19 Facts About Martha McTier

Martha "Matty" McTier was an advocate in Belfast, Ireland for women's health and education, and a supporter of democratic reform.

Martha McTier was born Martha Drennan in 1742 or 1743 in Belfast, the eldest of three surviving children born to Ann Drennan and Reverend Thomas Drennan, minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Belfast.

Martha McTier was to read widely in philosophy, and in literature.

Martha McTier persuaded their cousin, Martha Young, to bequeath him her fortune, and this enabled him in 1806 to retire from practice and return to Belfast.

In 1793 Martha McTier was invited to become the secretary of the new Humane Female Society.

When in the same year Martha McTier established a small school in her home for poor girls she began to read more of the literature on women's education by female writers.

When her husband became president of the United Irishmen in Belfast, Martha McTier was drawn into the group's activities.

Martha McTier responded to him immediately with a denial crafted for the local postmaster whom she suspected of opening her letters.

Martha McTier exchanged numerous letters with her close friend Jane Greg.

Greg was the likely author, but Martha McTier felt herself under suspicion.

From her earlier correspondence it is clear that Martha McTier was not neutral and that she had been active within a United-Irish circle.

Martha McTier shared her husband's and her brother's radical commitment to a national and representative government for Ireland.

Martha McTier read, sometimes in advance of her brother, most of the radical writers of her time, including Thomas Paine, William Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft.

At a time when philanthropic women "were attempting to tame the masses with soothing moral tracts", James Winder Good noted that Martha McTier "plumped for real education and knowledge of public affairs".

Martha McTier assured Drennan that "in these times I never will be gagged".

In 1798, like her brother in Dublin, in Belfast Martha McTier was in a heavily garrisoned town in which there was little prospect of a rebel demonstration.

Having, as she explained, so long "clung to free and rising Ireland", Martha McTier opposed as "degrading" Act of Union which in 1801 incorporated Ireland under the British Crown and Parliament at Westminster.

Martha McTier counselled Irishmen to "remain sulky, grave, prudent, and watchful, not subdued into tame servility, poverty and contempt, not satisfied till time blunts their chains and feelings, but ardent to seize the possible moment of national revenge".

In Belfast Martha McTier continued her charitable and school commitments, sometimes alongside Mary Ann McCracken until, in old age, she lost her sight.