Violet Florence Martin

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Violet Florence Martin
Born11 June 1862 (1862-06-11)
Ross House, Connemara, County Galway, Ireland
Died21 December 1915 (1915-12-22) (aged 53)
Drishane, County Cork, Ireland
Pen nameMartin Ross
Occupationnovelist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityIrish
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Alma materAlexandra College
Years active1889–1915
Notable worksThe Real Charlotte, The Irish R.M.

Violet Florence Martin (11 June 1862 – 21 December 1915) was an Irish author who co-wrote a series of novels with cousin Edith Somerville under the pen name of Martin Ross (Somerville and Ross) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[1]

Early life

Martin was born at Ross House in

Penal Laws
. Nevertheless, each child of the family was secretly 'baptised' by the family servants, a practice James Martin winked at.

She was a kinswoman of Richard Martin and her contemporary, Edward Martyn, two other notable members of the tribe. Her older brother, Robert Jasper Martin, was a noted songwriter and a well-regarded member of the Tory party in London. She shared a great-grandmother with the writer Maria Edgeworth, whose use of Irish vernacular speech she followed in her work.

Her father had managed to save both his estate and his tenants during the Great Famine - boasting that not one of his people died during the disaster - but at the cost of bankruptcy. Following his death in 1872, the family moved to Dublin and only returned to Ross in 1888 following revelations of financial fraud of the estate by their agent.

Writings and companionship with Edith Somerville

Violet Martin and Edith Somerville were second cousins. They originally met on 17 January 1886 at

Some Reminiscences of an Irish R.M. and In The Vine Country.[1] The precise nature of their relationship — whether they were romantic and sexual partners as well as literary collaborators and friends — has been the object of speculation by later writers.[2][3][4][5][6]

Political and cultural outlook

Martin was a convinced

W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, she objected to their romantic version of Irish peasantry. She was on good terms with Edward Martyn
, partner of Gregory and Yeats - and her kinsman - and shared his love of the Irish language and culture.

Later years

Violet was seriously injured in a riding accident in November 1898, from which she never fully recovered. This was a contributing factor to her death in Drishane, County Cork, in 1915. Edith Somerville continued to write under their joint literary names, claiming that they were still in contact.[7] The two women left thousands of letters and 116 volumes of diaries, detailing their lives, much of them yet unpublished. Edith died at Castletownshend in October 1949, aged 91, and is buried alongside Violet Florence Martin at Saint Barrahane's Church, Castletownsend, County Cork, Ireland. There is a joint memorial to them there.[8][9]

She was awarded a posthumous D.Litt. by Trinity College Dublin.

Collaborative novels

  • An Irish Cousin (1889)
  • Naboth's Vineyard (1891)
  • In the Vine Country (1893)
  • Through Connemara in a Governess Cart (1893)
  • The Real Charlotte (1894)
  • Beggars on Horseback (1895)
  • The Silver Fox (1897)
  • Some Experiences of an Irish R. M. (1899)
  • A Patrick's Day Hunt (1902)
  • All on the Irish Shore (1903)
  • Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1908)
  • Dan Russell the Fox (1911)
  • In Mr Knox's Country (1915)

See also

References and sources

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Boylan (1998)
  2. JSTOR 25512906
    .
  3. ^ corkucopia, Author (1 February 2018). "Somerville and Ross have a laugh". {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  4. ^ Craig, Patricia (17 April 1986). "Patricia Craig · Hiberbole · LRB 17 April 1986". London Review of Books. 08 (7).
  5. – via Google Books.
  6. – via Google Books.
  7. ^ Gifford (1987)
  8. ^ Hutchison, Sam. The Light of Other Days: a selection of monuments, mausoleums and memorials in Church of Ireland churches and graveyards and those whom they commemorate. pp. 87–89.
  9. ^ Ellis, Jacky. "Edith Somerville memorial plaque in the Church of Saint Barrahane at Castletownshend Stock Photo - Alamy". Alamy. Retrieved 28 August 2023.

Sources

External links