Jane Barlow (1856 – 1917) was born in Dollymount, Clontarf, County Dublin. She was the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin. Her novels and poem describe the lives of the Irish peasantry.

Barlow was the second child and eldest daughter of Rev. James William Barlow, vice-provost of TCD, who took a leading role in her education. She was proficient in French and German, a classical scholar, and an accomplished pianist. She was also well-travelled.

Barlow’s collection of stories Irish Idylls (1892) was very successful, running into nine editions, and read worldwide. She was also a contributor to the National Literary Society in Dublin and friends with Katherine Tynan. Barlow was a member of the Society of Psychical Research for more than 25 years.

When her father died in 1913, she moved to County Wicklow. Barlow died not long after in 1917.

Some of her stories touch lightly on the supernatural. For Company is taken from her collection By Beach and Bog Land (1905).

B.M. Croker (1848 – 1920) was born in County Roscommon. She was a successful novelist from 1882 until her death in London in 1920.

She was the only daughter of Rev. William Sheppard, also a writer.

In 1871, she married John Stokes Croker (1844–1911), an officer in the Royal Scots Fusiliers and later the Royal Munster Fusiliers. In 1877, Bithia followed her husband to India, where she lived for 14 years. 

In 1892, the couple moved to Wicklow, then to London, and finally to Kent, where her husband died in 1911. They had one daughter, Eileen.

Bithia died in 1920.

Edith Somerville and Violet Florence Ross (pen name Martin Ross) were Anglo-Irish writers, most famous for Some Experiences of an Irish R. M. (1899) and Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1908). These were later adapted for a television series in the 1980s.

Great-Uncle McCarthy is the first story in the former collection. It follows the life of Major Yeates, who accepts the position of a resident magistrate in Ireland. Upon arriving, he discovers his new home may be haunted. My reading is an extract taken from that chapter.

Somerville and Ross wrote other works, including the novel The Real Charlotte (1894). After the death of Ross in 1915, Somerville continued to write and publish stories under their joint names, claiming they kept in contact through spiritualist seances.

Violet died in County Cork in 1915. Edith died at Castletownshend in 1949 and is buried alongside her literary partner and companion at Saint Barrahane's Church.