Life
1935-1995; b. Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim; ed. St Joseph’s College (Cistercian
College), Roscrea; UCD; joined English Dept., UCD; succeeded Roger McHugh
to Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature, 1979; prominent in Governing Body,
and Senator of the Irish State, 1973; fnd. member of Assoc. of Teachers
of English [ATE]; demonstrated with F. X. Martin, SJ, and others, at Wood
Quay against destruction of Viking remains; Director of Abbey Board, 1983;
Chairman, 1985; Director Yeats Summer School, 1978-81; fnd. Yeats Winter
School; fnd. Joyce Summer School at Newman Hse.;
working on life of Patrick Kavanagh at the time of his death; survived by wife Claire
and four children; collected essays on Anglo-Irish literature posthumously edited by Anthony Roche as Bearing Witness (1996).
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Works
‘Eusebius McGreal’, Third Degree, 1, 2 (Dublin 1977);
ed., The Genius of Irish Prose [Thomas Davis lectures 1984] (Cork:
Mercier 1985), 173pp.; Bearing Witness: Essays on Anglo-Irish Literature
(Dublin: UCD Press 1996), 259+xx. [infra].
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Bearing Witness: Essays on Anglo-Irish Literature (Dublin: UCD Press 1996), 259+xx, contains essays on “Yeats, Synge and Joyce”, ‘Christy Mahon and the Apotheosis of Loneliness’ [33-43]; ‘Sin and Secrecy in Joyce’s Fiction’ [56-66]; ‘Novelist and City: The Technical Challenge’ [67-77]; “The Inherited Dissent” incls. Anglo-Irish Literature: The Protestant Legacy’ [100-114]; “Irish Prose Tradition”, incl. James Stephens’s The Crock of Gold [115-30]; ‘A Skeleton Key to the Stories of Mary Lavin’ [141-56]. “Selected Reviews” incl. Francis Stuart, Pillar of Cloud and Redemption; Edna O’Brien, Time and Tide; Aidan Matthews [sic], Lipstick on the Host; Seamus Heaney, Death of a Naturalist; John Montague, The Dead Kingdom; “Poet as Witness” incl. ‘The Rediscovery of Austin Clarke’ [171-96]; ‘The Country of Childhood: Extracts from a Biography of Patrick Kavanagh’ [197-216]; ‘Technique and Territory in Brendan Kennelly's Early Work’ [217-30]; ‘Quest and Vision: Eavan Boland’s The Journey’ [231-41]. Checklist [243-48].
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Criticism
Christopher Murray [obit], in Irish University Review (Winter 1995).
Jacqueline Genet, ‘In Memoriam: Gus Martin’, in Études Irlandaises [Volume Traditionnel], Numéro 21-1 (1996) [q.pp.].
References
COPAC listsAnglo-Irish literature / [by] Martin, Augustine (1980);
An Anthology of short stories for Intermediate Certificate. Edited by
Augustine Martin. (1967); Bearing witness: essays on Anglo-Irish edited
by Anthony Roche (1996); ed., Charles Dickens: Hard Times [Study Serries]
(Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1974); intro., James Stephens, The Charwoman's
Daughter (1972), 128pp.; Maria Edgeworth, 'Castle Rackrent' [Study ser.]
(Gill & Macmillan 1979); W. B. Yeats, Collected poems, edited & intro.
by Augustine Martin (London: Arena 1983, 1990), xxxi, 544pp. ; sel. &
intro., James Stephens, Desire and Other Stories (1980); ed., Forgiveness:
Ireland's best contemporary short stories (1989); Friendship (Dublin:
Ryan 1990)., 206pp., [8]pls.; Ed., The Genius of Irish prose [RTE Thomas
Davis Lects.] (Mercier/RTE 1985), 174pp.; Mary Lavin The House in Clewe
Street, afterword by Augustine Martin (London: Virgao Press 1987), 478pp.
; Ed., Introducing English: An Anthology of Prose and Poems (Dublin: Gill
& Macmillan 1970), 123pp.; James Joyce : the artist and the labyrinth
/ edited by Augustine Martin (1990); James Stephens: A Critical Study,
(Dublin: Gill and Macmillan 1977), xii, 177pp.; ed., Winter's Tales from
Ireland (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1970), 167pp.
Martin’s riposte to Conor Cruise O’Brien’s essay
‘Passion and Cunning’, ‘What Stalked in the Post Office?’ (1977; rep. in Crane Bag Book, 1982, p.320).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)