Hester Varian

Hester Varian Sigerson (1828 – 15 April 1898) was an Irish poet and novelist based in Cork and Dublin.

Biography Hester Varian was born in Cork in 1828, the daughter of Amos Varian and Dora Walpole. Varian came from a republican and nationalist family. In 1861 she married physician, professor, historian and translator George Sigerson. Varian died in Dublin in 1898, at the age of 69. Her grave is in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Literary career Varian wrote for Harp, Cork Examiner, Irish Monthly, Young Ireland, and others. Her only novel, published in 1889, was A Ruined Race; or, The Last MacManus of Drumroosk, about an Irish farmer and the Great Famine.

Varian's literary connections included familial relationships. Her older brother Ralph Varian was a ballad collector. Her daughter Hester became a noted writer, and her daughter Dora became a noted poet and sculptor. Poet Elizabeth Willoughby Varian was her sister-in-law, and English critic Clement Shorter was her son-in-law.