Hi Mary,
Thanks for that. I know that there were Doherty's in the family and that my grandfather had lots of Doherty "cousins". According to Philip's marriage certificate of 1877 he was "full age" so that puts him mid 1850s or before.
As an aside, did Ireland record the deaths of WW1 soldiers? I know that Scotland did and can issue death certificates for military personnel.
Once again, many thanks to you all, I feel the brick wall coming apart brick by brick.
Anne