as Martyn was a devotee of Wagner. Their relationship was often antagonistic. The Moores were old literary family, Anglo-Irish (and Protestant until the generation preceding George Moore's birth), from the west of Ireland, and with Whiggish tendencies. Moore wrote an insightful account of Martyn in his Hail and Farewell. He did not share Martyn's fenian ideas nor espousal of violent means to achieve national sovereignty. The cousins' political differences eventually drove their friendship apart. In later years they were no longer on speaking terms. Republicanism Martyn was descended from Richard Óge Martyn (c. 1604 – 1648), a leading Irish Confederate, and Oliver Óge Martyn (c.1630 – c.1709), a Jacobite who fought in the Williamite War in Ireland. Yet by his lifetime, the family were unionists. Martyn's outlook began to change in the 1880s after studying Irish history, as well as living through the events of the Irish Land War. He came out as an Irish republican when he famously refused to allow "God Save The Queen" to be sung after a dinner party at Tullira. By this stage he was involved with the political work of Maud Gonne and Arthur Griffith, and was a vocal opponent of the visit of Queen Victoria to Ireland in 1897. He also protested the visit by Edward VII in 1903, this time as chairman of the People's Protection Committee. He was the first president of Sinn Féin from 1905-08 (the party only taking that name in the latter year). In 1908, he resigned from the party and politics in general to concentrate on writing and his other activities. He became close friends with Griffith, funding the publication of the latter's The Resurrection of Hungary in 1904. In 1906, he was at the centre of a well-publicised court case over an off-the-cuff remark that any Irishman who joined the British Army should be flogged. This led to his suspension by the Kildare Street Club, of which he was a member. The court case was resolved in his favour. Martyn stated that he only pursued the case to continue membership as it served the best caviar in Dublin. He was on close personal terms with Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Mary Plunkett and Patrick Pearse, and deeply mourned their executions in the aftermath of the Easter Rising. A parish hall and church that he founded at Labane, near Tullira, were burned by the Black and Tans. He supported