Search Results for 'Thomas Martin'

On 3 February 1842, Baptist missionaries Mr Clarke and Dr Prince boarded the Barque Mary at Bassipa, a new settlement established by London merchant Robert Jamieson on the island of Fernando Po, Equatorial Guinea. Their destination was Liverpool. The voyage was stalked by disaster from the outset. On 11 February, the main mast was struck by lightning in a storm, and a crew member was killed. On 25 March, the mast fell onto the deck bringing down sails and rigging, leaving the ship adrift at the mercy of the waves.

The city of Galway was known in ancient times as ‘Streamstown’ because the Galway River divided into several small waterways in addition to the main river. The river was much more spread out then and was fordable in some places. The city was placed on the east side of the river, which acted as protection against the Irish families displaced by the Norman settlers who took over the area in the early 13th century. The walls of the city provided protection on the east and north side of the city and the various gates allowed access. The river was a barrier to trade with Iar-Chonnacht and so the merchant families began to feel the need to build a bridge to help expand trade, it would provide access to customers from the west, and also allow them to bring in their produce, fruit, vegetables, meat, hay, etc, to the various markets in town.

After her Connemara tour Maria Edgeworth kept up a correspondence with the Martins. She followed their fortunes and misfortunes with all the attention of an enthralled novel-reader. There was plenty to hold her attention. In the spring of 1835 the Martins travelled to London where Mary was presented at court and moved in fashionable society, attending dinner parties and charity events, of which a cynical Lord Byron remarked that these galas were nothing less than a marriage market.

As the legendary Colonel Richard Martin neared the end of his life in Boulogne, where he had fled to escape his numerous creditors, a large four-horse carriage, on which two postilions, in jackets of dark-blue frieze, guided the coach on horse-back, arrived at the front door of Ballynahinch. It was dark, and its occupants were in a state of near exhaustion.

The Connaught Journal of July 1823 reported that Michael Walsh, the nailer of Bridge Street, was in great distress. He was described as being very poor, and though he worked hard, his life had been a struggle for some 12 years now because of a ‘disease of his leg’. The unfortunate man had to have the leg amputated and was now ‘reduced to extreme want’ as he was unable to work. The newspaper highlighted his predicament and hoped that the charitable and humane people of Galway would contribute to his support while he was recovering from the operation. So we know that the nailer was in business there some 200 years ago.