AHERN, MICHAEL GERARD

County engineer for Co. Longford, 1944-1948, and for Co. Limerick, 1948-1974. Michael Ahern, a son of Thomas J. Ahern, an assistant county surveyor for Co. Cork, was born in Cork on 5 April 1907. He studied engineering at University College, Cork, obtaining the BE degree in 1927. On graduating, he was appointed an assistant county surveyor for Co. Cork. He then became an assistant engineer on the Shannon Power Development scheme. He was appointed valuer to General Valuation Office in 1935, senior area engineer to the Turf Development Board in 1936, and engineer to the South of Ireland Asphalt Company in 1937. In 1941 he was appointed a temporary engineering inspector for the Department of Local Government and Public Health, with the task of supervising the turf production scheme.

In 1944, having successfully entered the first county engineer competition, he was appointed county engineer for Co. Longford. He was transferred to Co. Limerick in July 1848 and remained in the post until his retirement in November 1974.(2) He died on 15 January 1992.

ICEI: elected member, 3 April 1944.(1)

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the short biography of Ahern in IB 86, 26 Jun 1948, 518, and from Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 90-91, which gives the fullest account of Ahern's career.

(1) TICEI 70 (1943-44), 221.