Born in Wexford, Sean was brought by his parents to Dublin city as a young lad. He grew up to become a Volunteer and was active in the Tan War until his arrest at the Custom House. During the Civil War he fought on the Republican side, but was captured and interned. In peacetime he did clerical work, married the sister of a fellow Custom House anti-Treaty man and had a family. Sadly Sean died short of his fiftieth birthday.
Origin and Background
Sean’s father, Dubliner Patrick Nolan, was a Railway Carriage Fitter with the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway Co. married to Anne neé Somers, a Co. Wicklow woman. While based in Wexford town, the couple welcomed the arrival of their first son John at Hill Street on 14 January 1900. The couple already had two daughters and a third would be born in 1902. By 1904 the family had moved to Dublin and were living on Watling Street when their next baby was born. Two years later, another Nolan birth showed they had moved across the Liffey to Church Street in the Docklands. Sadly, only three of the six children would survive their infant years – Maggie, Sean and Kathleen. In 1911 the family were based on Northcourt Avenue, off Church Road, East Wall and eleven-year-old Sean was a schoolboy.
With Dublin Brigade
In his Military Pension application (MSP34REF823), Sean said he joined E Coy, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade in 1919 and was engaged in armed patrol work, two evenings and on Sunday mornings each week. He was not involved in any major incidents, mentioning a failed ambush of a military lorry when a grenade did not explode and another abortive attack on crown forces at North Strand. One strange and intriguing final question was asked by the Board of Assessors at Nolan’s interview – was he arrested in 1917 for playing a match in Phoenix Park? Sean said yes. What this was about remains a mystery to this writer.
On 25 May 1921 he took part in his biggest job by far – the Custom House. He was mobilised along with his comrades by Andy Doyle and was armed with a revolver. Nolan stayed in the building after it was surrounded, firing his few bullets. When the building was evacuated, he was arrested afterwards. His details were recorded as John Nolan of “17 Hawthorn Street, North Street end”. That address does not seem to have existed; either the British got it wrong or he wanted to throw them off the scent. He actually lived at 17 Hawthorn Terrace off Church Road in the same locality, East Wall. He was interned in Kilmainham Gaol until released on 8 December 1921. While in custody he signed several autograph books and had his photo taken for Cyril Daly’s collection.
Civil War
When the IRA split in 1922, Sean was among the small minority – he says about twelve – from E Coy, 2nd Battalion who did not follow their O/C Tom Ennis into the new Irish Army on the pro-Treaty side. Nolan stayed with his IRA unit and said they ended up with only about forty in all after they had tried recruiting others in April 1922. He said himself and Paddy Sweeney were the first occupiers to go to Barry’s Hotel; they moved for a couple of days to the Minerva Hotel before returning to Barry’s. Sean said “I do not believe we ever fired a shot. We evacuated Barry’s Hotel – we were told the Tans [sic] were coming to blow it up”.
He claimed to have been one of the firing party over Cathal Brugha’s grave at Glasnevin after he was mortally wounded while defending The Block on 7 July. Three volleys were fired. Nolan said National Army members were watching but did not interfere.
The following month Sean took part in the ‘Bridges Job”, the Republican’s plan to isolate the city and the Provisional Government from the rest of the country. Over two hundred anti-Treaty volunteers turned out on the night of 6 August but the plot was foiled by the National Army. They had prior knowledge thanks to the recent arrest of an IRA officer carrying a map showing the targets. Almost 190 of those involved were arrested at the various scenes and in follow-up raids. Nolan himself was picked up that night at The Thatch in Whitehall and brought first to Maryborough (Portlaoise) Prison and later lodged in Tintown No. 2 Camp. He was released in December 1923 but had in the meantime lost his job “for being in the last trouble“.
Peacetime
Sean settled back into civilian life, returning home to live at Hawthorn Terrace and working as a clerk. He got married on 27 September 1926 to Alice Evers at the Pro-Cathedral, Marlborough Street. His bride was a sister of his old IRA comrade and fellow Custom House Fire Brigade man Paddy Evers who was best man; another sister Eileen was the bridesmaid.
Under the 1934 Act he was awarded a military pension based on four-and-two-thirds years service at the rank of Lieutenant. At that time he was living at 66 Mountjoy Square. One early activity mentioned is armed protection of a woman named Maggie Cullen of 18 Sheriff Street. She had been threatened with burning out and appealed for help to the local Volunteers. Nolan and other comrades were ordered to respond and the culprit was caught. He also said his entire Coy was mobilised for the contemplated rescue of Kevin Barry (which was cancelled) in November 1920. A later job he did for Sean Russell was shifting very big machinery, broken down in pieces, by car from an anti-Treaty dump in King Street immediately after the IRA split in 1922.
Very little is known about the Nolans afterwards although they did settle in Cabra which was developed from 1929 as a large-scale Dublin Corporation housing project. Sean lived at 40 Ventry Park for the rest of his life and he and Alice raised two sons, Paddy and Sean junior (who emigrated to Canada). His father Peter died in 1939.
Sean Nolan himself passed away in Sir Patricks Dun’s Hospital on 15 December 1949 at the early age of forty-nine. An Old IRA firing party paid military honours at his funeral.
His elderly mother did not survive him long, dying less than a year later. His widow Alice lived until 1988. All three rest together in in Glasnevin Cemetery (plot FF71 St Paul’s section).
We are happy to pay a small tribute to their memory. RIP.
Des White
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