Edith Somerville (1858–1949) and Martin Ross (1862–1915) were, and continue to be, better known as accomplished comic writers who, with their entertainingly popular series of ‘Irish RM’ stories, detailed the humorous possibilities of Ireland as a place where the colonial power struggle is played out at the level of hilarious misunderstanding and wry suspicion. The comedic turn in Somerville and Ross's writing comes at the precise moment when their class and caste are most threatened with extinction after the political upheavals of the Land War, various attempts to bring about Home Rule and the numerous land acts of the 1880s onwards forever altered the position of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy. Such an exercise on their part can be read as a deflective reaction to this reality – an assertion of power in their ability to mock and playfully belittle. And the emphasis is very much on play in their ‘Irish RM’ stories, with Somerville and Ross recognising the theatrical and performative nature of the colonial relationship for both the colonised and the coloniser.

Yet there is nothing more serious than comedy. Certainly, for Somerville and Ross, beneath the light touch of their brand of social comedy lurks a much more pensive and dark tone. In The Real Charlotte (1894) comedy is combined with tragedy with devastating effect.