One of the stars of Glenavon's earliest push for honours, Jack Curran's place in history was assured following his performance in a rare defeat of England in Belfast...Name: John Joseph Curran
Born: 1900, Lurgan
Died:
Height:
Weight:
Position: Left-Back
Representative Honours: Ireland: 5 Full Caps (1922-1923); Irish League: 4 Caps (1921-1923); Welsh League: 2 Caps (1922-1923).
Club Honours: (with Glenavon) Irish Cup Runner-Up 1920/21, 1921/22; (with Linfield) Irish League Champion 1931/32; Irish Cup Winner 1930/31, Runner-Up 1931/32.
Club Career:
Teams
|
Seasons
|
Signed
|
Fee
|
League
|
FA.Cup
|
Other
|
Queen's
Park
|
(Lurgan)
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Lurgan
Rangers
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Glenavon
|
20/21-21/22
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Pontypridd
|
22/23
|
c/s-22
|
-
|
(Southern League)
|
||
Glenavon
|
23/24-24/25
|
c/s-23
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Brighton.&.H.A.
|
25/26-30/31
|
c/s-25
|
-
|
180/0
|
13/0
|
-
|
Linfield
|
30/31-31/32
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
TOTALS
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
Biography:In the early 1920s, with southern clubs resigning from the Irish League to align themselves with the newly formed Football Association of Ireland (Irish Free State), a provincial club such as Glenavon could make an impact on the Irish League for the first time. Two Irish Cup Final appearances and an Irish League runners-up spot in 1920/21 brought full-back Jack Curran to the attentions of the selectors for both the Irish Inter-League and International sides.
Curran made his debut for the Irish League in a 1-0 defeat by the Football League at the Oval in October 1921; and for Ireland in a 1-1 draw with Wales in a 1-1 draw at Windsor Park later that season. In 1922 he moved to Pontypridd, then playing in the Welsh Section of the Southern League, were he won two further Irish caps, as well as Welsh League representative honours.
Curran returned to Glenavon in 1923 and his international career ended in a Home Nations match with England at Windsor Park. The match finished with a 2-1 win for the Irish, and it would be over eighty years before Belfast saw another defeat for England.
In 1925 Curran was signed by Brighton & Hove Albion, making his Football League debut against Norwich on 14th September. At the time Brighton were described as the best team in the Third Division (South), but they just couldn’t live up to their promise, finishing consistently just short of promotion. After almost two hundred appearances on the south-coast, Curran returned to the Irish League to sign for Linfield during the 1930/31 season. At Windsor Park he picked up the winners’ medals he had earlier missed out on while with Glenavon, clinching the Irish League and the Irish Cup before leaving in 1932.
Ireland Cap Details:
01-04-1922 Wales... H D 1-1 BC
25-05-1922 Norway.. A L 1-2 FR
21-10-1922 England. A L 0-2 BC
03-03-1923 Scotland H L 0-1 BC
20-10-1923 England. H W 2-1 BC
Summary: 5/0. Won 1, Drew 1, Lost 3.
* date of birth widely recorded as quarter 4, 1898, but 1900 is recorded on his headstone.
Comments
The family gravestone shows his year of birth as 1900, not 1898. His last remaining daughter passed away in January of 2020, in Lurgan.
Susan Read
(I am the eldest child of Mary Margaret Curran-Craigie his eldest child)