Eulogy to John Doran

The funeral of John Doran took place today at the Catholic Cathedral, Our Lady & St Thomas on Barrack Road, Northampton.

For those unable to attend, we’ve been honoured this morning to be able to provide a short article about John, written from the Geddington Volunteer Fire Brigade’s perspective and, in the words of the author, ‘in no way does justice to all that JD achieved.’

“John Doran, (JD) was a member of The Geddington Fire Brigade for over 20 years and in that time he held the position of Commanding Officer, Captain of Drill, Station Officer and performed many more duties within the Brigade.

His ability to encourage (press gang!) people into his entertainment schemes was part of his Irish charm. Somehow he managed to get mature, and not so mature, members of the Brigade to agree to become Belly Dancers, Morris Men, Synchronised Swimmers, Life Size Puppets – the list goes on.

Our ‘Friends from Lahnstein’ became an integral part of the Brigade calendar from 1999, with friendships established continuing until the present day. John’s contributions to impart good humour and silly games, was part of the bond that developed between our two organisations.

Entertainment ideas for the Senior Citizens’ Dinner, Castle Gardens and Pudding Club events et al, nearly always came out of John’s fertile mind, and where the idea of turning the fire engine into a mobile birthing unit, on the day of the Garage Sale came from, we can only wonder!

He stood firm, strong and brave against his cancer for 13 years.

He would always ask how you were, with a brush off of ‘I’m fine’, when the question was reversed.

He made Geddington very proud when he ran into the village carrying the Olympic Torch, having already run his leg of the journey in Northampton, the crowds waiting for Geddington’s own, to enter the village and climb the Cross.

I know Janis and the family grimaced at some of his antics, but they would never have wished him to be any different: Janis, Shay and Lana, thank you for sharing him with us.