Brian Doran

Carpenter Wanted Brian Doran

'At night there is always lightning in the hills, but seldom here.'

In late 1968, Brian Doran, an unassuming Englishman living in Dublin, decided to put his comfortable bachelor life on hold and spend two years as a volunteer in Central America.

An architect by trade and a hobby boatbuilder, he answered an ad looking for a carpenter. He was barely certain where Guatemala was, let alone aware that a civil war was simmering there, but he plunged gamely into learning a new language and flying halfway around the world to put his talents and his propensity for hard work to use in a tiny parish by the Caribbean Sea. When his time was up, he came home on a slow boat via New Zealand.

The story of two extraordinary years of design, construction, sailing and friendship is told in Brian's words and illustrated with his own photos and sketches.