| Office: | Senator |
| Term Start: | 1 June 1973 |
| Term End: | 8 October 1981 |
| Constituency: | National University |
| Birth Name: | Thomas Augustine Martin |
| Birth Date: | 13 November 1935 |
| Birth Place: | County Leitrim, Ireland |
| Death Place: | Dublin, Ireland |
| Party: | Independent |
| Children: | 4 |
| Alma Mater: | University College Dublin |
| Education: | Cistercian College, Roscrea |
Thomas Augustine "Gus" Martin (13 November 1935 – 16 October 1995) was an Irish academic, Anglo-Irish scholar, teacher, writer, politician, broadcaster and literary critic. During his career he was professor of Anglo-Irish Literature at University College Dublin (UCD), chairman of the board of the Abbey Theatre, and a member of Seanad Éireann (the Irish senate) from 1973 to 1981.[1]
Augustine Martin was born in Ballinamore, County Leitrim in 1935. Initially educated at the local national school, he completed his secondary education at Cistercian College, Roscrea (CCR), a boarding school in County Tipperary where he captained the rugby team, was elected House Captain by the students and in his Leaving Certificate examination, scored an A in English, coming first in the country that year.
In 1953 he entered University College Dublin (UCD), where he took a Bachelor of Arts in 1957. He married Claire Kennedy (a radiologist) in 1959, and they had four children. He taught English and Irish at his old school (Cistercian College) while he completed his Master of Arts degree.
In 1964, he joined the English department of UCD as a lecturer specialising in Anglo-Irish literature and was subsequently involved with the redrawing of the English literature secondary school curriculum as a founder member of the Association for Teachers of English (ATE). During this period he edited the secondary school text books Exploring English (prose) and Soundings (poetry). In 1973, he competed his doctoral thesis on James Stephens.
He won a Jacob's Awards for broadcasting in 1968 for presenting Telefís Scoile programmes about English literature for RTÉ.
He succeeded Roger McHugh as Chair of Anglo-Irish Literature, at UCD in 1979.
In 1973, he was elected to Seanad Éireann (the Irish Senate) for the National University constituency, and re-elected in 1977 to serve until 1981. As a senator, he spoke for the arts and culture and was notably active in the opposition to the development of Wood Quay, a 900-year-old Viking settlement in Dublin.
In 1983, he was appointed to the board of the Abbey Theatre (the Irish national theatre), and in 1985 was appointed chairman. He was chairman of the Yeats International Summer School from 1978 to 1981, and subsequently founded the Yeats Winter School and the Joyce Summer School at Newman House.
Martin died on 16 October 1995, aged 59. At the time of his death he was working on a biography of the Irish poet, Patrick Kavanagh.
His literary works include:
An anthology of his essays was published posthumously: Bearing witness: essays on Anglo-Irish edited by Anthony Roche (1996)[2]