93:, who had become the inspirers of Parnell in such affairs. Their nominee was Ivor McGuinness, of Poyntz Pass. Objections were raised against him, and I avoided putting the issue as long as I could as the Armagh priests favoured Dempsey. For this the late Canon Quinn, P.P., described me as the "most tyrannical chairman he ever knew." His attack was just, but he knew nothing of my "sailing orders." Parnell's dislike of Dempsey had been fanned, on anti-Davitt grounds, and I dared not allow him to be accepted as a candidate, if a substitute could be found.
179:, held on 17 January 1899, involved a huge extension of the municipal franchise, from 7,954 to 38,769 in the constabulary borough, and opened up new possibilities for working class politics. Blane stood as a labour candidate in Trinity ward but although several labour candidates were successful in other wards, he missed election by 55 votes. The 1911 Census shows him living, unmarried, as a lodger at 3.2 Burgh Quay in Dublin, and gives his profession as tailor.
127:, was challenged in the House of Commons when he said that the sentence had been reduced. He responded ‘The original sentence, I believe, was four months with hard labour, and the new sentence was 6 months, without hard labour, I believe, and I say that is not an increase of the sentence, but it is a matter of taste’. Blane's health suffered from his imprisonment and he was released three weeks early as a result.
146:. South Armagh was a three-way fight, with Parnellite, Anti-Parnellite and Unionist candidates. Blane received only 59 votes, just over 1 per cent of the votes cast. This electoral performance was not uniquely bad; all four Parnellite candidates in the province of Ulster at this election performed almost equally poorly, the best score being 123 votes at
81:"During the General Election, the late Alex Blane, a tailor, was returned for S. Armagh as a member of the Irish Party. At Parnell's urging I went to the Convention there, which was to choose the candidate. He wanted to keep out a man named Dempsey, although Dempsey had been his nominee for Co. Derry in 1882. Meanwhile, he was supposed to have become a
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Blane was unusual in being a working-class member of the Irish
Parliamentary Party, and seems to have encountered some prejudice as a result. Parnell is reported to have said, on encountering him for the first time, ‘Who is that convict-looking fellow?’. O'Brien said Blane was ‘reputed to be one of
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In my perplexity, after some hours' contention, I turned to Father McElvogue, C.C., and asked, "Have you no local man on whom you could unite?" He replied, "Did you see a chap on a ladder in his shirt-sleeves putting up the decorations as you came in? " "Yes", said I. "Well, that fellow is good at
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Alexander Blane appears as a minor character in Darran McCann's novel, 'After the
Lockout' (2012). In the novel, an elderly Blane takes the young protagonist, Victor Lennon, a fellow Armagh exile in Dublin, under his wing, and plays a part in converting Lennon to socialism.
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There does not seem to have been a standard spelling, and ‘Blane’, ‘Blaine’ and ‘Blain’ are all found. Lyons (1960) and O'Brien (1957) have Blane. Walker (1978) has Blaine. The Times usually has Blane but sometimes Blaine. The
43:, and later a pioneering Socialist. In 1876 he was appointed agent to the Catholic Registration Association, an organization dedicated to maximising the Catholic vote. He was also president of the Prisoners’ Aid Society.
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Blane did not stand for
Parliament again. However he became active in working class politics. On 7 June 1896 he chaired an open-air meeting on the steps of the Custom House in Dublin which launched the
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split in
December 1890 over the Parnell's leadership, Blane supported Parnell. At the general election of 1892, Blane stood as a Parnellite both in his own seat of South Armagh, and in
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The Times stated on 1 December 1885, that Blane was then ‘about 30 years old’, but Blane himself gave his age as 61 in the Census of 1911, indicating a birth date about 1850.
211:(13 January 1899) actually has Blane and Blaine on the same page (p.6). Blane is used here because it occurs most often and is the version given in the 1911 Census return.
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Blane was the son of
Alexander (of County Armagh and of Sydney, Australia) and Bridget (of County Armagh) Slane. He was born about 1850 and was a native of the city of
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of defending
Parnell....from an extremist Catholic and patriotic point of view.....This defence (was) exhilarating in its combination of classicism and audacity....’.
369:(London), 18 November 1881; 1 December 1885; 3, 27 & 30 January, 1 February, 20 & 28 April, 15 May, 22 August, 25 September 1888; 5 July 1892; 16 January 1899
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150:. North Westmeath was a straight fight between Parnellite and Anti-Parnellite, but Blane lost heavily here also, with under 12 per cent of the vote.
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Subsequently, in
November 1885 he was returned unopposed as Nationalist MP for South Armagh, and was again unopposed in 1886. He helped organise the
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the simpler members of the party’, adding that in the debates in
Committee Room 15 of the House of Commons leading to the Split he ‘achieved the
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To date it has not proved possible to find an obituary and it is therefore not known what he did in later life or when he died.
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In 1888 the Irish-American
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to four months imprisonment, increased on appeal in April 1888 to six months. The Chief
Secretary for Ireland,
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claimed in his 1928 memoirs to have helped nominate Blane as an Irish Parliamentary Party candidate in 1885:
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registration and election work. His name is Alex Blane. He is a tailor, and his father was a Protestant."
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He died on 7 February 1917 at 16 D'Olier Street, Dublin, aged 67.
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Hurlbert W., "Ireland under Coercion" 1888 pp.66-121 online.
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in January 1888 as a result. Blane was sentenced under the
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People educated at St Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh
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Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801–1922
55:. Blane was educated by the Christian Brothers at
333:The Origins of Modern Irish Socialism, 1881–1896
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393:contributions in Parliament by Alexander Blane
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376:, Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 1978
177:Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898
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59:. He became a master tailor.
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261:Lyons (1977), p.343.
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186:In the arts
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447:Categories
175:under the
162:Later life
148:Mid Tyrone
117:Dunfanaghy
47:Early life
367:The Times
221:The Times
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138:When the
83:Davittite
75:Tim Healy
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31:(MP) for
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388:Hansard
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302:(PDF)
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