All on the Irish Shore

Somerville & Ross was the writing partnership of Edith Somerville and Violet Florence Martin.

Edith Anna Œnone Somerville, the eldest of eight, was born on 2nd May 1858 on Corfu, then a British protectorate where her father was stationed. After he retired back to County Cork Edith was home educated before attending Alexandra College in Dublin. In 1884 she went to Paris to study art at the Académie Colarossi and Académie Delécluse, and then spent a term at the Westminster School of Art.

In January 1886 she met her second cousin, Violet Florence Martin, who had been born at Ross House in Connemara, County Galway, the youngest of sixteen, on 11th June 1862.

They began writing together the following year and published their first book ‘An Irish Cousin’ in 1889 under the pseudonym Geilles Herring.

Much has been made of their partnership arrangements. They shared a home in Drishane, County Cork and there is little doubt that they were lovers and formed a lifetime attachment. They took care to cloak their literary identities as men, though primarily this may have been only to help with getting published. Despite the explosion of periodicals and magazines society still saw women starting out, and consequently their works, as second class. Obviously it also helped to keep prying eyes away.

Politically their views were divided. Violet was a suffragette and a convinced Irish unionist whilst Edith, although also a suffragette, was a Nationalist.

This aside their writing partnership was rich and prolific ranging from novels to short stories as well as 116 volumes of diaries and thousands of letters.

In 1898 Edith went to paint at the Etaples art colony, accompanied by Violet and whilst there they conceived the stories later used in ‘Some Experiences of an Irish R M,’ this series was perhaps the most popular and admired of their works.

That same year Violet was seriously injured in a riding accident and never regained her full health. Indeed, it was a contributing factor to her death on 21st December 1915 in Drishane at the age of 53.

Edith was heartbroken but continued to write as ‘Somerville and Ross’, saying they were in contact through spiritualist séances, a popular interest in the late Victorian era and early 20th Century.

She was in London recovering from Violet''s death when the Easter Rising broke out. Edith wrote to The Times, blaming the British government. Now her position leaned towards Nationalism.

Exhibitions of her pictures were held in Dublin and London throughout the 20s and 30s and she also illustrated several sporting and children''s picture books.

Edith Anna Œnone Somerville died at Castletownshend in October 1949, aged 91, and is buried alongside Violet at Saint Barrahane''s Church, Castletownsend, County Cork, Ireland.