Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, of Dublin. According to the Dublin census of 1911, Cyril Keefe, the elder son of John Keefe, grain mill manager, and his wife Annie, was born in Dublin in 1888 or 1889.(1) He was educated at St Mary's College, Rathmines, and Clongowes Wood College. On leaving school in 1904 he became a pupil in the office of DOOLIN BUTLER & DOOLIN BUTLER & amp; DONNELLY. A  DONNELLY. A skilled and meticulous draughtsman, he won five of the prizes awarded by the Architectural Association of Ireland between 1906 and 1911. In 1912, when he was about twenty-three, he set up in practice with JOHN JOSEPH ROBINSON JOHN JOSEPH ROBINSON , who was only two years his senior;(2) in the same year the two young men inherited the practice of GEORGE TIGHE MOORE. GEORGE TIGHE MOORE. (3) Early in the First World War Keefe joined the Army Service Corps and was sent to France. In about 1916, while the war was still in progress, Keefe and Robinson formed an association with ROBERT DONNELLY  ROBERT DONNELLY and JAMES MOORE JAMES MOORE , who were both also on active service.

After the war, in the spring of 1919, the four men moved from their respective offices in Nassau Street and Fleet Street to American Chambers, 14 Lower Sackville Street, practising as DONNELLY MOORE KEEFE & DONNELLY MOORE KEEFE & amp; ROBINSON ROBINSON . In 1925, Keefe and Robinson left to set up their own practice in Merrion Square, while Donnelly, Moore and WILLIAM SEDGWICK KEATINGE  WILLIAM SEDGWICK KEATINGE remained in the Sackville Street office. Keefe and Robinson's partnership - and close friendship - remained unbroken until Robinson's death in January 1965. Keefe died eleven months later, at the age of seventy-six, on 31 December 1965. They had been joined in the partnership by A.D. Devane in 1947 or 1948, practising as Robinson, Keefe & Devane. In the obituary in the RIAI Year Book Roderick McCaffrey describes Keefe as having a reserved manner which 'concealed a keen sense of humour expressed in a forthright way only revealed to his close frends and associates'. Keefe belonged to several Dublin clubs, including the Milltown golf club, and was a skilled angler. He was unmarried.

AAI: elected member 1904; winner of Class of Design Prize, 1906;(4) Vice-President's Prize, 1907;(5) Institute Prize,1908;(6) Travelling Studentship, 1909;(7) President's Prize, 1911;(8) hon. secretary. 1911-12; president, 1926-27.
RIAI: elected member, 1922.(9)

Addresses: Work: 12 Dawson Street, 1909-1910; 2 Foster Place, 1913-1914; 11 Fleet Street, 1915-1918; American Chambers, 14 Sackville Street, 1919-1925; 8 Merrion Square North, 1925-1947; 22 Baggot Street Lower, 1948-1964; 59 Northumberland Road, 1965.
Home: 11 Leinster Road West, <=1905->=1908; 141 Rathgar Road, 1911; 23 Garville Road, Rathmines, <=1930 until death.

See WORKS; see also works of KEEFE & KEEFE & amp; ROBINSON ROBINSON , G.T. MOORE, KEEFE & KEEFE & amp; ROBINSON ROBINSON ; DONNELLY MOORE KEEFE & DONNELLY MOORE KEEFE & amp; ROBINSON ROBINSON ; ROBINSON & ROBINSON & amp; KEEFE; ROBINSON KEEFE & ROBINSON KEEFE & amp; DEVANE DEVANE



References

All information in this entry not otherswise accounted for is from the obituary of Keefe by Roderick McCaffrey in RIAI Year Book 1967, 19-20, from the brief obituaries in Irish Press, 1 Jan 1966, and Irish Independent, 1 Jan 1966, and from AAI and RIAI lists officers and members and Thom's directories.

(1)
1911 Dublin census (http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000147474/ );  notice of death in Irish Independent, 1 Jan 1966.
(2)
IB 64, 11 Feb 1922, 70; the RIAI obituary states wrongly that the partnership was formed in 1922.
(3)
IB 54, 12 Oct 1912, 580.
(4)
IB 48, 16 Jun,28 Jul 1906, 477,603,604(illus.).
(5)
IB 49, 1 Jun 1907, 385.
(6)
IB 50, 13 Jun,11 Jul 1908, 381,422,430(illus.); JRIAI (1909), 8,27-29(illus.).
(7)
Building News 97, 30 Jul 1909, 157(illus.).
(8)
IB 53, 24 Jun 1911, 417,421,424(illus.).
(9)
JRIAI (1923), 4.


4 work entries listed in chronological order for KEEFE, RICHARD CYRIL


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, CAVENDISH ROW, NO. 003
Date: 1911
Nature: Shop window.
Refs: IB 53, 30 Sep 1911, 662

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, RATHMINES ROAD LOWER, ST MARY'S COLLEGE
Date: 1933?
Nature: Extensions.  (Perhaps the additions and alterations for which plans were approved by City Architect, Aug 1933, see Irish Times, 17 Aug 1933.)
Refs: Obituary of Keefe by Roderick McCaffrey in RIAI Year Book 1967, 19-20

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, COOK STREET, ST AUDOEN'S NATIONAL SCHOOLS
Date: 1951-54
Nature: New school. Design attr. to Keefe by McCaffrey.
Refs: Obituary of Keefe by Roderick McCaffrey in RIAI Year Book 1967, 19-20

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, AUGUSTINE STREET, MSSRS. BARRON
Date: ?
Nature: Premises.
Refs: Obituary of Keefe by Roderick McCaffrey in RIAI Year Book 1967, 19-20