So I will start with the oldest and work my way forward. Francis John J Curran, following the long standing tradition in most Irish families from the 1500’s to the present day, being the eldest boy in the family group was named after his grandfather on his father’s side. Little is known by me about my Uncle Frank, he died in 1940 from pneumonia at the tender age of 42, and he was born 16/11/1898 in a recently opened Hollis Street hospital in Dublin. Dad, Martin was a policeman in the Dublin metropolitan police, and it seems that most DMP men’s children were born here rather than the rotunda. The address he was registered as at birth was 6 Richmond Row, south Dublin city, at the time, DAD would have been based at Rathmines station, so naturally just around the corner. It is said that in later life, Frank became a runner for the IRA in the 1916 uprising in Dublin, I was also told that he was held by the British after, but subsequently released. He later went on to become part of the Free State army in Ireland, and reached the rank of sergeant. That is about all I know about him, other than the fact that he was very much into sports and physical education, he was according to what I was told a very handsome man, and was quite the hit with the ladies, and was supposed to be quite the dapper dresser. He got married possibly around late 1935 to Eileen Curtiss, they had two children, Monica (Mona) born late 1936 and Mary Patricia (no date). Mona as far as I know married a man called Lawrence (lorry) McDonnell, who turned out to be very senior civil servant, they had three children and lived in Raheny Dublin. Eileen, his wife died November 1960, Mona his daughter, I believe passed away around 2006. Know that the details on Frank are rather sparse, but I welcome any other information so that I can later edit this page.
Mary(L) and Sarah on a visit to huntsmoor road c1966(the good looking kid is me on the far right)
I must actually point out that Frank was from the first marriage of his father. Next on the list is Mary, Mary was also born in Holles Street Hospital possibly in the summer of 1897, Little is known by me about her childhood, though I’m sure our Canadian cousins could fill in that gap. During the First World War, her sister, Sarah, who was born in 1899, moved to London. I have been told by numerous sources that they worked as clippies (conductors) on London buses, but I have also been shown a picture of the two of them in a group at a munitions factory in Britain. Quite an interesting story about these two, that I found fascinating, and always wondered why they went to such measures to do, but apparently they got word that a Canadian troopship was coming into Southampton (80 miles from London), they went down and saw the ship pull up to the dock, I have pictured it in my mind, and they crumpled up pieces of paper with their names and addresses on them and threw them onto the ship. The soldiers in their hundreds, possibly thousands, marched off the ship and went to the western front. Sometime later, they received letters from two Canadian soldiers, Mary received one from a man called Charles Lionel Dent, and Sarah, a letter from a native Canadian called John Bair (native name, simply, bear) I don’t know whether the letters were a proposal or just an invitation, but the two sisters upped sticks and went to Canada and married their two beaus. Coincidently they were both in the town of Prince Albert in Saskatchewan, it must have been a trip and a half for these two young Dublin girls, and I am always amazed how they just took the chance and went to this really foreign land, possibly not even knowing what their boyfriends were going to look like, obviously they were happy because they didn’t come back, well until they visited back in the 60’s. From what I’ve been told, Sarah’s marriage to bear was not at all a happy one, there were no children, and bear apparently suffered from alcoholism. Though Sarah did keep in very close contact with Mary, and apparently played quite an active role in the upbringing of Mary’s family and even the grandchildren. I met one of Marys sons a couple of years ago, Charles, god rest his soul, who told me that Sarah was referred to by all the dent children as auntie Bear, such an endearing name, awww. Mary went on to have six children with Charles, and lived on to see fifteen grandchildren born, my Canadian cousins can inform me as to whether or not she saw some great grandchildren, she must’ve though. Mary died in 1976, I don’t know when Sarah passed on, but it may have been early 70’s (Canadian cousins.......)Martin and Margaret Gaul did have another three children, but one passed away young and the other two boys passed away very young, their names were Bridget, john and Thomas.
Margaret Gaul passed away in 1903, leaving martin with the three children, not much is known of what happened immediately after, but he did get a lady in to look after the kids, whom he subsequently ended up marrying. This lady was Margaret Doyle. Another Carlow lady, though from Ballypierce this time. They married in Fairview church in north city Dublin in 1908, shortly after, their first son martin Joseph was born, even though I have met this man when I was a child and he was my dad’s direct brother, I still know little about him, I know he married a lady called Lillie and they had a son called john. Martin lived on his father’s land up in cloughran up to his passing in 1987, and is buried in Mulhuddart cemetery in north Dublin.
The next one on is Patrick James, he was born in 1910, I am sorry to say that poor Patrick got meningitis and passed away at only eleven months of age. Apparently it broke Margaret’s heart, and she spoke with much tears and regret of him for many years to follow(just like any mum would) Patrick is buried in glasnevin cemetery, with his half sister, Bridget and unusually, their great uncles family, Martin Curran, possibly from the west city, but originally from Carlow.
Probably my favourite pictue of all time, my dad(second left)with Kathleen, Vincent,Alf and Martin
Next up is Alfred, born April 1912, apparently the day the Titanic sunk, Alf went to St.Patrick for his primary school, that much I know, as did his brothers Vincent and Dermot. Alf joined the Irish army, he was in it during the war(or the emergency as they call it here in Ireland) I met him as a teenager, and he told me that he was based up in Valentia Island in west Kerry, and German U-Boats used to come in there and refuel and stuff! His words. After leaving the army, and his father’s passing, Alf took half of the land and shared it with his brother martin, he turned his half into a farm, and done this to his retirement, Alf passed away in September 2000, I had the good fortune to visit him in the mater before his departure, and had met him in London when he visited us. He married Mary, though they didn’t bear any fruits from the marriage. Alf was cremated and his ashes are stored in glasnevin cemetery, Dublin.After this was john, yes his father had two john’s except the first one died very young, so he decided to give it another go, I always felt that his father named him John out of respect to an uncle who possibly set up Martin in Dublin in the early days, and because the first baby died young, he wanted this to stand in a living ‘John’. A little bit ironic that john was actually known throughout his life as Vincent. I shall now refer to him as Vincent, because that was the name that I knew him. Vincent was born as john Vincent in 1915. I was told by various sources that when he was in his mid teens, that he just disappeared, and a couple of months later he had reported back to Dublin that he was now living in the UK. As far as I know Vincent travelled firstly to Liverpool, but later moved to London, where he met his future wife, Margaret, and once married, then moved on up to Cambridge. They lived here to the end. I always knew Uncle Vincent as the person who was some kind of ceremonial caretaker in the University of Cambridge. though Cambridge Currans can tell me otherwise. He worked there for many years up to his retirement. Margaret was a really nice lady, and I was blessed with the two of them turning up at my wedding. I always remember our visits up to Cambridge, Auntie Margaret was always great with all these tins around the kitchen with all sorts of cakes and pies, and I always look forward to going to Cambridge, because I always knew I’d get a good feed. And they had goldfish in their pond, and a greenhouse too! Vincent and Margaret had two children, aptly named John and Margaret; I believe that they met some of their grandchildren. I also know that Vincent was referred to as ‘Drac’ as a younger man, because of his greased back style of his hair, looking like a vampire.
Next is my dad, Dermot, but I will not talk about him, because there is a blog simply dedicated to him already.
Finally is Kathleen, she was born back in 1921, and was the only girl of the Curran/Doyle marriage, she went to Corpus Christi primary, and later to Saint Mary’s Secondary. Later on she met Tom Curran(not related, he is from the Sligo Currans) and married him, I was also blessed with the two of them turning up to my wedding. they had three children, and numerous grandchildren, unfortunately tom passed away in 1996, but we are still blessed with Kathleen, she is now 90 and lives in Beaumont, north city Dublin.
As I write this, I find that alot of information is missing, so if you read this, please, if you see something that is wrong, or maybe needs a little more information added to it, I would much appreciate any feedback in development of these words.
Thanks
Pete XX
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