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.

Frances Browne (1816 – 1879) was born in Stranorlar, County Donegal, the seventh child of twelve children. She was an Irish poet and novelist. Browne became blind after an attack of smallpox in infanthood, and later became known as ‘The Blind Poetess of Ulster.’

Browne’s first poems were published in the Irish Penny Journal and the London Athenaeum. She published a complete volume of poetry in 1844 and a second volume in 1847. She also contributed to the Chamber's Edinburgh Journal. 

In 1847 she moved to Edinburgh and then to London in 1852, where she wrote her first novel, My Share of the World (1861). Her best-known work, Granny’s Wonderful Chair, was published in 1856.

Frances Browne died on 21 August 1879 at 19 St John’s Grove, Richmond upon Thames. 

Katharine Tynan (1859 – 1931) was born into a farming family in County Dublin and educated in Drogheda. She wrote novels and poetry.

Her poetry was first published in 1875. She frequented literary Dublin circles and was friendly with the poet Gerard Manly Hopkins. She was also in regular correspondence with W.B. Yeats and, later, Francis Ledwidge.

Tynan married Trinity scholar, barrister and writer Henry Albert Hinkson in 1893. After marriage, she moved to England with her husband, then later, to County Mayo, where he was a magistrate.

She died in London, aged 72.

Charlotte Riddell (1832 – 1906) was born in Carrickfergus. She was the youngest daughter of James Cowan of Carrickfergus, High Sheriff for County Antrim, and Ellen Kilshaw of Liverpool, England.

She wrote 56 books, novels and short stories and became part-owner and editor of St. James's Magazine in the 1860s.

After the death of her father, she and her mother moved to London. The following year her mother died. Riddell married Joseph Hadley Riddell in 1851. They had no children.

Riddell wrote many ghost stories. Five of her novels—Fairy Water, The Uninhabited House, The Haunted River, The Disappearance of Mr. Jeremiah Redworth and The Nun's Curse—feature supernatural buildings.

She also wrote several shorter ghost stories, such as The Open Door and Nut Bush Farm. These were collected into the volume Weird Stories.

Her husband died in 1880. After 1886, Riddell lived in seclusion. She died in 1906.

Lady Wilde (1821 - 1896) was born in Dublin and wrote under the name Speranza. She was a poet, folklorist, nationalist, and feminist.

Her early work was published in The Nation newspaper, and her poetry was collected in Poems (1864).

She married Sir William Wilde in 1851 and had three children with him, among them Oscar Wilde.

Lady Wilde was well-known for hosting a literary salon in Dublin at her home in Merrion Square, where Bram Stoker was a frequent guest. Upon the death of her husband, she moved to London to join her sons.

Lady Wilde died in 1896.

The Demon Cat is taken from Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland (1887).

Rosa Mulholland (1841 – 1921) was born in Belfast. She was an Irish novelist, poet and playwright.

She started her literary career at a young age, attempting to publish her first book aged 15. Later in her career, she received encouragement from Charles Dickens, who valued her writing and included her work in his periodicals.

Mulholland married John Thomas Gilbert, a well-known historian, in Dublin in 1891.

As well as being a poet and short story writer, Mulholland produced many novels and wrote a biography of her husband, who died in 1898. Mulholland herself died in 1921. She is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

The Hungry Death is taken from her collection The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly and other stories (1891).