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.  

The farmer landlord and the labourer tenant: a County Waterford sidelight on Ireland's Land War, 1882

The dispute between John Kirwan and William Power created a little light relief in the courtroom at Tramore, County Waterford, on a November day in 1882.

Read More ...

"A man among millions": Martin Joseph Murphy and the development of Tramore 1888-1919

For thirty years, Martin Joseph Murphy was a genial driving force behind the development of the seaside resort of Tramore, County Waterford.

Read More ...

Tramore Sketch Map

Read More ...

A.C. Benson and Cambridge: II, 1885-1925

A.C. BENSON AND CAMBRIDGE: II, 1885-1925

The continuation of A.C. Benson and Cambridge: I, 1862-1884

Read More ...

Magdalene College Cambridge Notes: From a College Window: Glimpses of Magdalene (1906)

From a College Window was the most successful of the collections of essays published by A.C. Benson.

Read More ...

Curing toothache by magic at Tramore, County Waterford in 1888

To the local magistrates at Tramore, County Waterford, the arrest of Tim and Bridget Dooley on licensed premises after hours must have seemed an open-and-shut case.

Read More ...

Holidays at Tramore in Verse (1894) and Prose (1910)

A lively poem of 1894 and an affectionate piece of journalism from 1910 provide glimpses of seaside life at Tramore, County Waterford.  

Read More ...

Havering History Cameos: Third Series (2016-2017)

This file is a further continuation of the weekly local heritage columns contributed to the Romford Recorder

Read More ...

A.C. Benson and Cambridge: I, 1862-1884

The first part of an extended essay on A.C. Benson and Cambridge University.

Read More ...

Magdalene College Cambridge Notes: Robert Edgar Hughes, the Yachting Don, and the Baltic Campaigns (1854-55)

The Reverend Robert Edgar Hughes was a Fellow of Magdalene College Cambridge from 1846 until 1856.[1] For the last three years of his tenure, he was also Junior Tutor, sharing in student administration, during which time he also served twice as a University examiner. Thus far, we have the profile of a typical clerical don of Victorian times.[2] But it was precisely in this period, in 1854 and 1855, that Hughes also took his yacht, the impossibly tiny Pet, on two long summer cruises to the Baltic.[3]

Read More ...