Francis Xavier Martin, Augustinian friar, noted medieval historian and inspirational leader of Dublin's Wood Quay campaign died on February 13th, aged 77. He was born at Ballylongford, Co Kerry on October 2nd, 1922, the youngest son in a family of five brothers and five sisters. His mother was a FitzMaurice of Lixnaw, his father, Conor, was a local GP and doctor to the Irish Volunteers during the War of Independence.
In 1927 the family moved to Dublin. He was educated at Belvedere College and Ring College before moving to University College Dublin. In May 1941 he assisted his father in tending those injured by German bombs at the North Strand. Originally destined to follow in his father's footsteps as a doctor he decided, in 1941, to enter the Augustinian Order. He was ordained in 1952. He continued his studies at the Gregorian University, Rome and Peterhouse, Cambridge where, in addition to representing the university on its rowing team, he obtained his Ph.D. In 1950, he founded the Irish Universities' History Students Annual Conference, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary earlier this month.
He joined the staff of UCD in 1959 and was appointed professor of medieval history in 1962. During his time at UCD he created one of the finest departments of medieval history in these islands. He was an inspiring teacher and stimulating supervisor. Students remember his lectures as well-crafted and fluently delivered.
Tall, imposing and impeccably dressed, he instantly took command of a lecture hall. He had an uncanny ability to give distant times a contemporary relevance and his assessments of complex characters such as Boniface VIII and Machiavelli were spiced with lively anecdotes that linger long in the memory.
He wrote elegantly and lucidly, publishing 20 volumes and over 120 papers in a career of over 50 years. His first paper, a bibliography of Irish history, was published in 1947 while his first book, The Problem of Giles of Viterbo, 1469-1532 appeared in 1960. His Ph.D. thesis was published in 1962. This was a study of the Capuchin friar, Francis Nugent (1569-1635), a key figure in the continental Counter-Reformation.
While researching in the National Library he discovered new documents concerning Eoin Mac Neill and immersed himself in studying the decade before 1916. His demystification of the 1916 Rising, published in Studia Hibernica for 1967, caused a stir because it appeared to contradict the officially received history of the time.
It is for his work on Anglo-Norman Ireland, however, that F. X. Martin will be best remembered. In particular his edition (with A. B. Scott) of The Conquest of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis (1978), his study of Diarmait Mac Murchada, and his substantial contribution to volume two of A New History of Ireland, in which he provided the narrative section covering the years between 1169 and 1215.
F. X. Martin was not just an academic, he was also a citizen, and it was the awareness of a wider world coupled with a knowledge of the inner life of the spirit, that led him to bring his scholarship to a broader community.
A scholar might work away in a garret but he/she (and F. X. Martin firmly believed that women were the stronger sex) also had a responsibility to inform a wider audience of the insights that he/she was privileged to discover. It was this desire to bring history to the general public that led to the collaboration with the late Theo Moody on the best-selling Course of Irish History (which, by the time it reached its fifteenth impression, he referred to as "the curse of Irish history"). His friendship with Theo Moody was deep and lasting, and it was a key factor in the successful development of the multi-volume New History of Ireland. This was a major scholarly exercise, involving over 80 contributors, published jointly by Oxford University Press and the Royal Irish Academy. He was joint editor from its inception and the end product is an enduring work of reference.
It was his sense of the scholar's wider public responsibility that led him to spearhead the Wood Quay campaign. In 1976 he was elected chairman of the Friends of Medieval Dublin. The Friends was a small research group devoted to the academic study of Dublin's medieval heritage. Between 1977 and 1981, the Viking Age site at Dublin's Wood Quay figured constantly in the headlines. Dublin Corporation wished to build Civic Offices but scholars from several countries pointed out that Wood Quay was one of Europe's most important archaeological sites.
F. X. Martin was not an archaeologist by training but he understood that Dublin's archaeology was a new source from which Irish people could learn about a past that was otherwise lost. Indeed, he felt that Irish historians tended to settle too easily for paper research when they could be conducting fieldwork. The boundless energy, zest for life, inspiration and passion that he had previously focused on scholarship were now applied to Saving Wood Quay.
He was a natural leader with personal qualities that most politicians can only dream about. He was generous by nature and gave of himself easily. His integrity was palpable. He was charismatic. Friends, colleagues and supporters responded with love, loyalty and devotion.
He encapsulated the popular mood. Rallies, marches and torch-lit processions alerted press and public to the site's archaeological significance. He took Dublin Corporation to court and demonstrated that Wood Quay was a national monument but, because of a loophole in the law, the corporation succeeded in bulldozing about one-third of the site.
In June 1979, on the weekend before the local elections, he led a high-profile occupation and the resulting publicity ensured the return of a pro-Wood Quay corporation. The site was duly excavated but, despite considerable public opposition, the Civic Offices were built.
In the long term, however, the public campaign occasioned a sea change in official attitudes to Ireland's archaeological heritage.
F. X. Martin was a most entertaining friend and companion with a sense of fun that, even on the most serious occasions, was never far below the surface. He loved comedy sketches (Bob Newhart was a favourite) and was himself capable of extracting every dramatic ounce from a good story. His power of mimicry, combined with funny facial expressions and appropriate hand gestures could generate tears of laughter.
He was very conscious that he was part of a continuous Augustinian tradition that stretched back to the Middle Ages, and when pressed if it was right for a clergyman to engage in popular protest, he liked to respond: "Remember, Martin Luther was an Augustinian". It was his Augustinian habit that rescued him when the courts saddled him with crushing costs and damages. He pleaded inability to pay on the grounds that he was a mendicant friar. Dublin Corporation subsequently wrote off the debt and in 1988 it awarded him a special Millennium medal for his role in conserving the city.
F. X. Martin has left a lasting contribution to scholarship. His most enduring legacy, however, is that he changed the attitude of the Irish people towards their past. In doing so he made government accountable for the stewardship of our heritage. The most appropriate epitaph is the phrase he himself applied to Eoin Mac Neill: "scholar and man of action". For F. X. Martin, these were one and the same.
F. X. Martin is survived by his sisters Netta, Maire, Kay and Josette, and by Clare O'Reilly whom he called his "adopted sister". Her devoted care considerably eased the suffering of his final years of illness. His brothers Conor, Liam, Malachi and James, and a sister, Dame Agatha OSB, predeceased him.
Francis Xavier Martin OSA: born 1922; died February, 2000