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James Loughran (“Jim”) was born in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland, to Rose (née McKenna) and John Loughran, a businessman. He was the second of their three children. Loughran attended the Franciscan Friary School, in Dundalk, where he was popular and shone at academic subjects as well as sport. When he was a teenager, his mother died from a brain tumour at the age of 40, and his older sister, Anne, took on the responsibility of caring for her father and younger siblings.
Loughran won a scholarship to study medicine at University College Dublin, which provided a paltry £60 per year, not enough to support him. Anne worked as a teacher so that he could attend university. After working in hospitals in London, including St Mary’s Hospital where Alexander Fleming was researching antibiotic resistance during that time, he returned to Ireland, first as a locum on Arranmore Island in Donegal and then as a GP in Ballina, County Mayo.
While working in Ballina, he met his future wife, Ma