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.
Midlothian 1892: Gladstone loses his temper
Biographers have passed over the incident in which Gladstone lost his temper while campaigning in Midlothian during the 1892 general election.
Bush: the London area origins of an Australian term
In 1974, soon after taking up a research post at the ANU in Canberra, I published a Note on the origin of the distinctive Australian term "bush". [It appeared in Australian Literary Studies, vi (1974), 431-4.] I challenged the conventional explanation that the word was imported from South Africa, pointing instead to a number of place names in the London area which suggested that it would have been familiar to many convicts as a descriptive term. I return to the Note half a century on to review and extend its arguments.
Charles Stewart Parnell, Cambridge University and the fable of Daisy
In 1905, Charles Stewart Parnell's sister claimed that he had been expelled from Cambridge University for seducing a local girl and driving her to suicide. Although the story was nonsense, it lingered throughout the twentieth century.
Charles Stewart Parnell on www.gedmartin.net
A guide to material relating to Charles Stewart Parnell on Ged Martin's website.
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?
James Stephen on Gladstone, 1846
Between January and September 1846, the distinguished Colonial Office civil servant James Stephen kept a diary in which he recorded reflective and sometimes acerbic comments on events and people. Stephen's brief period as a diarist coincided with William Ewart Gladstone's tenure of office as Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Recollections and reconstructions: accounts of the departure of Charles Stewart Parnell from Cambridge University, 1869
Charles Stewart Parnell left Cambridge in 1869 after becoming involved in a street fight and losing a court case for assault. This essay examines various accounts of the episode, some based on hearsay, others in the form of narrative reconstruction. It seeks to illustrate the challenges involved in assessing these types of historical evidence.
Magdalene College Cambridge Notes: was jugged wallaby served at High Table?
"Wallaby: reserved for the Master and Fellows of Magdalene College." Did such a notice really appear in the window of a Cambridge butcher's shop in 1910?
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.
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.
More Articles …
- Why Parliament does not meet at Buckingham Palace
- A New Zealand heritage tour through County Waterford
- "... a word too grossly indecent to be put into print": sabotage at The Times, 1882
- New Zealand reads about Ardmore (County Waterford), 1852-1931
- Waterford on www.gedmartin.net
- History of Magdalene College Cambridge on www.gedmartin.net
- How to pronounce Parnell and say O'Shea
- Gladstone on www.gedmartin.net
- Gladstone Through the Looking Glass: Part 2 of Gladstone and Canada
- Gladstone, Canada and calibration: Part 1 of Gladstone and Canada
- Lecky dip? Gladstone's reading of Irish history
- Why did Parnell avoid Ottawa in 1880?
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