Geese, music, history, Yeats – Martin is a man of many enthusiasms
Teacher, ornithologist, musician archaeologist, filmmaker and father Martin Enright is kept very busy with his many and varied interests. He chatted with Gerry McLaughlin
THIS IS THE STORY of a remarkable Kerryman who has made a huge impact on many aspects of life in Sligo since he came here as a young, idealistic teacher in 1974.
Listening to the wonderfully eclectic, eloquent, erudite and well-organised Martin Enright from Dingle, or Daingean Uí Chúis, and you will see that he packs nine days into a week in his varied world.
And you will also see that he still retains the syrupy brogue of his native Kingdom, a magical county where the wind sings the secrets of “The Boys Of Barr Na Sráide” and the mountains are sleeping gods that shoulder the stars.
Martin grew up in this special town by the sea in Corca Dhuibhne, which is well known for Thomas Ashe, Peig, Fungi, Paddy Bawn Brosnan, Bill Dillon, An Seabhac (Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha), Gega O’Connor, Ryan’s Daughter and Lá an Dreoilín (Wren Day), to name but a few icons. And Martin remembers the day the famous Peig Sayers from the Blasket Islands died in 1957 when he was just eight years old.
Peig wrote a famous autobiography that was on the Irish Leaving Cert syllabus for generations. Tomas Ó Criomthain (An t-Oileánach), Sean Ó Criomthain (La Dar Saol) and Muiris Ó Súileabhain (Fiche Blian ag Fás) were all from the same area and wrote those memorable autobiographies that have preserved an ancient and noble way of living forever.
The young Martin Enright grew up with this great tradition on his doorstep in a town where many have equal facility in Irish and teanga Béarla na nGall, and he drank deep from the well of his native culture. Martin is the quintessential duine ildánach, or man for all seasons, as he is a teacher, archaeologist, historian, ornithologist, music promoter, Gaeilgeoir and all-round leader of many organisations that celebrate our rich diverse culture and heritage from ogham stones to WB Yeats. And next month he will be a guest of the famous sean nós singer Mairtin Tom Sheanin in Cómhra on TG4 in the Gaeilge binn blasta of his people.
For he is equally at home in Irish, a language he took at degree level along with archaeology at UCD in the late 1960s and early 1970s, where he also took a HDip in education. Before that, Martin trained as a national school teacher in St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, from 1966 to 1968. In his teanga dhúchais, he would be described as a fear oillte, fear léannta, fear cneasta, fear geanúil, fear cinealta ach thar aon ní eile fear uasal, who embodies all the ancient and rightful mórtas cine and mórtas duchais, the pride in his people and the pride in his native place so special to the ancient Irish.
And through his many guises Martin has brought the past to life in so many ways, inspired generations of young Sligo children to know who they were, where they were from and to know that they came from a special land and were heirs to a great physical, oral and written heritage. He has also inspired adults to look at the storied past of this land through its ancient monuments, its people and especially the songs and stories that tell so much of who we are.
Martin also loves nature with a passion that is almost like William Wordsworth.
He has studied our ancient dolmens, raths, forts, cairns, tombs and castles – the physical landmarks from which spring our history.
For many years he has been studying the famous brent geese that fly over Sligo in their thousands. Martin Enright was born in Dingle on June 17, 1949. His father Danny was a barber from Cork and his mother was Catherine Devane, whose people were fishermen.
And he is a cousin of the late great piper Liam Óg O’Flynn through his maternal great aunt Mairéad Barry, who was the famous piper’s grandmother.
He is one of four children, with siblings Mary, Ann and Noreen, who are all married in Dublin.
As a boy he spent many hours around the trawlers and out fishing between Dingle Bay and the Blaskets with his uncle Tim Devane. Legendary Kerry GAA full-back Paddy Bawn Brosna also fished those waters.
It was a happy childhood with no frontiers as Martin and his friends explored their Kerry kingdom
and went to the Dingle races.
He also had a close connection with munitir na Gaeltachta of Dun Chaoin and Ballyferriter. Gearóid Ó Catháin, the last person to be born on the Blaskets, was in Martin’s Leaving Cert class.
It was while at St Pat’s that a lecture given by the great archaeologist Estyn Evans about Ireland’s ancient monuments and the folkore and traditions of the ancient Irish sparked Martin’s lifelong love affair with archaeology.
And it was through archaeology that he met the love if his life, Joyce Raftery from Finisklin, Sligo. Jocye is a respected archaeologist.
Also in St Pat’s he came under the influence of Patrick Pearse’s teaching methods and especially the Project Method – learning by doing. Martin imbibed Pearse’s grá for pupils knowing their heritage and their physical background and interest in the natural world. Martin said: “These were the things that inspired me all through my teaching career.”
MARTIN taught in Artane and Coolock in Dublin from 1968 to 1974 and he began teaching in Carraroe School when he came to the Yeats County. He taught there from 1974 to 1991.
He then went to Coolbock National School in Riverstown as principal until his retirement in 2011.
In 1992, Martin’s pupils in Coolbock won a national award for a project entitled “Sligo and its links with the Arctic”.
Meanwhile, he and Joyce had given in-service courses for primary teachers in Dublin, Sligo and Dingle in the years from 1988 to 1999.
It was in Dublin that he first met his wife Joyce while studying for his BA in Irish and archaeology from 1970 to 1974. He was a member of the Archaeology Society in the college. They married in 1974 and have three children, Dónal, Siobhán and Colum, and two grandchildren Nóinín and Coco. Siobhán is married to Michael Durand, the son of Lady Durand.
Martin’s love for archaeology grew from the only real place to study the subject, on digs in Kilkenny in 197273 on a 13th-century medieval monastery.
In 1973, 1974 and 1975 he worked on an excavation nearer his home at An Riaisc near the Gallarus Oratory and An Bhualtín.
It was there that he recalls a great tribute to that special place from Tomás Ó Suilleabháin from Coimín, which says: “Nach iontach an ait inar chruthaigh Dia sinn?” Translated roughly, it means: “Isn’t this a wonderful place where God made for us?”
And from 1980 to 1986 Martin was part of a dig at Drumcliffe of an early Christian monastery, which was led by his wife Joyce.
Martin has been a member of the Sligo Field Club since 1975 and was president from 1980 to 1990.
But apart from archaeology, Martin is also heavily involved in history circles and was very active in the commemoration of the Great Famine in Sligo in 1997 and was on the organising committee with three commemorative pieces that were located in Sligo and the Famine Graveyard.
And he was also deeply involved in the marking of the 400th anniversary of the Spanish Armada at Streedagh Strand in 1988.
These days he is perhaps best known in traditional Irish music circles and is currently county board chairman of Comhalttas Ceoltóirí Éireann in Sligo.
Martin grew up in a rich musical heritage in Dingle and was friendly with his cousin Liam Óg O’Flynn when he was in Dublin.
He was at many sessions featuring notables like Mary Bergin, Helena Rowsome, Séamus Ennis, Matt Molloy, Seán Keane, Sean Mac Donnacha and the wonderful poetess-songwriter Caitlin Maude, who died far too soon.
Martin has been a CCÉ member in Sligo since 1975 and is a member of the Sligo Town branch.
He has also been involved with the Fiddler of Dooney festival which is highly regarded among musicians since it was founded in 1975.
And he has been deeply involved with Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in 1998, 1990, 1991, 2014 and 2015 when it came to Sligo and when it was an outstanding success. This most energetic man was also chairman of Seachtain na hÉigse in 2014 and 2015. As if that was not enough, he has been the co-ordinator of the James Morrison Festival in Riverstown since 1973. That alone is some record. Perhaps one of his greatest projects was a DVD he made about the Sligo trad masters, featuring the lives and times of Michael Coleman,
James Morrison and Paddy Killoran, a film that was made in south Sligo and in New York. Fittingly, it was finished in time for the All-Ireland Fleadh in Sligo in 2014.
Elsewhere, Martin’s great love of birds has seen him chairman of the Friends of Birds of Ireland group for around 10 years.
He has watched and done extensive research on barnacle and brent geese. The barnacle could be eaten during Lent, according to the ancient Irish.
Martin says there are around 4,000 barnacle geese in north Sligo.
He has travelled to north Donegal, Scotland and Iceland in pursuit of this hobby,
And in yet another sphere Martin and his wife Joyce have a deep and discerning interest in WB Yeats. He was president of the Yeats Society from 2015 to 2017.
Both he and Joyce have helped out with the guided tours for students of Yeats, helped organise social functions and sat on various committees. Martin alludes to the fact that the mythology, archaeology, history and beauty of Sligo had a big influence on the poetry and dramas of Yeats.
And Martin has given many talks on this aspect of Yeats in Ireland and abroad.
He recalls his rich childhood growing up in Dingle with affection. It has made a lasting impression on him and the forming of his character. Martin said: “It was great growing up in Dingle as I lived in the middle of town and I felt that the whole town was my playground.
“I knew everyone in the whole town as my father was a barber and my mother was a Devane – they were connected with the Barrys and they fished the sea.
“We had great freedom. There were a number of childless couples on the street and I always seemed to be running errands for them.
“I had no need to ask my parents for pocket money as I always had little paid jobs to do.
“My uncle was a fisherman, so I went on trips with him and was very aware of nature and all its beauty. “He used to fish with the great Paddy Bawn Brosnan and I used to love going fishing for lobsters around the Blasket Islands.
“Bill Dillon was another great Kerry footballer and he used to go hunting with his beagles.”
Martin was very conscious of that great Kerry Gaelic football tradition. He said: “These guys had All-Ireland medals – Bill Dillon, The Bawn, Gega O’Connor, and Paddy Kennedy in Annascaul.”
Martin also remembers the day Peig Sayers died in 1957.
He said: “She was a folk icon and one of my schoolmates in Leaving Cert was the last child who was born on the Blaskets. That was Gearóid Ó Catháin.
“He wrote his autobiography called The Loneliest Boy in the World. The last of the Blasket islanders came off the island in 1963.”
Martin also remembers the boom that David Lean’s epic film Ryan’s Daughter brought to the area in 1969-70.
He met a lot of the cast of that film and worked in the Skellig Hotel in the famous summer of 1969. That was where David Lean and all the Abbey actors stayed.
Martin said: “Robert Mitchum stayed in Milltown House across the road and we also watched the moon
“One of my schoolmates in Kerry when I did the Leaving Cert was the last child who was born on the Blaskets. That was Gearóid Ó Catháin”