Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Engineer. Richard Hayes was born at 25 Mountjoy Square, Dublin, on 10 May 1855, the fourth son of Edmund Hayes, QC, later a judge of the Queen's Bench Division. He was educated at Dungannon Royal School and afterwards at Derry, which he left on account of illness. He was an invalid for a considerable time. On recovering, he entered Trinity College, Dublin. At around the same time he passed first in the examination of candidates for the Straits Settlements Civil Service, but failed the physical examination. He continued his studies at Trinity with the intention of becoming a civil engineer. At Trinity he acquitted himself with great distinction, winning the gold medal and the Senior Moderatorship in experimental science and mathematics. The engineering school at Trinity awarded him, in addition to the regular diploma, special certificates in mineralogy, chemistry, geology and mining. He graduated BAI in 1880(1) and in May 1881 was articled to William Shelford, who placed him in charge of the construction of part of the Hull & Barnsley Railway. After further railway work in England, Hayes was back in Ireland during 1886 and 1887, supervising a number of small harbour and bridge works for the Board of Works in Co. Galway. He spent the remainder of his career in Mexico and England, where he died of diphtheria on 18 December 1895.

Inst.CE: elected associate member, 27 May 1884.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the obituary of Hayes in Min.Proc.ICE 124 (1895-96), 427.

(1) R.C. Cox, compiler, Trinity College School of Engineering: 'Graduates' in Engineering 1843-1992 (1993), unpaginated.