Background
Augustine Martin was born in Ballinamore, County Leitrim in 1935.
Augustine Martin was born in Ballinamore, County Leitrim in 1935.
Initially educated at the local national school, he completed his secondary education at Cistercian College, Roscrea (CCR, Mount Street Joseph"s College), a boarding school in County Tipperary where he captained the rugby team, was elected House Captain by the students and in his Leaving Certificate examination, scored an A in English, coming first in the country that year. He married Claire Kennedy (a radiologist) in 1959 and thereafter he taught English and Irish at his old school (CCR) while he completed his Master of Arts
He was a childhood contemporary of author John McGahern. In 1953 he entered University College Dublin (University College Dublin) where he took a Bachelor of Arts in 1957. During this period he edited the text books Exploring English (1 and 3) and Soundings.
In 1973, he competed his doctoral thesis on James Stephens.
He succeeded Roger McHugh as Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature, at University College Dublin in 1979. In 1973 he was elected to the Irish Senate under the "universities panel" National University of Ireland (constituency)#Seanad Éireann id est (that is) he was elected by the graduates of the National University of Ireland, and reelected in 1977 to serve until 1981.
As a senator he spoke for the arts and culture, and was notably active in the opposition to the development of Wood Quay, a 900-year-old Viking settlement in Dublin. In 1983, he was appointed to the Board of the Abbey Theatre (the Irish national theatre), and in 1985 was appointed chairman.
He was Chairman of the Yeats International Summer School from 1978 to 1981 and subsequently founded the Yeats Winter School and the Joyce Summer School at Newman House.
Gus Martin died on 16 October 1995, aged 59. At the time of his death he was working on a biography of the Irish poet, Patrick Kavanagh.
In 1964 he joined the English department of University College Dublin as a lecturer specialising in Anglo-Irish literature and was subsequently involved with the redrawing of the schools" English literature curriculum as a founder member of the Association for Teachers of English ( Association of Technical Employees). He won a Jacobs Award in 1968 for presenting Telefís Scoile programmes about English literature for Raidió Teilifís Éireann.
During his career he was Professor of Anglo-Irish Literature at University College Dublin, Ireland. Chairman of the Board of the Abbey theater Abbey Theatre (Dublin). And an elected member of the Seanad Éireann from 1973 to 1981.
