James, born in 1887, was already in the army, in the Leinster Regiment when war was declared. At the time he was stationed in India.  He remained in the Army after the war and served for many years. He died in Hackney Hospital, London in 1971.

Francis, a labourer, was called up in 1914 and was a member of the Special Reserve and was stationed in Hollywood before been sent overseas.

He was reported ‘missing presumed dead’ on 10/03/1915.

Felix, a mill worker, was also called up with Francis. He died in Belgium on 7/8/1917.

Hugh was 16 when his father died. He was 19 when he died in France on 5/08/1916.

Mary went to France after the war to instruct the new workers in the mills. She never came back to Newry.

Michael would have joined the army but for a deformity of the leg. He seldom talked about that time but when he talked about his brothers he would say that ‘Francis was 15, Hugh was 16 and Felix was 17’. The family always thought that he was talking about their ages.  It was only much later that they found out that he talking about the years in which they were killed.

According to their birth certificates James, Francis and Felix were born in Mayo.  But this was incorrect as they were born in Mayobridge. The Irish for Mayobridge is Droichead Mhaigh Eo or The Bridge of Mayo (or the Bridge at Mayo) and so it is believed that the people at that time would have called it Mayo for short and so when asked, when the child was being registered, where he or she was born would say ‘Mayo’.

How I came about the above information was as follows:

My wife and I were up in the Golf Inn for our Sunday lunch and got into conversation with Tom McKeown and his wife Marie.  She asked me was I the person who had the story in the Newry Journal about the Doran Brothers.  I replied in the affirmative and she told me that some of it was incorrect.

I asked “How do you know?”  

She replied,

“Because they were my uncles.”

She went on to tell me that Michael Doran was her father. We were invited to their beautiful home where Marie showed my some of the memorabilia she had of her family. 

It was great to hear some first hand information from a family member of those poor boys who had died so long ago.