He was described by Eyre as 'able to bring to the town of Galway in twenty four hours 800 villains as desperate and as absolutely at his devotion as Cameron of Lochiel'.
The mayor, an O'Hara, was the son of Lord Tyrawley's footman; the sheriff was a beggar; of the aldermen one was a poor shoemaker, the other a broken dragoon.
In response to this, Governor Eyre sent for the members and said to them: Gentlemen since you are here in your corporate capacity, I must recommend you to disperse these restless Popish ecclesiastics.
These and James Fitzgerald, who is also an unregistered priest, and had the insolence to solicit votes for his brother upon a prospect of a vacancy in Parliament, I expect you'll please to tender the oaths to, and proceed against on the Galway and Limerick Act.
Eyre's policy was supported by the government, but opposed by the Corporation of Galway, the Prime Sergeant, the Protestant Bishop of Elphin, and Francis II de Bermingham, Lord Athenry.
He was threatened with assassination as would appear from the following anonymous letter which he enclosed with his correspondence to Secretary Wayte, 11 December 1747:- Sir, as I had not the pleasure of seeing you since you came to your government of Galway, I hope soon to see you in the Elysian fields, as I am just going off the stage.
Thady Brennan, Martin's servant, walked past the sentinel at the bridge carrying a gun and pistol, apparently for repair.
The two would remain antagonists, as Martin continued to recruit for Jacobite regiments in France, and is believed to have harboured Bonnie Prince Charlie on an incognito visit to Ireland in 1753.
Froude described Eyre as "a man full of violent personal and religious animosities, intolerant of opposition, and much more fit of the command of a regiment than for the difficult task of governing a Catholic town."