section_path: Early life
section_name: Early life
paragraph_text: Early life
  
  Jordan was born at the Wentworth Nursing Home in Dublin on 30 March 1948, the son of Eileen and Danny Jordan. He had one older sibling, Helen. His father was the twin brother of a senior nun, the Mother Rectoress of the Irish Sisters of Charity, and worked as an accountant for the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) while playing for Shamrock Rovers. At ten months old, Jordan developed a form of pink disease and his family were advised by doctors to move from Dublin to nearby Bray in County Wicklow for "fresh air". His mother Eileen was advised to "take him out of woollens and into cotton during the month of May", advice she opposed, initially. Nevertheless, she conceded and Jordan's condition did gradually improve. During his childhood, Jordan grew up in Dartry, south Dublin, and in Bray. He spent most of his time in Bray, where he became close with his Aunt Lilian, having regularly travelled to visit her at the end of the school week. In his childhood, Jordan was known by the nickname "Flash" as his surname rhymed with the name Gordon.
  
  Jordan began his education at Saint Anne's Pre-School in Milltown, later spending eleven years at the Synge Street Christian Brothers School, where he and his fellow students would be regularly beaten if they did not study hard. Despite this experience, Jordan found the level of education to be high. While at Synge Street, aged 15, Jordan briefly considered becoming a priest. Having dismissed the priesthood and family pressures to enter dentistry, he ended up taking a six-week accountancy course at the College of Commerce, Dublin, and then began working for the Bank of Ireland as a clerk at their branch in Mullingar. After four years, Jordan moved to the branch in Camden Street, Dublin. During a banking strike in Dublin in 1970, he spent the summer on the island of Jersey, working as an accountant for an electricity company by day and doing bar work in the evenings. During this period, he encountered kart racing for the first time and had his first (unofficial) races there at St Brelade's Bay.
  
  Jordan was born at the Wentworth Nursing Home in Dublin on 30 March 1948, the son of Eileen and Danny Jordan. He had one older sibling, Helen. His father was the twin brother of a senior nun, the Mother Rectoress of the Irish Sisters of Charity, and worked as an accountant for the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) while playing for Shamrock Rovers. At ten months old, Jordan developed a form of pink disease and his family were advised by doctors to move from Dublin to nearby Bray in County Wicklow for "fresh air". His mother Eileen was advised to "take him out of woollens and into cotton during the month of May", advice she opposed, initially. Nevertheless, she conceded and Jordan's condition did gradually improve. During his childhood, Jordan grew up in Dartry, south Dublin, and in Bray. He spent most of his time in Bray, where he became close with his Aunt Lilian, having regularly travelled to visit her at the end of the school week. In his childhood, Jordan was known by the nickname "Flash" as his surname rhymed with the name Gordon.
  
  Jordan began his education at Saint Anne's Pre-School in Milltown, later spending eleven years at the Synge Street Christian Brothers School, where he and his fellow students would be regularly beaten if they did not study hard. Despite this experience, Jordan found the level of education to be high. While at Synge Street, aged 15, Jordan briefly considered becoming a priest. Having dismissed the priesthood and family pressures to enter dentistry, he ended up taking a six-week accountancy course at the College of Commerce, Dublin, and then began working for the Bank of Ireland as a clerk at their branch in Mullingar. After four years, Jordan moved to the branch in Camden Street, Dublin. During a banking strike in Dublin in 1970, he spent the summer on the island of Jersey, working as an accountant for an electricity company by day and doing bar work in the evenings. During this period, he encountered kart racing for the first time and had his first (unofficial) races there at St Brelade's Bay.