Not yet even sixteen years old, John ‘Jack’ Doran was arrested at the Custom House on 25 May 1921. He came from a Dublin inner city family. There are no Old IRA records for him but he did sign an autograph book while interned in Kilmainham with the Custom House Fire Brigade. He later served in the Irish Army, married and had a family. Let’s have a look at what else is known about this young Doran lad.
Beginnings

John was born on 10 April 1905 in the famous Rotunda Maternity Hospital to John Doran (a Builder’s Labourer originally from Co. Cavan) and his wife, Dubliner Rose Whelan, a street trader. The family’s home was fairly close by, in no. 5 Johnston’s Court off what was then named Great Britain (now Parnell) Street. Not too long before that, the Dorans had lived at Temple Court (off Hill Street) in 1901 and 1902. The family, in common with most other residents of the inner city back then, had to move their rented tenement rooms regularly.
By 1911 they were living in no. 8 Upper Tyrone Street close enough to the notorious former Monto red light area (The street no longer exists). Listed on their return are the parents and four of their five surviving children (from eight born). Edward was aged 12, Harriett was 9 and John ‘Jack’ 6 – all attending school – plus two-year-old Nicholas. The father John worked as a Labourer while the mother Rose was a Dealer. Another son, Patrick (born in 1908) was listed as a Nurse Child (fostered) with an otherwise childless couple named Adams, at Upper Gloucester Place.
The family would stay for quite a time longer at their next known address – 7 Henrietta Street – for at least ten years from 1916. This is known from Mountjoy Prison records, as the unfortunate Mrs. Doran was in regular trouble with the police for unlicensed street trading. Charges such as “exposing fruit for sale and obstructing the footpath” meant Rose (like many others in her type of casual business) was fined and even jailed several times.
Life was tough enough back then for Dublin’s poor. Street dealers like Rose were just trying to scratch an honest living in all weathers. A hard life even without the added burden of petty rules and regulations being enforced so rigorously by the then-overbearing DMP.
We had contact some time ago from Louise Lowe, a grandniece of Jack who had come across his name on the list here. Louise’s grannie was Jack’s sister Harriet and she confirmed they used to live in the basement of 7 Henrietta Street (Incidentally, while most of the houses on Henrietta Street have been modernised, no. 14 has been turned into a Tenement Museum, well worth a visit).
Arrested at the Burning
The next time we come across young Jack is on the Custom House arrest list (His address was shown inaccurately as 17 Henrietta Street). Whether he was on duty with the IRA on 25 May 1921 or an unlucky passerby or spectator is not known. But he ended up being taken to Arbour Hill Detention Barracks before going on to internment in Kilmainham Gaol with the other men arrested on 25 May 1921. John was only fifteen years old, 45 days short of his next birthday.
The whole experience must have been an eye-opener for such a young lad, even if he was street-wise as inner-city dwellers needed to be to survive. Hopefully the older hands among his fellow prisoners gave him some moral support. In any event, he was accepted enough to be allowed sign the autograph book of Billy Doyle, an experienced IRA Volunteer with No. 4 Section, ASU. His entry seems to have been a joke about the classic Dublin northside v. southside antipathy? Or a comment on differing political loyalties in districts, one mostly middle-class the other more working-class?
A Bit of Trouble for Himself
Jack Doran was released with the other internees in December 1921. He returned home and, as Billy Doyle and other IRA agonised over or decided on their political loyalties, young Doran had his own problems to occupy him.
In March 1922 he was arrested for being “a suspected person loitering” and received a sentence of 3 months with Hard Labour in Mountjoy. The following October Doran’s name made the newspapers over two armed robberies on a pawn shop in Summerhill and Guiney’s drapery on Talbot Street carried out with three other young men. John Doran held up a policeman who arrived at the second scene. One of the other men fired a shot in the air when they were confronted by another policeman. The four were arrested. This time Jack was handed a term of 12 months with Hard Labour in the Joy.
From the record we know that he was 5 foot 7 inches (170 cm) tall, had brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. He weighed 128 lbs (61 kg).
The periods before and after Civil War conflict broke out were lawless times in Dublin. Weapons were widely available and armed robberies and other violent acts were commonplace. Many young men like Jack Doran from deprived inner city areas were swept up by circumstances or took advantage of the troubled city situation and got involved in crime.
Military Service and Family
At some point after his release in 1923 Jack joined the Army and must have decided to settle down. When he wed Mary Byrne from Waterford Street in the Pro-Cathedral, Marlborough Street on 24 May 1926, the record shows him as a Soldier, still living at 17 Henrietta Street. The couple had a few children but little else is known of their lives. Their last known address was 23D St. Joseph’s Mansions, Killarney Street (now redeveloped as Killarney Court by Cluid Housing).
Jack served for some years in the Army and then became a “Labourer” (that notoriously uninformative catch-all term for working folk). Sadly he developed two serious health conditions – one terminal – and was forced to retire.
He passed away in Leopardstown Park Hospital* at the early age of fifty-nine on 17 September 1963. He was laid to rest in Deansgrange Cemetery, south Co. Dublin (plot 41/I2, St. Brigid’s section). John Doran, described as an ex-soldier, was survived by his widow, a son and daughters, in-laws, grandchildren and brothers.
Followed in Jack’s Footsteps
One brother had long pre-deceased him. Nicholas, Jack’s younger brother was jailed in 1926, aged sixteen, for small-scale burglary. He and his accomplices got six months hard labour. But he also turned his life around and became a soldier too. He went on to marry Kathleen McCaffrey in 1931. They had (possibly) five children but at some time during WW2 Nicholas joined the British Army Pioneer Corps as a Private, Service No. 13009486. Late in the conflict he died during the bloody Italian campaign on 8 April 1945 (circumstances unknown) and is buried in Salerno War Cemetery. He was aged 36 and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission describes him as “Son of John and Rosanna Doran, of Dublin, Irish Republic; husband of Kathleen Doran, of Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin”. The personal inscription added to his military headstone is poignant “One so dearly loved by his wife and little ones. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on him. R.I.P.”
Beyond confirming the Dorans’ old address, their descendant Louise Lowe unfortunately did not have much more information due to the passing of the previous generations. But she did kindly give us a wedding day photo of her late father John Hyland (Jack’s nephew who was named after him) and a Doran cousin, name uncertain.
It was good to learn that Jack Doran’s extended family still remember him. Whether he was an IRA Volunteer or not does not alter the fact that he spent 6 months as an internee at a very young age. He also served his country later in the Irish Army. One hundred and twenty years after his birth we are pleased to have told a little of his story.
Des White
* Somewhat ironically, this hospital was originally founded in 1917 to treat British Army wounded from WW1.
Credit and many thanks to Reader Patrick Johnson who, back in 2019, provided links and tips to identify the correct John Doran.
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