James Martin

Life
1783-1860; b. Millbrook, Co. Meath; small farmer, millworker and farm laborer and later proprietor of Millbrook; never attended a school; published 21 small volumes of satiric verse mostly in rhyming couplets; works incl. Macphersonite efforts, viz., Translations from Ancient Irish MSS (1811); also The Wounded Soldier (1841), a poem on Waterloo, and other works such as The Bane and the Antidote of Ireland (1844), Dialogue between an Irish Agent and his Tenant (1848); The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin (1855) and others giving expression to the Irish Catholic nationalism, mostly printed in Trim and Kells by Henderson & Son. PI MKA RAF DIL2

Works
  • Translations from Ancient Irish Manuscripts and Other Poems (London: Sherwood, Neely & Jones 1811).
  • Poems (Cavan: 1813).
  • Poems on Various Subjects (Cavan: For the Author 1816).
  • Man’s Final End: A Vision of the Last Judgement [1823].
  • Ireland’s Dirge: An Historical Poem (Dublin: For the Translator 1827).
  • A Poetical Letter Addressed to the Independent Electors of the County (Knockbrack 1831).
  • Cottage Minstrelsy; or, Poems on Various Subjects (Kells: Henderson 1832).
  • Miscellaneous Verse [1833].
  • Reformation the Third; or, the Apostate N-L-N and the Perverts of Athboy (Dublin: For the Author 1838).
  • The Medal and Glass: A Poetical Dialogue (Kells: Henderson 1841).
  • The Wounded Soldier, a tale of Waterloo with Other Poems on Temperance (Kells: Henderson 1841).
  • The Truth Teller, or Poems on Various Subjects (Kells: Henderson 1842).
  • The Repealer, or the Bane and Antidote of Ireland (Dublin: For the Author 1844).
  • A Dialogue between John Bull and Granna Uille, or Ireland in 1845 ... (Dublin: For the Author 1845).
  • A Dialogue between an Irish Agent and Tenant (Dublin: For the Author 1848).
  • Edmund and Marcella: A Tale of Waterloo (Kells: Henderson 1849).
  • An Answer to the Objections of the Ven. Archdeacon of Meath against the Sacrifice of the Mass (Navan: Kelly 1850).
  • An Inquiry Whether the Roman Catholics Separated from Protestants, or Protestants from Roman Catholics (Kells: Henderson 1851).
  • The Mass Shewn [sic] to be Real Sacrifice ... (Dublin: For the Author 1853).
  • John and Mary: A Modern Irish Tale (Trim: Henderson 1855).
  • The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin (Trim: Henderson 1855).
  • The Campaign in the Crimea (Kells: Henderson 1856); Death and the Poet: A Dialogue (Kells: Henderson 1857).
  • Silas and Actea: A Story of Christian Martyrdom (Kells:: Henderson 1858).

Other works known to have been written by him incl. The Irish Bard, and Imitation of Dean Swift. PI cites Paddy the Politician [q.d.]

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References
Brian McKenna, Irish Literature (Gale Publishing 1978), cites critical studies incl. those by Seamus Ó Casaidhe (Irish Book Lover, 1941); Alf McLochlainn (Ríocht na Midhe 1957), and Matthew O’Reilly (Ríocht na Midhe 1959).

Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English: The Romantic Period, 1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), Vol. I, p.158f. [on literary influence of Macpherson considered as ‘unworthy father’ of Celtic revival:] ‘the latest example was Translations from Ancient Irish Manuscripts and Other Poems, by James Martin (1811).’

Chris Morash, The Hungry Voice (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1989), selecting “A dialogue between an Irish Agent and a Tenant”; also “The Mirror of Satire, A Rhapsody”, from John and Mary, A Modern Irish Tale etc. (Trim: Henderson Bros. 1855), p.89. (Morash, p.281.)

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