Roche was “a metal-worker who lived at the Golden Heart, Usher Street, Usher’s Quay, and afterwards in King Street, off St Stephen’s Green, Dublin”. Their entry for John Roche goes on to say the following …

In 1738 he did a medal of Dean Swift. This medal, which is cast and roughly executed, bears a medallion bust of the Dean supported by Hibernia with her shield and spear, a Gorgon shield lying near her, and by History who crowns the bust with a laurel wreath. Above is a winged figure with a crescent on her forehead, and near her an infant Genius with a palm branch. Below is a scroll inscribed REV. I. SWIFT. D.S.P.D. (the Reverend Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin). On reverse is Hibernia seated,medals commemorating the Convention of El Pardo in 1739, by which Spain agreed to compensate British merchants and shipowners, signed J. R. is probably his.

Roche in 1741 applied to the Dublin Society for its encouragement and help in the making of “Birmingham ware” which he had introduced into Ireland.

Members of the Society were deputed to inspect “the engines and instruments” set up by him in his house in Usher’s Quay, and they reported that they “saw his men go through the whole work of making buckles, buttons, etc., from mixing the metal in the furnace and cutting them and, after stamping, filing the edges, drilling, polishing and finishing the same.”

They also reported that he had “furnished himself with all the utensils and conveniences from Birmingham, and brought with