A memorial statue to Sir John Gray stands on Dublin’s O’Connell Street. It honours his efforts to bring a water supply to the city.
A newspaper proprietor and politician who, although from a Protestant background, supported nationalist ideals, he died 150 years ago on April 10th (some sources give April 9th), 1875.
He was born on July 13th, 1816 (some sources give 1815), one of 10 children of John Gray, a farmer and excise officer from Claremorris, Co Mayo, and his wife Elizabeth Wilson, whose father was a local brewer and merchant. Following studies at Trinity College Dublin, he studied medicine at Glasgow University and after graduating in 1839, practised for a time at a hospital in North Cumberland Street in Dublin.
In 1839, he married Mary Anne Dwyer, only daughter of James Dwyer of Limerick, and with her had two daughters and four sons.
In 1841, he, his brother Wilson and George Atkinson (who played a leading role in the Society of Apothecaries) purchased the Freeman’s Journal, a Dublin Catholic daily newspaper; he became its political editor and from 1852, its sole owner. He reduced the newspaper’s price and increased its circulation.
The paper strongly supported Daniel O’Connell’s campaign for repeal of the Act of Union. Gray attended many of O’Connell’s so-called “monster meetings” around the country and was sentenced with him and others to nine months’ imprisonment for treasonable conspiracy in May 1844. They were kept in great comfort in Richmond Bridewell (subsequently Griffith Barracks and now Griffith College) and released in early September following an appeal to the House of Lords.
Following O’Connell’s death, Gray was among those who inaugurated an appeal for subscriptions to build a monument to him. He campaigned for tenants’ rights and was elected to Dublin Corporation in 1852, where he worked to improve conditions in the city, contributing significantly to the establishment of a fire brigade and a new cattle market on North Circular Road. “As chairman of the corporation’s waterworks committee (1853-75), his greatest achievement was the construction of the Vartry water scheme (1862-69), which did much to reduce the death rate in Dublin,” according to CJ Woods, who wrote the entry on him in the Dictionary of Irish Biography. He was knighted for his contribution to the scheme in 1863 but turned down an offer to become lord mayor five years later.
His interest in national politics continued and he became active in the National Association of Ireland, established in 1864 by Archbishop Paul Cullen of Dublin to promote Catholic interests, especially the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. It seems curious that Gray, who belonged to that church, should so strongly support Cullen, which he did in parliament after being elected for Kilkenny City in July 1865, holding the seat until his death.
During the disestablishment campaign, he was “unremittent both in debate and private lobbying” and “undoubtedly, with Cardinal Manning, the principal influence in persuading Gladstone to take up the issue” (David Thornley, Issac Butt, 1964, cited by CJ Woods). Disestablishment was enacted in 1869 and Gray again agitated for land reform but he was disappointed by Gladstone’s 1870 Land Bill, which he regarded as inadequate and voted against in parliament.
He was lukewarm on the issue of Home Rule, which Issac Butt was promoting in the 1870s; he didn’t join Butt’s Home Government Association (influenced by the Catholic bishops’ suspicion of it, according to CJ Woods) and opposed a Home Rule pledge being imposed on Irish liberal candidates at the 1874 general election. However, he was considered to be one of the 59 candidates in favour of Home Rule returned for Irish constituencies and, indeed, in the new parliament he was drawn towards members who took a tougher line than Butt, such as Joseph Biggar.
Following his death at Bath aged 58, his remains were brought back to Dublin and his funeral procession from his Rathmines home to Glasnevin Cemetery was a mile and a half long. CJ Woods referred to Cardinal Cullen commenting “drily” that Gray “did the Catholics great services, but, though he did a great deal to pull down the Protestant church, he had the misfortune to die a Protestant”.
A fine memorial statue, executed by Thomas Farrell in white Sicilian marble, was unveiled by John McHale, Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, in what was then Lower Sackville Street in Dublin on June 24th, 1879.
The inscription on the pedestal reads: “Erected by public subscription to Sir John Gray Kn[igh]t. MD. JP proprietor of the Freeman’s Journal M.P. Kilkenny City, Chairman of the Dublin Corporation Water Works Committee 1868 to 1875 during which period preeminently through his exertions the Vartry water supply was introduced to the city and suburbs. Born July 13 1815, died April 9, 1875.”
