Mary Anne Emmet

Mary Anne Holmes (; 10 October 1773 – 10 March 1805) was an Irish poet and writer connected to the Society of United Irishmen.

Life Holmes was born Mary Anne Emmet on 10 October 1773 in Dublin to Robert Emmet (1729–1802), the state physician of Ireland, and Elizabeth Emmet (née Mason). (Holmes' first name is also cited as Maryanne.) Holmes was the sister of Christopher Temple Emmet, a barrister and poet, Thomas Addis Emmet, a lawyer and United Irishman, and Robert Emmet, a Republican and United Irishman.

As a young woman, she was noted for her intelligence and was a classical scholar. Her father lauded her "good character" and was very hopeful she would make a good wife. Holmes was interested in politics and was a member of liberal intellectual circles. She was a correspondent of Margaret King about their common passion for the writings of Mary Wollstonecraft. She was attended to by Drennan, who worried that she was succumbing to tuberculosis that December. Holmes died on 10 March 1805 and was buried with her parents in the graveyard of St. Peter's Church, Aungier Street, Dublin. A portrait of Holmes by Thomas Hickey is held by Kilmainham Gaol.

Poetry and writing Holmes wrote prose and verse for the Press, a publication associated with the Society of United Irishmen. In 1799 she was active, along with members of her extended family, in the movement opposed to the legislative union of Ireland with the United Kingdom. The pamphlet An address to the people of Ireland was attributed to her, but is now thought to have been written by Roger O'Connor. Holmes' poems were included in her daughter's 1833 book of verse The dream and other poems.