When Martha Nolan-O'Slatarra swapped small-town Carlow for the bright lights of the Big Apple, she did so with stars in her eyes. Like many others, the young designer had big dreams she was determined to accomplish, and by her own admission, she needed to 'get out' to go somewhere in life.
She was well on her way to achieving those goals when her American dream turned into a nightmare. On Monday, Martha's body was found onboard a yacht in East Hampton, the famed summer playground of well-heeled New Yorkers.
As her tragic story continues to make headlines, just who was the glamorous designer whose life was cut short?
Early life and education
Martha, who was just 33 years of age at the time of her passing, came from a farming family and grew up at Monacurragh on Blackbog road on the edge of Carlow town.
She got her first taste of city life when she convinced her parents to let her move to Dublin for her final two years of school to attend The Institute of Education.
A stint at UCD's Smurfit Business School followed and, from a young age, she was determined to get ahead in fashion but was under no illusion that it would be an uphill battle.
She told the Irish Independent: 'I always knew I wanted to be successful, that I was money driven and that fashion is a tough industry and it would be a slow road.'
Career
She took her first tentative steps into the workforce at home, working at the Bow and Pearl boutique followed by a spell at Frock Adviser and Calypso Technology.
Martha also landed graduate roles at both Deloitte and Ernest & Young, but with so many of her friends and contemporaries emigrating, she inevitably felt left out and moved Stateside in 2015 when she was 26.
Martha settled in Manhattan and threw her efforts into getting her fashion dreams off the ground, but also circled around the finance sphere. In 2019, she began working at Ogilvy, but when COVID hit, her team got furloughed, and she decided to try her hand at something new and launched an Amazon brand.
She subsequently founded her resortwear line for men and women, East X East, in 2022, and she credits an angel investor with helping her get her ventures off the ground.
Martha was just celebrating the launch of her East X East pop-up store in The Hamptons when she died.
She was also appointed director of operations at the investment management firm, K4 Capital Management, in June 2024.
Glamorous lifestyle
Martha was also living the kind of life that so many small-town girls can only dream about. She was living in Manhattan's Upper East Side, and her feeds were sprinkled with the trappings of the high life.
In 2021, she and her pals took a Falcon private jet to Nashville to attend a concert. She also travelled to Mallorca in Spain in 2023 to shoot a campaign for her brand.
In October, Martha also posted a video of herself and a male friend enjoying bubbles in the air on a helicopter flight.
In another outing, they were taking in scenic rural views from a luxury convertible car. She also travelled regularly to St Barts, where she had two stores.
Still a small-town girl at heart
Despite her jet-set lifestyle, Martha told the Independent that she missed home, saying: 'I love Carlow, I miss it so much, but now that I work for myself, I can go home for a month and my parents and my friends are always coming out to see me.'
Tragic death
On Monday, Martha's American dream turned to tragedy when her body was found unresponsive on board a yacht that was docked in East Hampton.
As the alarm was raised, Good Samaritans attempted CPR but were unable to resuscitate her, and first responders pronounced her dead on board.
According to the Daily Mail, locals heard a man screaming for help for his 'girlfriend.' They also stated that Martha was well known in the community and was 'very friendly and always smiling.'
