Nicholas Blake (–1702) was a member of the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

. Blake was a member of one of the families called the Tribes of Galway, and was part of the Dominican community expelled from the Claddagh, near the town of

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

, in 1698. In 1702 he returned with two fellow Dominicans, Prior Gregory French and Fr. Daniel MacDonnell. Due to the Penal Laws and their earlier expulsion, any one of them could be deported if arrested. Blake escaped, but his companions were captured. French was expelled and died in Italy, McDonnell died in 1707 in Galway. Blake "expressed his loneliness in a poem in classical Latin" called "Here Lone I Live". It is a very rare example of a poem of this genre from the west of Ireland in the 18th century.

References

* ''Irish Dominicans'', O'Heyne, p. 74. * ''The Dominicans in Galway 1241-1991'', ed. Eustás Ó Héideáin, O.P. Irish poets Irish Dominicans 17th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests 18th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests Christian clergy from County Galway {{Ireland-RC-clergy-stub

See also

References