Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Surveyor and engineer, active from the 1820s to the 1860s. Denis Leahy, second son of PATRICK LEAHY  PATRICK LEAHY and elder brother of EDMUND LEAHY  EDMUND LEAHY and MATTHEW LEAHY MATTHEW LEAHY , was probably born circa 1811 in Co. Tipperary. He was trained by his father, whom he joined in practice in Clonmel circa 1828. In 1830 he went to England with his father and brother Edmund to survey the proposed Liverpool to Leeds railway line for ALEXANDER NIMMO ALEXANDER NIMMO . By 1833 he was living at Cabra, near Thurles, but, after his father and Edmund had been appointed county surveyors for the East and West Ridings of Cork respectively in 1834, he joined them in Cork, in order to assist them in their public and private work. Following Edmund's resignation and his father's dismissal in 1846, he returned to Thurles. In the early 1850s he moved to London. In December 1861 his brother Matthew, Superintendent of Public Works in Trinidad, died on the island after only four months in the post. Denis applied successfully to succeed him. He arrived in Trinidad in September 1861 but survived little longer than Matthew, dying on the island on 21 December 1862. He left a widow, Elizabeth, whom he had married in London in May 1853, and two sons, Albert, later a successful doctor, and William Henry.

See WORKS.



References

This entry is condensed from Brendan O'Donoghue's definitive account of the lives of Patrick Leahy and his sons, In Search of fame and fortune: the Leahy family of engineers 1780-1888 (Dublin: Geography Publications, 2006).


1 work entries listed in chronological order for LEAHY, DENIS


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Building: CO. TIPPERARY, THURLES, CATHEDRAL STREET, ST PATRICK'S DIOCESAN COLLEGE
Date: 1829-1837
Nature: DL engineer for same. Architect: Charles Frederick Anderson. FS laid Jul 1829 but only partially completed when opened in 1837.
Refs: Brendan O'Donoghue', In Search of fame and fortune: the Leahy family of engineers 1780-1888 (Dublin: Geography Publications, 2006), 37