

John Aloysius Blake (1826 – 1887)
John Aloysius Blake (1826 – 87)
Was a politician and government official, born in Waterford city, son of Andrew Blake, gentleman, and Mary Blake (née Gallwey). A Roman Catholic, he was educated at King's College, Waterford, and Government College at Pau in France. His political career began in local government and he served as mayor of Waterford (1855–8) and president of the Waterford chamber of commerce (1858–9) – in local government the creation of the Peoples Park and the widening of Barronstrand Street are perceived as his crowning glories. He was MP for Waterford city 1857–69, having been elected as an independent opposition candidate. His social views were seen as progressive, and he campaigned for better conditions for the insane and for reform in the judicial approach to juvenile offenders. His various articles and pamphlets included Defects of the moral treatment of insanity in public asylums (1866), and he was also noted for campaigning against cruelty to animals. He supported the concept of an Irish parliament, was an associate of Isaac Butt (qv) and became involved with the Home Rule League from its foundation in 1873. Like Butt, he preferred to adopt a gentlemanly approach in the commons and was described as ‘a typical Irish member of the old-fashioned order’ (McCarthy). Consequently, he disapproved of the policy of ‘obstruction’ practised by J. G. Biggar (qv) from 1875. When Butt died in 1879, Blake supported his successor, William Shaw (qv). He was elected MP for Waterford county (April 1880). On the election of C. S. Parnell (qv) as leader of the Irish parliamentary party in April 1880, Blake joined Shaw and seventeen others on the government benches while the Parnellite MPs supported the opposition. He felt that he could not reconcile himself with Parnellite policy and resigned from political life in 1884, but left with no animosity and was later to remark on Parnell's courteous conduct towards him on his departure. During the next two years he travelled across Australia and Asia, and published a series of articles on his experiences in the Freeman's Journal. On his return to Ireland his colleagues urged him to resume his political career and, after lengthy discussions with Parnell, he agreed to do so. In the general election of January 1886 he won a seat for Carlow county and reentered parliament as a member of the liberal–Parnellite alliance. Physicians had warned him, however, that he had a serious heart condition and should avoid the pressures of public life. This condition resulted in his sudden death in London on 22 May 1887.
He married (1874) Adelaide Mary Power of Faithlegg, Co. Waterford, daughter of Nicholas Mahon Power (qv), MP; they had no children. His main residences were at 44 Westland Row in Dublin and Queen Anne's Mansions, Westminster, in London. There are Blake letters among the Isaac Butt papers in the NLI.
Sources
T. P. O'Connor, The Parnell movement (1886), 372; Waterford Mail, Times, 24 May 1887; Illustrated London News, 28 May 1887, 19 May 1888; Justin McCarthy, Portraits of the sixties (1903), 156–63; Boase supp., 422; David Thornley, Isaac Butt and home rule (1964), 52, 221–6; Sir Henry Blackall, ‘The Galweys of Munster’, Cork Hist. Soc. Jn., lxxiii (1968), 165; Michael Stenton and Stephen Lees, Who's who of British members of parliament, i (1976); Walker
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The creation of Greater Barronstrand Street
Barronstrand Street - Up to March 1856 a series of buildings and shops occupied this area. There were three lanes, Little Barronstrand Street, Garter Lane and Royal Oak Lane. A commission set up by an act of parliament published plans to knock the buildings for the purpose of widening the area. Work commenced on the demolition of the buildings in Sept. 1856 and was completed in Feb. 1857. The work was known locally as the "Fall of Barronstrand Street" and the area renamed Great Barronstrand Street. The rubble from this demolition was used as infill in the bogland when creating the present day Peoples Park.
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Formerly the Trustee Bank and now Waterford Gallery of Art
This building was designed by the Waterford born architect Thomas Jackson (1807 – 1890). Jackson and his parents were both practicing Quakers. Ancestors of the Jackson family were in attendance at the very first Irish Quaker meeting which was held in Lurgan in 1654. Thomas Jackson married Lydia Newsom Ridgeway, another member of the Waterford Quaker community, on New Year’s Day Jackson later contributed to the Quaker movement by designing many of the Friends Meeting Houses in Northern Ireland.
Thomas Jackson was fundamentally a residential architect, but over the course of his career he turned his hand to commercial, educational, industrial and ecclesiastical buildings. An example of his domestic work can be seen at the ambitious Cliftonville development in Belfast. Jackson was also the principal architect of Ulster Bank, as well as The Banbridge, Lisburn and Belfast Junction Railway.
After time working in both Bristol and Belfast, Jackson returned to Waterford to design a new bank at 31 O’Connell Street. The bank was completed around 1845. Early on in its history, the bank housed the very first Waterford School of Art, which opened on 4 October 1852. This building was also once home to the Permanent TSB (formerly Irish Life and Permanent). The origins of the TSB can be dated back to 1816 when the first Irish Savings Bank was established in Waterford.
Architecturally, the classical style bank building retains many of its original features and is a significant reminder of the prosperity present within the area in the mid-nineteenth century. The building is distinguished by the fine cut-stone detailing throughout, as can be seen at the main entrance, stairs, and fireplace which is located on the first floor. As expected for a former bank building, a large walk-in vault, manufactured by Chubb and Son’s (London), can still be found in one of the rooms located on the ground floor.
NOTE – the upstairs Room at this building was Waterford’s first College of Art as a result of a campaign by John A Blake.