Martin MacDermott

Life
1823-1905; b. 8 April, Ormond Quay, Dublin [err. Co. Leitrim DIH]; son of John MacDermott, merchant and perfumer, a passionate supporter of Daniel O’Connell, and a mother of French descent; ed. Usher's Quay and college at Boulogne; converted to Protestant religion [Anglican]; apprenticed to the architect Patrick Byrne, RHA but moved to Liverpool with his family at his father’s death, before qualifying; m. Martha [née] Melladew, with whom nine children; encountered Terence Bellew McManus and joined Young Ireland; contrib. occasional verse for Nation and The Irish Felon; author of “The Coulin” and “The Exiles”; acted as a delegate with others seeking support for Young Ireland from poet and minister Alphonse L.-M. de Lamartine, minister in Third Republic and a proponent of the tricolour; stayed on in Paris during the 1848 Rising as representative of The Nation;

returned to Liverpool afterwards and completed his arch. training; settled in London and designed stations for the Metropolitan Railway before being appt. chief architect to Egyptian Govt. in Alexandria, 1866; resumed public architecture in London but suffered financial curtailment of his designs and retired from public service in 1878; adopted literary pursuits and became a fnd-mbr. Southwark Literary Club, 1891; collab. with Charles Gavan Dublin on New Irish Library; ed. The New Spirit of the Nation (1894), Songs and Ballads of Young Ireland (1896), and Moore’s Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, adding new material; noted for his kindly manner; d. 25 April at Cotham, Bristol; survived by six of his children; an appreciation appeared in The Nation (5 Feb. 1889). ODNB PI JMC MKA DIH

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Works
The Spirit of the Nation, or Ballad and Song by the Writers of The Nation. With Original and Ancient Music Arranged for the Voice and Pianoforte. New Edition (Dublin: Duffy 1898), 368pp. Also trans. Viollet-le-Duc,  Essay on the Military Architecture of the Middle Ages (1879).

“Exiles, Far Away”, by Martin MacDermott

When round the festive Christmas board, or by the Christmas hearth,
That glorious mingled draught is poured — wine, melody, and mirth!
When friends long absent tell, low-toned, their joys and sorrows o’er,
And hand grasps hand, and eyelids fill, and lips meet lips once more —
Oh! in that hour ’twere kindly done, some woman’s voice would say —
"Forget not those who’re sad to-night — poor exiles, far away!"

Alas, for them! this morning’s sun saw many a moist eye pour
Its gushing love, with longings vain, the waste Atlantic o’er,
And when he turned his lion- eye this evening from the West,
The Indian shores were lined with those who watched his couched crest;
But not to share his glory, then, or gladden in his ray,
They bent their gaze upon his path — those exiles, far away!

[...]

But, Heavens! how many sleep afar, all heedless of these strains,
Tired wanderers! who sought repose through Europe’s battle plains —
In strong, fierce, headlong flight they fell — as ships go down in storms —
They fell — and human whirlwinds swept across their shattered forms!
No shroud, but glory, wrapt them round ; nor prayer nor tear had they —
Save the wandering winds and the heavy clouds — poor exiles, far away!

[...]

Then, oh! when round the Christmas board, or by the Christmas hearth,
That glorious mingled draught is poured — wine, melody, and mirth!
When friends long absent tell, low-toned, their joys and sorrows o’er,
And hand grasps hand, and eyelids fill, and lips meet lips once
more — In that bright hour, perhaps — perhaps, some woman’s voice
would say — “Think — think on those who weep to-night, poor exiles, far away!”
See full text in Gill’s Irish Reciter: A Selection of Gems from Ireland’s Modern Literature, ed. J. J. O’Kelly [Seán Ó Ceallaigh] (Dublin: M. H. Gill 1905), pp.220-23 [available at Internet Archive - online].

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Commentary
Brian McKenna, Irish Literature (1978), ‘Our Poets No. 18’, in Irish Monthly 16 (1888); MacDermott edited The New Spirit of the Nation ... published since 1845 (1894); ed. Songs and Ballads of Young Ireland ([London: Downey & Co.] 1896); Thomas Moore’s Memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1897).

Chris Morash, The Hungry Voice (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1989), notes that Martin MacDermott wrote in The Nation at 24 years of age: ‘I have seen death strike so fast / That the churchyards could not hold - / Though torn into one yawning grave – / The remnants of the young, the prave, / The bright-eyed and the bold. / I must be very, very old - A very Old, Old Man.’ (The Nation; cited in Morash, op. cit., p.31). Morash comments that ‘this tone of exhaustion is echoed throughout ... The Nation’ (idem.) See also the lines: ‘But, sure, it must be very long! / Since I beheld a nation, strong / In hope and valour grow. ... indeed I must be very old – / A very Old, Old Man’ [from stanza 4 of 5].

 

References
Irish Literature, gen. ed. Justin McCarthy (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1904), gives ‘The Irish Exile’ and ‘Girl of the Red Mouth’. See W. P. Ryan, The Irish Literary Revival (1894), Martin MacDermott, an architect, worked for the Khedive in Egypt and [purportedly] rebuilt Alexandria after the bombardment, after the bombardment; one of the last survivors of the Young Ireland era; her compared to a gentle old bard of a by-gone time; ed. The New Spirit of the Nation for Gavan Duffy’s New Irish Library.

Dictionary of Irish Biography (RIA 2009) - entry by Stephanie P. Jones dismisses his claim to rebuilding Alexandria (Egypt) after the bombardment and further details of his professional and literary career added [available - online].

Cathach Books (Cat. 1996-97) lists The Spirit of the Nation, or Ballad and Song by the Writers of The Nation. With Original and Ancient Music Arranged for the Voice and Pianoforte. New Edition. (Dublin: Duffy 1898), 368pp.

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