Violet Florence Martin

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.

Early life

Martin was born at Ross House in Connemara, County Galway, the youngest of sixteen children of James Martin of Ross (1804–1872).

Political and cultural outlook Martin was a convinced Irish unionist, in opposition to Somerville's open nationalism. Both she and her brother Robert were well-regarded members of the literary circle in Irish unionism. However, unlike her brother, Martin was a convinced suffragette, becoming vice-president of the Munster Women's Franchise League. While on friendly terms with the leading members of the Gaelic literary revival such as 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. The two women left thousands of letters and 116 volumes of diaries, detailing their lives, much of them yet unpublished.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.

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)