Caroline Blake born Caroline Johanna Burke (1835 – 23 February 1919) was an Irish landlord and hotelier. She became responsible for land and its tenants in County Galway. The Land League encouraged her tenents to not pay their rents and this reduced her income. Her poor treatment led to well-wishers creating a "Blake Fund" which allowed her to create the hotel.
Life
Burke was born in
County Tyrone
County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...
and her early life is not known although she did visit her uncle. She married her uncle's son, Edward Henry Blake.
[
In 1881 the landowner Blake was in dispute with her tenants. She believed that her tenants were exaggerating the famine caused by crop failure.][ The ]Land League
The Irish National Land League (Irish: ''Conradh na Talún'') was an Irish political organisation of the late 19th century which sought to help poor tenant farmers. Its primary aim was to abolish landlordism in Ireland and enable tenant farmer ...
were instructing her tenants to refuse to pay a full rent and they were punishing any who did. She was being given protection by the police and she carried a revolver. It was said (by Blake) that a meeting in Tully Cross
Tully Cross ( ga, Crois na Tulaí, "the cross on the hill") is a small village located on the Renvyle Peninsula in north-west Connemara, in County Galway, Ireland. It is actually situated in the townland of Gorteenclough. The village lies clos ...
church had discussed finding £5 to pay someone to kill her.[ She responded by having 109 people evicted from the village of Tully in September 1881.][
Over the next few years the rents charged were reduced by the Land Court and Grant's income was so reduced that she had to open Renvyle House as a hotel.][ She had given an account of her troubles to a commission in London looking at the work of the league and its leader ]Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell (27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1875 to 1891, also acting as Leader of the Home Rule League from 1880 to 1882 and then Leader of the ...
. She said that her pet donkey had its ears removed and 100 sheep belonging to a tenant who paid her were thrown off a cliff. She told how she had given a receipt to another tenant and he had it pinned inside a childs clothing as they feared they would be searched. The tenants had been so afraid that they asked her if she would care for their children if they were murdered. All of her testimony was presented verbatim in The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
.[ She became a celebrity and a "Blake Fund" was created. Some of the money required to transform the house into a hotel came from well-wishers and this included Prime Minister Balfour. The commission found that Parnell was innocent of these crimes as he had not encouraged the bad behavious but these were due to over-enthusiastic followers.]
Blake gained additional sympathy in the press that a noblewoman had to resort to commercial enterprise.
In 1916 she gave into the pressure and surrendered her land to the Congested Districts Board which was created to resolve the disputes caused by the Land League. They arranged for her farm and the hotel to be sold. Their farm was sold in small lots and the hotel was sold to the poet Oliver St John Gogarty
Oliver Joseph St. John Gogarty (17 August 1878 – 22 September 1957) was an Irish poet, author, otolaryngologist, athlete, politician, and well-known conversationalist. He served as the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's novel ...
and his wife.[
Blake died in a cottage in nearby Renvyle in 1919.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Caroline
1835 births
1919 deaths
People from County Tyrone
Women hoteliers