Currans of The Coombe, Meath Market, Echlin Street, Basin Street and Thomas Court in Dublin city

My Great-grandfathers brother was John Curran, born in either Drumphea or Knocklonagad around 1808. I know little of his life other than he would have obviously been a farmer’s son to my Great great grandfather Martin Curran. He married at the age of 42 in 1850(begging the question was he married before) to Sarah Moore(I would hazard a guess that she was from nearby Knockdrumagh as there is a cluster of Moore’s in the area at the time) They had children from 1851-1871(that I know) She passed away in 1875, I don't really know if there was any younger left behind, but to my knowledge it was James, aged 14. They lived at number 36 The Coombe, in the southwest inner city of Dublin. You only have to look at Irish history websites to know that the living conditions in this part of Dublin at this time were not the easiest, some would even refer to this area as a slum (at the time) At the time of her death she was referred to as a 'Grocers wife' so now we know that they had a grocery, possibly in 36 Coombe.

After they got married in Drumphea church in 1850 they had four children which they proceeded to raise in Sheean, just a mile from Drumphea. Between 1860 and 1864 something happened to make the family up sticks and leave Sheean, to live in the Coombe, John is not marked down in Griffith’s valuation, a list of landed properties written up in 1855 in Co Carlow, so he must have been subletting the property there. Anyway whatever happened, good or bad, he moved up to the Coombe.

He passed away in 1881, from bronchitis, he was also not a grocer anymore, he was a labourer at time of death. Before moving up to Dublin, he and Sarah had at least four children down in Sheean, 1st was Mary, whom I have only seen her baptismal record. Then there were three boys, James, Pattrick and Martin. I know that when in Dublin John and Mary had three more children, who all passed away young, these were Bridget, Daniel and Margaret who all died between 1864 and 1871, maybe they have had more children, but I am still to find that out. It strikes me as a rather sad story for Sarah too, who died from stomach cramps in 1875, and I feel she may have not enjoyed the best of health while in Dublin through the amount of infant deaths she had to take on. Which also says to me that the whole family endured hard times.

During the 1901 and 1911 censii, we now see some of their children as adults, with they're own families, and still around the same area too, as the old saying goes, the seed does not fall too far from the tree.
First we will look at the eldest of these, Martin, he can be seen in '01 and '11 censii as living in Moss Street, just off the river Liffey opposite the Custom House in south Dublin city, with his wife, Mary, as far as I can see they had no children by the 1911 census, and she would have been in her mid fifties by then. Martin passed away in 1919 and Mary passed away in 1923, they are buried in Glasnevin cemetery JL291.5 with my uncle, Frank Curran, apparently Martin and Frank were very close.

Next is Pattrick Curran, yes, this is the right spelling, who was born in 1858 in Sheean, Co Carlow. in 1901, he is seen living at 8 Echlin Street, which is just off James Street, Dublin 8, in the 1911 census, he is seen in 23 Upper Basin Street, just around the corner, incidentally the properties that he lived in had a very large amount of people living in them, in Echlin Street property there were 44 people! And in the Basin Street property there were 31. By 1911 Pattrick had been married for 26 years to Anne Healy(another name from near to Drumphea, could she be connected?) they had six children, the names were Mary(1886), John(1900), Elizabeth(1898), Charlotte(1902), Nellie(1904) and Patrick(1890) Of which Mary, the eldest had married a man whose surname was O'Toole in 1909 and they had a son, Michael O'Toole in 1910, according to the 1911 census for Basin Street. Mary was also down as working as a cigarette spinner in a tobacco factory.

The only other one I know about is James Curran, who was born in 1860 in county Carlow, probably Sheean. In '01 census, he is living next door to his brother Patrick at 7 Echlin Street, by 1911 he is living locally in 13 Thomas Court, and not too far from Patrick. By 1911 he had married a Dubliner, Marcella Flynn around 1883. they had  8 children by 1911, these were, Agnes(1895) Edward(1884) Thomas(1900) James(1898) Matthew(1893) William(1891) Eileen(1902) Patrick(1907)

Even though the elder Currans within my modern family have never heard of these people, I feel that John Curran, the starter of this very extensive family tree played a very important role in the reasoning of my grandfather, Martin Curran and possibly his brother Peter Curran, moving up to Dublin. Back in those days, when somebody moved away from their local rural area, they wouldn’t  tend to move too far away from, or even in with another relative in their new area, in this case it was their uncle John up in Dublin, by the time both Martin and Peter started having children John was long gone. But, and it is a very big but, when my uncle frank died in 1940, he was put into a plot in Glasnevin cemetery with Johns eldest son, Martin and his wife, my father always maintained that Frank and Martin had a very close fraternal relationship, Frank was a number of years junior to Martin but may have looked to him as some kind of mentor. Especially after the passing of his mother, and his dad being a policeman too. Also his dad remarried when Frank was in his early teens, it leaves much to the imagination, but I can see why that would be a reason, as my father says they were so close. Maybe he needed a closer person to guide him, I never really looked at it this way, and while typing these words, I feel his and his sister’s turmoil. But then when you look back to Dublin of 100-150 years ago, there were not alot of happy stories to tell, most people struggled to make ends meet, and I can't say my ancestors were any exception to that.

John Curran, and his families vandalised grave in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin.