Martinalia

Welcome to Martinalia. An academic career generates material which for one reason or another does not get into print. There are public lectures and keynote addresses. Some are never intended for publication. Others are commissioned for projects which never get off the ground. There is material prepared for teaching, which may be useful to colleagues and students involved in similar courses. Some projects seem worth sharing with interested readers even though they remain unfinished, lacking the final polish needed for conventional academic publication. Since 2014 I have used Martinalia to publish essays and research reports. 

The term “Martinalia” was coined by my friend Jim Sturgis.  

Charles Stewart Parnell on www.gedmartin.net

A guide to material relating to Charles Stewart Parnell on Ged Martin's website.

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Edward Charles Hamilton: the person Parnell punched

On a Saturday evening in May 1869, the future Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell became involved in a fight outside Cambridge railway station with a local man, Edward Charles Hamilton. Following a court case, Parnell was rusticated (briefly expelled) by his College. He never returned to complete his studies. But who was Edward Charles Hamilton? 

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Why Parliament does not meet at Buckingham Palace

In July 2023, it was suggested that Parliament might meet in Buckingham Palace while renovations were carried out at Westminster. The idea is not new.

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"... a word too grossly indecent to be put into print": sabotage at The Times, 1882

Patrons of the early edition of The Times of Monday 24 January 1882 would have been surprised to read that, in the midst of a speech on current political issues, the Home Secretary, Sir William Harcourt, had suddenly announced his intention to engage in sexual intercourse.

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Waterford on www.gedmartin.net

County Waterford material examines overseas connections and focuses upon local communities.

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The departure of Charles Stewart Parnell from Cambridge, 1869

On a Saturday evening in May 1869, Charles Stewart Parnell, the future Irish leader, became involved in a fight outside Cambridge railway station with a local man, Edward Charles Hamilton. Following an unfavourable verdict in a court case, Magdalene College,where Parnell was a student, decided to rusticate him for a short period (i.e. send him away as a punishment for his "gross misconduct"). He never returned to complete his studies. 

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Parnell at Cambridge: the shreds and patches of a 1914 lecture

On 15 May 1914, L.P. Carolan McQuaid delivered a lecture on "Parnell and Cambridge" to the University's Hibernian Club. In 1898, Parnell's biographer, R. Barry O'Brien, had assembled some evidence about his time at Magdalene College, enough to sketch a faint picture, but Carolan McQuaid's exploration would form the only attempt at an overview of Parnell's student days for another sixty years.

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A New Zealand heritage tour through County Waterford

County Waterford, on Ireland's south coast, has an unusual number of connections with New Zealand. These links are loosely gathered here in an informal outline tourist trail through the county from east to west. 

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New Zealand reads about Ardmore (County Waterford), 1852-1931

Newspapers and magazines thrived in late nineteenth century New Zealand: by 1910, a population of a million people had the remarkably broad choice of 67 daily newspapers, plus a range of weekly publications. To fill their columns, editors printed (indeed, often pirated) news and features about Britain and Ireland, the recent homelands of most of the country's immigrant population. This selection takes Ardmore, County Waterford, as an example to illustrate how New Zealand readers might have been informed about life in an Irish village.

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History of Magdalene College Cambridge on www.gedmartin.net

Material about Magdalene College Cambridge on www.gedmartin.net represents the results of my own interest in the history of Cambridge University, and does not imply any official endorsement by the College.

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