A married man in his mid 30s
Todd Andrews was part of the IRA group that caried out this raid. He recalls walking a mile from Brighton Square to the Charlemont Street Bridge at the canal. Here he met Francis X, Coghlan, Hubert Earle, and James Kenny at about 8.55am. Joe Dolan and Dan McDonnell led the team. Their mission was to kill King, and his lady, who were both believed to be responsible for the death of an IRA man called Doyle in the Dublin Mountains.
They pushed past the teenage girl who opened the door and walked straight up to the front first floor room where they expected to find Noble. He was not there but they found a woman in the bed. Noble had left on a mission at 7am, and they had no orders to shoot the woman if she was alone, so they left. They nearly shot another lodger on the way out, but luckily for him Coghlan recognised the man as the source of their intelligence from that house.
Dolan beat the woman with a sword scabbard, and set for to the room in his frustration. It took the IRA squad half an hour to put the flames out
It was Coghlan, Kenny and 2 others who spent 30 minutes putting out the fire
From his grandson. I've a personal interest in your very good website. My grandfather, FX (Francis Xavier) Coghlan, took part in the attempted assassination of Lt. William Noble (and his paramour?) at 7 Ranelagh Road on the morning of Bloody Sunday. Here is a little biography of grandad:
He was from Sheeps Head, Co Cork and a Civil Servant, boy clerk, from 1903, later a full clerk in the Irish Land Commission from 1907, taking part in the Easter Rising in the Church Street area (F Coy, 1st Batt) and arrested in the Four Courts on the surrender. He was interned in Stafford Gaol and released in mid-June (he didn't go to Frongoch as he hadn't come to the notice of the DMP before). Dismissed from the Civil Service after being interviewed by the Wilson-Byrne commission, he got a job as clerk in the Irish National Aid and Volunteers Dependants Fund under Joe McGrath. In February 1917 there was a new secretary/manager appointed at National Aid, Michael Collins. In Spring 1917, FX moved from Drumcondra to lodge at St. Enda's, Rathfarnham (Pearse's School was closed after the Rising) transferring to E Coy, 4th Batt and by late 1917/earlier 1918 they elected FX as their Captain, which he remained right through to the split over the Treaty. In January 1918, they had started to wind down National Aid and in February 1918, FX became one of the first collection agents for New Ireland Assurance, however FX stayed with National Aid (at the request of Collins, who was on the run part of this time) until May 1918.
He was appointed Commandant of 4th Batt, Dublin Brigade, 29th March 1922 and after the Civil War, demobilised from the Army, March 1924 (during the Army Mutiny crisis) and returned to the Civil Service, 1st in the Dept. of Posts and Telegraphs, but transferred back to the Land Commission in 1925. He retired in 1951 and died in 1970, aged 84.
A little bit of speculation from me. I believe that he was part of the Collins inner circle (of Liam Tobin, Joe O'Reilly, Diarmuid O'Hegarty (2nd Lt F Coy, 1st Batt in 1916), Piaras Beaslai, Dick McKee, Fionan Lynch (Capt. F Coy, 1st Batt 1916), and Tom Ennis etc.), with a special interest in the intelligence gathering side. While it appears "The Squad" would tend to be focused on gathering troop/police movements, conducting raids on homes and offices and then doing the dirty work of assassinations, I think there was another group working at a more political level in Dublin Castle and the Kildare Street Club types, using a softer approach.
I suppose, with the length of time spent putting out the fire in Ranelagh Road, FX and Todd (6'3") were easy to identify from the witnesses. From the Todds pension claim Todd's home was raided every night from Bloody Sunday up to the truce, and the local legend is the same for FX and our home (which was in our current garden). I recently heard from a neighbour that a story was told by his father, that FX was home during one raid. He had a hole dug either under the old iron bath, or else in the garden (perhaps the bath was in the garden!) and was lying in the hole for 9 days as the Tans/RIC/Auxies camped in our garden waiting for his return, when in fact he was only feet away from them!!