Alexander Blane

Alexander Blaine (c.1850–1917) was an Irish nationalist politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for South Armagh, 1885-92. He was a supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell during the Split in the Irish Parliamentary Party, 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.

Blane was the son of Alexander Blane of Armagh and Sydney and of Bridget, daughter of a Mr Timon of Armagh. He was born about 1850 and was a native of the city of Armagh. Blane was educated by the Christian Brothers at Greenpark. He became a master tailor.

In 1881 Blane was asked by the Land League at Armagh to stand for parliament for the county if there was an election, without result.

Tim Healy claimed in his 1928 memoirs to have helped nominate Blane as an Irish Parliamentary Party candidate in 1885:

Subsequently, in November 1885 he was returned unopposed as Nationalist MP for South Armagh, and was again unopposed in 1886. He helped organise the Plan of Campaign, aimed at agricultural rent reductions, in Gweedore, Co. Donegal, together with the local priest, Father James McFadden, and the two of them were put on trial at Dunfanaghy in January 1888 as a result. Blane was sentenced under the Irish Coercion Act to four months imprisonment, increased on appeal in April 1888 to six months. The Chief Secretary for Ireland, Arthur Balfour, 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.

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