County surveyor for Co. Offaly, 1928-1954. Thomas Duggan was born in Belfast on 9 March 1892, educated at Castleknock College and served his pupilage as an engineer with JOHN HARRIS HAZLETT SWINEY JOHN HARRIS HAZLETT SWINEY and JOHN EDWARD CROASDAILE JOHN EDWARD CROASDAILE in London between 1910 and 1915. An appointment to the Indian Public Works Department in 1914 was cancelled on the outbreak of the First World War; instead, in 1915, he became an assistant to HENRY O'REILLY HENRY O'REILLY , county surveyor for Co. Cavan. He was appointed temporary county surveyor for the South Riding of Co. Tipperary in 1920, following the retirement of EDWARD AUGUSTUS HACKETT EDWARD AUGUSTUS HACKETT , and held the post until the release in 1922 of THOMAS P. MEADE THOMAS P. MEADE , who had been elected while he was in prison in 1921. Duggan reacted badly to the arival of his successor, whom he would not let into his office, complaining that he had been 'practically thrown out by the back of the neck'. After working in the engineering department of Charles Tennant & Co. in Dublin, in 1924 he was appointed special engineer to Dublin County Council. He applied unsuccessfully for the county suveyorship of Co. Mayo in 1924 but in 1928 he was appointed county surveyor for Co.Offaly, where he remained until his retirement in 1954, also holding the position of town surveyor for Tullamore from 1932. Described as a man of 'charm and dignity', he was responsible for many major road and public health engineering projects during his years in Offaly. On his retirement he moved to Blackrock, Co.Dublin, where he died on 5 January 1961, survived by his wife, Eileen, his son, Thomas, who was also an engineer, and two daughters.
County Surveyors' Association: chairman.
Engineers' Association: founder member; first chairman of Midland Region; president.
Inst.CE: admitted student, March 1913; elected associate member, 4 December 1917; disappears from roll, 1959.
ICEI: elected member, 8 April 1929.
Addresses: Sunny Bank, Earlswood Road, Belfast, 1917; Creeveen, Earlswood Road, Belfast, 1919; 38 St Kevin's Park, Dartry Road, Dublin, 1924; Offaly County Council, Tullamore, 1928-1954; South Hill Cottage, Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, 1955 until death.
See WORKS.
References
All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the records of the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, kindly supplied by the archivist, Mrs Carol Morgan, from the profile in Irish Engineering Journal I, No. 3 (Mar 1950), 83 (with a portrait photograph), and from the obituary in Engineers Journal 14 (Feb 1961), 59 (with a portrait photograph).
For an account of the interregnum see Brendan Long, Tipperary S.R. County Council 1899-1999 (1999), 49-52 (B.O'D.).
Clonmel Chronicle, 4 Mar 1922 (B.O'D.).
Connaught Telegraph, 27 Sep 1924 (B.O'D.).
TICEI 55 (1928-29), 152.
