Caroline Burke

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 tenants not to 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 and her early life is not known although she did visit her uncle. She married her uncle's son, Edward Henry Blake. She was being given protection by the police and she carried a revolver. It was said (by Blake) that a meeting in Tully Cross church had discussed finding £5 to pay someone to kill her.

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 and his wife.

Blake died in a cottage in nearby Renvyle in 1919.