Richard Óge Martyn (c. 1602 – 1648) was a
Galway
Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...
lawyer and member of the
Catholic Confederates of Ireland. He was of the senior line of the
Martyn family, one of the
Tribes of Galway. He lived at
Dunguaire Castle,
Kinvarra. He worked with his brother-in-law and first cousin,
Patrick D'Arcy, against the
Plantation of Connaught in the 1630s, and served on the Supreme Council of the
Confederate Catholics in the 1640s.
Martyn also served as
Mayor of Galway
The office of Mayor of Galway is an honorific title used by the of Galway City Council. The council has jurisdiction throughout its administrative area of the city of Galway which is the largest city in the province of Connacht, in Ireland. Th ...
, 1642–1643. He and D'Arcy were part of a network of Catholic lawyers in Galway who contrived to continue in practice in defiance of the
penal laws, which barred Catholics from the professions. Richard was admitted to the
King's Inns
The Honorable Society of King's Inns () is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environments.
The Benchers of King's Inns aw ...
in 1631: he was suspended from practice at the
Irish Bar in 1635 as a known Catholic, but permitted to resume practice in 1637, apparently because he had sworn the
Oath of Supremacy
The Oath of Supremacy required any person taking public or church office in the Kingdom of England, or in its subordinate Kingdom of Ireland, to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church. Failure to do so was to be trea ...
.
Friends and acquaintances included
John Lynch,
Mary Bonaventure Browne, and Sir
Dermott Ó Seachnasaigh. His contemporaries included
Mícheál Ó Cléirigh
Mícheál Ó Cléirigh (), sometimes known as Michael O'Clery, was an Irish chronicler, scribe and antiquary and chief author of the ''Annals of the Four Masters'', assisted by Cú Choigcríche ÓCléirigh, Fearfeasa ÓMaol Chonaire, and Pe ...
and
Randal MacDonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim.
1641 Depositions
Martyn is mentioned in several of the 1641 Depositions concerning the events in Galway from early 1642 to summer 1643, in which he took a leading part:
* William Hamond – '
* Joseph Hampton – ' (including) Richard Martin, '
* William Lincoln – '
* Thomas Bagworth – '
* Andrew Darcy – '
Among the most damming depositions are those given by John Turner:
* '
Family and descendants
He was survived by his wife, Magdalene French, and five surviving children,
Oliver Óge Martyn,
Peter Martyn, John, Patrick and Magdalene, and his father
Oliver Mór Martyn. He is an ancestor of both the first president of
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...
,
Edward Martyn
Edward Martyn (30 January 1859 – 5 December 1923) was an Irish playwright and early republican political and cultural activist, as the first president of Sinn Féin from 1905–1908.
Early life
Martyn was the elder son of John Martyn of Tul ...
(1859–1923), and the leader of the
Irish Unionist Alliance
The Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA), also known as the Irish Unionist Party, Irish Unionists or simply the Unionists, was a unionist political party founded in Ireland in 1891 from a merger of the Irish Conservative Party and the Irish Loyal and ...
and
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded as the Ulster Unionist Council in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it l ...
Edward Carson, Baron Carson (1854–1935).
A later descendant was the Hungarian artist,
Ferenc Martyn (1899–1986).
He was a kinsman to
Richard Martin (1754–1834), who was likewise an Irish nationalist.
See also
*
The Tribes of Galway
External links
* http://1641.tcd.ie/about.php
References
* ''History of Galway'',
James Hardiman,
Galway
Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...
, 1820
* ''Old Galway'',
Maureen Donovan O'Sullivan, 1942
* ''Confederate Ireland 1642–49'', Micheal O'Siochru, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 1999
* "Land ownership in the 17th Century", Adrian Martyn, in ''As The Centuries Passed: A History of Kiltullagh 1500–1900'' pp. 93–96, 2000.
* ''Kingdoms in Crisis: Ireland in the 1640s'', Micheál Ó Siochrú, ed., Dublin, 2000.
* Henry, William (2002). ''Role of Honour: The Mayors of Galway City 1485–2001''. Galway: Galway City Council.
* "A Galway Lawyer at the
Confederation of Kilkenny: Richard Martin fitz Oliver of Dun Guaire, c.1602-1648", Adrian J. Martyn, ''Journal of the
Genealogical Society of Ireland'', Vol. 6, No. 3, Autumn 2005, pp. 4–10
* Martyn, Adrian, ''The Tribes of Galway:1124–1642'', Galway, 2016.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martyn, Richard Oge
1600s births
1648 deaths
17th-century Irish people
Mayors of Galway
Politicians from County Galway
Lawyers from County Galway
Irish Roman Catholic Confederates
People of the Irish Confederate Wars
Alumni of King's Inns
Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Galway constituencies
Irish MPs 1634–1635