During his time in Maynooth, Martin was a senior cantor and leading member of the seminary choir, serving as Acting Director of Sacred Music in his final year.

[1] Martin completed a Master of Philosophy in school development at St Edmunds College, Cambridge, between 1998 and 1999.

[6][7] He spoke of his shock upon learning of the appointment, saying:I am very conscious of the great trust that the Holy Father has placed in me, but in truth, I have to admit it was with considerable nervousness and trepidation that I accepted his call.

[8]The Bishop Emeritus of Derry, Edward Daly, said that Martin was seen as "a clean pair of hands" after the sexual abuse scandals, adding that the new coadjutor archbishop "[did] not carry any baggage from the past with him".

[10] It was announced on 8 September that Pope Francis that his resignation had been accepted and that Martin would succeed him to the see and primacy of Ireland with immediate effect.

[13] In his capacity as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All-Ireland, he was elected President of the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference that October.

[16] Upon his appointment as coadjutor archbishop of Armagh in 2013, Martin addressed the sexual abuse scandals that came to light in Ireland over the last two decades, stating that "[one] of the greatest challenges facing our Church is to acknowledge, live with, and learn from the past, including the terrible trauma caused by abuse".

[18] Following the passing of a referendum permitting same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland on 22 May 2015, Martin has said that the Catholic Church felt a sense of "bereavement", with Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, calling the result a "defeat for humanity".

Martin referred to Parolin's comments as an expression of the deeply held conviction about the meaning of marriage in the Catholic Church:One of the difficulties of the debate was that we had two parallel discussions going on.