Product Details
ISBN: 9781919633107
Book Type: softback
Number of Pages: 208
Book Dimensions: 240mm by 165mm
Images: 37 black & white illustrations
Description
‘Humanity’ Dick Martin both embodied and transcended the colourful Regency period.
Master of vast lands in Connemara, but living in spectacular insolvency, he preferred to survive on the proceeds of smuggling than to charge his tenants rent. Backed by his private army, he protected people and animals alike. A deadly duellist, he conducted a successful vendetta against ‘mad’ Fighting Fitzgerald.
Raised a ‘Protestant of Convenience’ by his Jacobite father, Dick entered the Irish Parliament and for the next 50 years fought for Catholic emancipation, which he believed would only be achieved by peaceful, political ends.
Active in anti-slavery and criminal justice reform, he is especially remembered for his tireless campaign for animal rights. ‘Martin’s Law’ (1822) anticipated all such legislation, and he co-founded what became the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Here is a complex, mercurial and neglected hero, bestriding the two worlds of England and Ireland.
Samples of Reviews
“This is an admirable sort of book – generous in format and layout, well illustrated, inviting and not festooned with any footnotes …”
—Books Ireland
“The life of this swash-buckling eccentric is ‘as good as a play’. Phillips successfully weaves the story of this fascinating individual into its equally dramatic historical context, to create an accessible and entertaining narrative.”
—Times Literary Supplement
"It is an excellent book."
—Kim Stallwood, Animal Advocate
Also rated five stars on Amazon:
“An entertaining look at the lives of Richard Martin &his family, animal rights, dueling, it's all here,a must! I couldn't put it down.”
“… tells his story in a way that is comprehensible and at times very funny. Usually this sort of book would take a while for me to read owing to the subject but, I really couldn't put it down...”