07/08/2026
Frank Curran – A Lifetime in the Irish Motor Trade | Season 6 – Episode 68 (Part 4)
In Part 4 of our interview with Frank Curran he takes us through the next stage of his long career in the Irish motor trade. He recalls being given his "walking papers" from Ryan's Garage on North King Street before moving to John Caldwell's Garage in Lucan. There, he joined a small team assembling 30 PL 17 Panhard cars imported from France in CKD (Complete Knocked Down) form and, as he puts it, "drove the crap out of the Panhards" while road-testing them.
Frank later joined P. R. Reilly's garage in Killester, where he replaced the gearboxes on twenty Hillman Imps and learned to operate a cylinder re-boring machine used on Mini engines. He remembers P. R. Reilly as a brilliant mechanic and credits him with teaching him valuable engineering skills.
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WALKING PAPERS
In late 1959 Stan Ryan sold his garage to James Crean, one of the family who owned the soap factory at 144–149 North King Street. However, Crean was only interested in car sales and did not need all the staff, including the mechanics, and so Frank was, as he recalls, "given his walking papers".
There was no work in Dublin at that time for mechanics as, according to Frank, "there was a bad recession", and in early 1960 he was thinking of going to England. Before making the move he went to a dance in the Arcadia Ballroom in Bray, County Wicklow, where the Capitol Showband was playing. The band was run by an old friend from Galway, Des Kelly, who had been bringing the band's wagon into Ryan's Garage on Loftus Lane for servicing over the years. Kelly, who later managed Planxty and "discovered" Phil Coulter, asked Frank what he was doing and Frank told him he was thinking of going to England.
During the dance Des Kelly made an announcement over the public address system: "Would Frank Curran come to the bandstand?" When Frank arrived he was simply told, "Don't go away after, I want to talk to you." After the dance Kelly asked Frank if he would drive the band wagon and, just like that, Frank Curran became roadie for the Capitol Showband.
"It was hell," Frank recalls. "Tonight we'd be in Ballymena and tomorrow night we'd be in Tralee and the following night we'd be in Bundoran and the next night we might be in Waterford. There was no let-up. It was hellish work."
MEETING MARIE
Butch Moore, the Capitol Showband's singer lived in Beneavin Park in Glasnevin. While calling to collect Butch in the band wagon, Frank discovered that Butch had a sister, Marie Moore. Marie would later become Frank's wife and, sadly, she now lives with Alzheimer's disease and is in residential care.
BUILDING PANHARDS IN LUCAN
It did not take Frank long to realise there was no future in the roadie job and, when he saw an advertisement for a mechanic in Caldwell's Garage in Lucan, he applied for the position and got the job.
Frank had only been a couple of weeks in Caldwell's when John Caldwell told him that he was importing Panhard cars from France and asked, "Did Frank think that he would be able to put them together?" Caldwell rented an old mill at the corner of the Lucan Road and the Celbridge Road. There were three buildings on the site: a Nissen hut-type building, the old mill itself, complete with the mill race that had once turned the mill wheel, and a large workshop.
John employed Paddy Duggan, Aidan Buggle and an elderly man called Tom McGrath, whose job was to wash the oil from the imported body panels. Frank then assembled the body panels using jigs made by a group of lads from McEntaggart Bros. Ltd., who assembled Triumph cars at Percy Place before later moving to Cashel Road in Crumlin. "They made the jigs for the Panhard and they were a fantastic job, I must say."
Frank assembled and spray-painted the bodies before fitting the soundproofing material. The bodies then went into the Nissen hut where Paddy Duggan fitted the upholstery, the seats, the rear suspension and the wiring. Frank then moved in again and fitted the engine, the gearbox and the front crossmember, which he remembers as "a huge piece of the car", held in place by six massive 20 mm bolts.
The final stage was road testing every car. "I drove the crap out of them," Frank laughs. "Out to Celbridge and into Clane sometimes and back, putting a bit of mileage on them and then doing anything that was found wanting on the cars."
The finished cars were then sent down to Caldwell's Garage, which occupied the old tram depot in Lucan. In total, Caldwell's assembled 29 Panhard PL 17s. The 30th body was assembled by staff from McEntaggart's after some of its body panels had been used to repair a crashed customer's car.
John Caldwell had previously assembled Messerschmitt cabin scooters, or as Frank describes them, "the three-wheeler German contraption", and he had also assembled Peugeot Bima scooters. These were assembled in a large house directly opposite the garage on the road leading towards Esker from Lucan.
P. R. REILLY'S GARAGE
The daily journey from Drumcondra, where Frank lived with his parents after they had moved from Galway to Dublin in 1959, out to Lucan eventually became too much. When P. R. Reilly's on the Howth Road were looking for mechanics, Frank applied and got the job.
Behind P. R. Reilly's garage, with an entrance from Furry Park Road, was Merlin Motors, where the Lloyd Alexander two-cylinder car and the Borgward Arabella were assembled. By coincidence, Frank's brother-in-law, Butch Moore, bought an Arabella. Frank remembers them as "a fantastic car" that was well before its time.
When Borgward went bankrupt in 1961, Frank believes it was because they were building cars that were simply too good. The company also produced the Isabella, which was assembled in Dublin by Saars on Prussia Street. According to Frank, the only shortcoming of the Isabella was that "the brakes were not very good as they had a single master cylinder and not a tandem."
TWENTY HILLMAN IMPS
P. R. Reilly's were agents for Hillman, Humber and Sunbeam, in other words, all the Rootes Group cars, as well as Austin and Morris.
One day P. R. Reilly came to Frank and explained that Buckley's Motors, the Rootes Group agents in Dublin, had a problem with twenty Hillman Imps. Each had a faulty second-gear synchromesh and the gearboxes all had to be stripped and repaired. "I have taken on the job of doing the cars and I'm giving you, Frank, the job."
Frank removed twenty engines and twenty gearboxes, stripped each gearbox, replaced the synchromesh and reassembled every car. "That took a few months, I can tell you, and it kept me busy."
LEARNING THE DELAPENA
On another occasion P. R. Reilly asked Frank, "Can you use a re-boring machine?" Frank replied that he could not as he had never even seen one. According to Frank, P. R. Reilly was an excellent mechanic and personally taught him how to use the Delapena re-boring machine. Mini engines at that time were famous for burning oil and P. R. Reilly's became specialists in re-boring them. "Mind you," Frank laughs, "there were a few that were just as smoky leaving us as they were coming in."
Our thanks to Frank Curran and to Sean O’Sullivan
If you have an idea for a story, please email Kevin Reid [email protected]
Sources of Information, Photo, Video & Music Credits:
All music and sound effects used in Ireland Made – Stories of Irish Transport are royalty free and are fully licensed through Epidemic Sound. Ireland Made – Stories of Irish Transport therefore holds the legal right to use this audio material within its productions under the terms of the Epidemic Sound licensing agreement.
Classic Trader website
Glasnevin Heritage page
Goodwood – John Simister
Hagerty website
Ireland Old and New page
Irish Newspaper Archives
Irish Showbands website – Liam O’Reilly
Siege of the Cyclemotors – Mark Daniels13
The Archaeology of 1916 page
The Lucan Newsletter
Timeless Classic website
UCD Digital Library – Osi 19th Century Maps
