Born: 11 June 1862, Ireland
Died: 21 December 1915
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Martin Ross
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Monika Wittmann and Otto Rauchbauer. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Somerville, Edith Anna Œnone (1858–1949), and Martin, Violet Florence (‘Martin Ross’) (1862–1915), writers, were, through their mothers, descended from Charles Kendal Bushe, lord chief justice of Ireland. Owing to their literary collaboration for almost thirty years, their biographies may be conveniently evaluated together.
Violet Martin was born 11 June 1862 at Ross House, Co. Galway, youngest daughter of James Martin (1804–72), DL, and his wife Anna Selina (née Fox) (1822–1906). She was descended from an Anglo-Norman family, which had acquired land in west Galway from the sixteenth century onwards. Originally catholic, the Martins converted to protestantism in the second half of the eighteenth century; nevertheless, some catholic traditions were retained into Martin’s times. After the famine years the once flourishing Ross estate incurred heavy debts, which forced James Martin temporarily to take up journalism. After his death the family moved to Dublin, but reopened the house in 1888, and for the next eighteen years the responsibility of running it fell on Violet.
Violet had spent one term at Alexandra College, Dublin, which made her acquainted with suburban life, an experience later used in The real Charlotte. Growing up in a family with a strong appreciation for literature and art – Shakespeare and Milton were constantly read – she developed literary interests at an early age. These were also prompted by her eldest brother Robert Jasper Martin, a journalist and well known songwriter, who had settled in London and was a friend of Arthur Balfour.
Among the Galway gentry with whom the Martins socialised were the Persses of Roxborough, the Morrises of Spiddal, and Edward Martyn at Tulira Castle; the relationship to Lady Gregory and her family was particularly strong. At Coole Park Martin met W. B. Yeats in 1901 and again in 1913, and discussed literature with him; she had the reputation of being a brilliant conversationalist. Her letters and diaries testify that she was interested in the dramatic work of the Irish literary renaissance, appreciating Yeats’s plays for their language and style. She was often the guest of Sir Horace Plunkett at Kilteragh, his literary and political salon near Dublin. During a visit to St Andrew’s, Scotland, in 1895, Martin had made a strong impression on the eminent Victorian man of letters Andrew Lang.
Early in 1886 Violet Martin had paid a visit to her second cousin Edith Œ. Somerville in Castletownshend, west Cork, which turned out to have a lasting effect on both writers’ careers; a deep friendship and a unique literary partnership emerged, which lasted till Martin’s death in 1915.
Apart from the work written jointly with Somerville, a corpus of prose has survived with Martin as the sole author. These texts were published by the writer in periodicals, or appeared in prose collections under the name of ‘Somerville and Ross’ (All on the Irish shore (1903); Some Irish yesterdays (1906)); others were edited by Somerville after Martin’s death (Stray-aways (1920); Wheel-tracks (1923)). Some show Violet Martin’s interest in Irish politics, e.g. the Spectator article ‘The reaping of Ulster’ (1912), and a long correspondence with the critic Stephen Gwynn on the rising tide of Irish nationalism, printed in Irish memories (1917). Throughout her life, Violet Martin remained a staunch unionist, betraying a paternalistic stance characterised by her rejection of the rising catholic middle classes, whom she associated with a lack of political and cultural sophistication. At the same time, she retained a deep-felt sympathy for the rural Irish and the potency of their language, which shows in such texts as ‘A speaking contrast’ (Irish Homestead, Dec. 1899) and ‘Children of the captivity’ (Some Irish yesterdays). There is MS evidence that ‘In the state of Denmark’ (Stray-aways), probably the most accomplished tour journal of Somerville and Ross, was largely written by Violet Martin, as was ‘An outpost of Ireland’ (1895; Some Irish yesterdays), a report about a visit to the Aran Islands, which is notable for its descriptions of landscape and was partly anthologised in the Oxford book of English prose (1925). Martin’s style is characterised by a tendency towards analysis and abstraction, often reflective and impressionist, and at times verging on the symbolist.
On 21 December 1915 Violet Martin, who had been in poor health after a hunting accident in 1898, died from a brain tumour in Cork. She was buried in Castletownshend, which had become her second home after her mother’s death in 1906.