John Philip Dowling

was born in Dublin in 1896, being the seventh of eight children, and grew up in the environs of Ranelagh. He attended St. Enda's School founded by Padraig Pearse, St. Mary's Rathmines and later studied at University College Dublin where he graduated in Arts and also Dentistry.

He took part in the Easter Rising in 1916 and the War of Independence that followed. He was appointed Commandant of the 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade, in 1920. He was President of the Old IRA Cumann during the 1930-40's and in the early 1960's he became Chairman of the Kilmainham Gaol Restoration Society, for which he worked earnestly over seventeen years.

He wrote two plays which were produced in the Abbey Theatre, "A Bird in the Net" (1960) and "The Best of Motives" (1965). He was a keen historian and also an art lover. He painted landscapes in oil and was a fly fisherman. In 1931 he married Johanna (Joan) McCarthy who died at a young age in 1955. He died in 1988.
They had eight children and the family name is now Ó Dúnlaing