen in the first season in 1899, and his Maeve was performed the following year. In spite of his generous financial support during the first three years, aesthetic differences with Yeats, exacerbated by personality conflicts with his cousin George Moore, caused him to break from the movement that eventually evolved into the Abbey Theatre.

Bibliography

Robert Hogan and James Kilroy (eds.), The Irish Literary Theatre, 1899-1901 (1975).

Edward Martyn (30 January 1859 – 5 December 1923) was an Irish political and cultural activist, playwright, and last of the senior branch of the "wealthy Catholic" Martyn family of Tullira, one of the Tribes of Galway.^[1] He was of Tullira Castle, Ardrahan, County Galway.

He was a friend of William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, with whom he founded the Irish Literary Theatre. A "pillar of the Celtic Renaissance," in 1899 Martyn and Yeats co-founded, The Abbey which became a famous national theater.^[1] Martyn, who was gay, was outed by his cousin and friend George Moore (1852-1933), a "prolific novelist, critic, and polemicist," in the three-volume Hail and Farewell (published between 1911 and 1914).^[1] Their relationship was often antagonistic.

He was the first President of Sinn Féin (1904-1908), the republican movement's political party , which he co-founded with Arthur Griffith.^[1] Violently opposed to British rule in Ireland, he was the centre of a court case in 1905 as the result of an off-the cuff remark in which he stated that "All Irishmen who join the English army ought to be flogged". He died in 1923, unmarried, and after donating his body to science, was buried at his own request in a pauper's grave. He was related to the Hungarian artist and sculptor, Ferenc Martyn.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Doug Ireland: Review of Brian Lacey's 'Terrible Queer Creatures’: A History of Homosexuality in Ireland, Source: Gay City News (2-6-09).

v • d • e Presidents of Sinn Féin Edward Martyn (1905–08) · John Sweetman (1908) · Arthur Griffith (1908–17) · Éamon de Valera (1917–26) · John J. O'Kelly (Sceilg) (1926–31) · Brian O'Higgins (1931–33) · Fr. Michael O'Flanagan (1933–35) · Cathal Ó Murchadha (1935–37) · Margaret Buckley (1937–50) · Paddy McLogan (1950–53) · Tomás Ó Dubhghaill (1953–54) · Paddy McLogan (1954–62) · Tomás Mac Giolla (1962–70) · Ruairí Ó Brádaigh (1970–83) · Gerry Adams (1983–)

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