Nolan, John (c.1860–1920), revolutionary, was born in the vicinity of James's St., Dublin, son of a shopkeeper who died young; nothing else is known of his family. He was well known during his youth as an amateur boxer but fled to America in January 1883 owing to his friendship with several members of the Invincible conspiracy. Joining relatives in Lancashire later that decade, he returned to Dublin in January 1892 and began working as a corporation gas-fitter. A low-ranking member of the IRB, he soon became involved with agents provocateurs in the ‘P. W. Nally [qv] Clubs’ of Dublin and New York, most notably John Merna (c.1860–1900), a Dublin publican. In early April 1893 Nolan was interrogated on suspicion of planting a bomb outside the detective depot at Dublin castle on 24 December 1892, and fled to New York, only to return on 25 November 1893, shortly after which a bomb was placed outside Aldborough military barracks, north Dublin. Two days later, a man named Patrick Reid (falsely suspected of being an informer) was murdered, and Nolan was arrested and tried for the crime. Though the case against him collapsed, he was widely believed to be guilty and thus lost his job. He spent a further year in New York but could find no employment.
Shortly after returning to Dublin on 12 February 1895, F. J. Allan (qv) provided him with temporary employment at the Irish Daily Independent and attempted to persuade him to cease associating with untrustworthy conspirators. However, in October 1899, having been unemployed for several months, he was persuaded by Merna to go with him to America, and on 21 April 1900 planted a bomb at the Welland Canal in Thorold, Ontario, Canada, in an attempt to prevent British ships carrying men and supplies to fight the Boers in South Africa. The explosion failed to destroy the canal; four days later he was arrested, and was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment in Kingston Penitentiary, alongside Luke Dillon (qv). Soon afterwards, Merna was assassinated as a British spy in Washington, DC. Released from prison in 1915, Nolan returned to Ireland and worked for Dublin corporation until his death at his James's St. home on 5 October 1920, survived by a wife but no children. W. T. Cosgrave (qv), Joseph McGrath (qv), and F. J. Allan attended his small funeral.