If there was an 'original' for the blind stripling in Dublin, he ought to be remembered in memoirs. There might have been no-one in particular, or someone in Europe instead. (Nora Franca Poliaghi in 'James Joyce: an Occasion of Remembrance' says there was one in Trieste.)
Robert Urch Jr. seems to be the only blind piano tuner in the 1901 or 1911 census. (There were plenty of piano tuners in Dublin, many married, so it paid okay. They can all read and write, so if any others were blind they hid it well from the census-takers.)
In 1901 he was away at (blind?) school, but three siblings are listed who had vanished by 1911.
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| weird Italian-looking middle names |
family-history-exploration.blogspot.com
Sarah Urch, printer's daughter from Wells, who married in Galway 1857 to Michael Harding. Her younger brother must have followed her to Ireland. He had arrived in Dublin and found a wife, by 1870. Robert Urch became supervisor of the Inland Revenue in Dublin and is buried at Mount Jerome. Source: will of Lucas Urch, familysearch
No.1123 In Loving Memory | of | ELIZABETH JANE | loved and loving wife of | ROBERT URCH | Supervisor of Inland Revenue | who entered into rest | August 26 1887 | "My fathers will be done" | also her daughter | ROBERTA I. URCH | who died 23rd April 1901 | and her husband the above | ROBERT URCH | who died 30th January 1912 | aged 80
1901 census
63 Leinster sq
69yo widower Robert
26yo unmarried daughter Wilhelmina
24yo unmarried daughter Roberta
17yo son Gideon Ouseley (mercantile clerk)
familysearch.org
Robert Newman Lucas Urch
Ireland Civil Registration Indexes, 1845-1958
birth: July 1881 / September 1881 Dublin South, Ireland
Student England and Wales Census, 1901
birth: 1882 Ireland
residence: 31 March 1901 Croydon, Surrey, England
England and Wales Census, 1901
Gender Male Age 19 Occupation STU
Relationship to Head of Household Pupil
Birth Year (Estimated) 1882
Birthplace Ireland
Robert N L Urch
Ireland Civil Registration Indexes, 1845-1958
marriage: April 1910 / June 1910
Rathdown, Ireland
Thom's 1904
Urch, Robert, esq
26 Walthem ter. 25£
Blackrock
1911 census
33 Herbert ave
79yo Robert
29yo married blind Robert Newman Lucas, pianoforte tuner
29yo not-blind wife Kathleen Hilda
Robert Graham Campbell Urch (baby)
timeline
1832 Robert Sr born
marries
supervisor of the Inland Revenue
1875 Wilhelmina born
1877 Roberta born
1882 RNLU born
1884 Gideon born
1887 mother died
RNLU to Croydon school
1901 63 Leinster square
1901 Roberta dies
1904 26 Walthem terrace, Blackrock
no-date: 33 Herbert ave
1910 RNLU marries
1911 Robert III born
1912 Robert Sr dies
1935? At St. Philip's Church, Milltown, Dublin, on June 24, Robert Graham Urch, L.P.S.I., to Sheelagh Goode. (Licentiate of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland,)
1939 Mr. R. G. C. Urch, L.P.S.L, moved from 21 Ramleh Park, Milltown, to " Bawnmore,"
Sandyford, co. Dublin
