Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

County surveyor for the western division of Co. Tyrone, 1847-1867, and for Co. Cavan, 1867-1871. Alfred Gahan, a son of Major Beresford Gahan, of Bishop's Hall, Co. Kilkenny, and an elder brother of FREDERICK GAHAN FREDERICK GAHAN , was born circa 1821. According to ROBERT YOUNG ROBERT YOUNG , 'Alfred Gahagan' was a pupil of JACOB OWEN  JACOB OWEN in Dublin.(1) Gahan was employed by the Board of Works on relief work in Cos. Tipperary and Offaly in from 1846 to 1847, when, having passed the county surveyorship qualifying examination, he was appointed county surveyor for the western division of Co. Tyrone on 14 October. Lack of support from the Grand Jury in the matter of a road contractor who had claimed payment for work he had not done led Gahan to request the chief secretary's office for an immediate transfer to Co. Donegal in March 1864. His request was not granted, his brother Frederick being appointed to the Co. Donegal surveyorship instead. Alfred's salary was raised from £300 to £400 per annum in January 1865,(2) and in May 1867 he was transferred to Co. Cavan, following the resignation of JOHN FRASER. JOHN FRASER. (3)

Alfred Gahan died in office, aged fifty, at Drumbar, Co. Cavan, on 23 October 1871. He was survived by his wife Alice, fourth daughter of the Rev. Henry Herbert, rector of Rathdowney, Co. Laois, whom he had married on 21 August 1847. He had at least one son, Alfred Townsend Herbert Gahan, who was born in Omagh on 26 September 1866.(4) FREDERICK GEORGE DEVERELL  FREDERICK GEORGE DEVERELL succeeded him in the Co. Cavan surveyorship.

ICEI: member by 1849;(5) no longer a member by August 1870.(6)



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 178-9, which gives the fullest account of Gahan's career.

(1) Robert Young, 'Reminiscences', Irish Booklore 1 (1971), 99-100; as Young describes 'Gahagan' as county surveyor for Donegal, he may have meant to refer to Frederick Gahan.
(2) DB 7, 1 Feb 1865, 41.
(3) IB 9, 1 Jun 1867, 141.
(4) B. Burke, Landed Gentry of Ireland (1904), 260; www.familysearch.org.
(5) TICEI 3, list of members.
(6) IB 12, 15 Aug 1870, 197.