Motto: Auxilium meum a Domino (My help is from the Lord).
The Martins were among the earliest Norman settlers in Galway, with Oliver Martin said to have come with Strongbow. Other sources claim Irish origins from the Fir Bolg (‘Martini’). Notable estates included Ballinahinch, Dangan, and Spiddal. The family produced “Humanity Dick” Martin, founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He also had a theater in Galway.
Known as the Millers of Galway, they got permission to build a mill across the river on the West. There is a commemorative plaque to Thomas Miller and Eveline Lynch getting this permission in 1562 on the facade of a building at the intersection of Shop Street, Mainguard Street, and High Street in Galway City. The plaque reads: “Thomas Martin and Eveline Linche caused this work and mill to be made AD 1562. From the Ferocious O’Flaherties, Good Lord Deliver Us / Defend Us”.
On the 17th century map of Galway, Martin’s Mill Lane is shown running upstream from Quay St to Kirwan’s Lane and leading to Martin’s Mill which is shown on a watercourse beside the river.
The family prospered and became landowners in Connacht before the Cromwellian confiscations. Martin families west of the Corrib conformed after the Penal Laws. Members of the Martin family contributed much to both culture and literature (e.g. Edward Martyn of Tullira (founder of Sinn Fein, the Abbey Theatre, the Palestrina Choir, Feis Ceoil), and Violet Martin of Ross (under the pen name, Martin Ross), collaborator with Edith Somerville on the ‘The Irish R.M’. stories, which became a television series in the 1980s.
The Martin house on the corner of Cross St and Quay Street, once the home of ‘Humanity Dick’, has a cut-stone window on the upper level, which survives form the medieval period. This town house still stands and includes the popular pub Tigh Neachtain.
1651 Map: https://galwaycivictrust.ie/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Cantec_Scan-of-1651-map.pdf
Sources Consulted
Books
Dargan, Pat, Galway – City of Heritage, Eastwood Books, Dublin, 2024
Dowd, Peadar, “A Family Heritage in Stone”, Galway Roots- Journal of the Galway Family History Society West, Summer 1993, (pp6-8)
Hardiman, James, Hardiman’s History of Galway, 1820 (reprint, Connacht Tribune 1985)
Larkin, Patrick “SOME TOWN CASTLES OF GALWAY.”Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 72 (2020): 157–72.
Martyn Adrian, The Tribes Of Galway; 1124- 1642, Galway; Adrian Martyn, 2016
O’Neill T.P., The Tribes and other Galway families, (1984), reprint, Galway Civic Trust, 2013
Prunty, Jacinta; Walsh, Paul, Galway- Irish Historic Town Atlas No 28, Royal Irish Academy, 2016
Walsh, Paul, Renaissance Galway- Delineating the Seventeenth Century City, Royal Irish Academy, 2019
Internet
Welcome to County Galway Guide, ‘’Tribes of Galway”, (2007), https://www.galway-ireland.ie/galway-tribes.htm
