County surveyor for Co. Limerick. John Horan, the son of an engineer, was born in Co. Tipperary on 10 June 1853, attended Cookstown Academy in Co. Tyrone and studied civil engineering at Queen's College, Belfast, from 1871 to 1874. He graduated BE with first class honours in 1874 and obtained the ME degree in 1882. During his university vacations he worked with his father, who was then the contractor's agent superintentending the construction of the Woodburn Reservoirs of the Belfast Waterworks, and also with JOHN FREDERICK LA TROBE BATEMAN JOHN FREDERICK LA TROBE BATEMAN and with CHARLES LANYON CHARLES LANYON . After graduating, he worked at Rosslare Harbour in 1875, on the Upper Inny drainage scheme from 1876-7, and on railway and private projects in 1878. He then returned to Rosslare, where, from 1879 until October 1881, he assisted T.R. Winder, resident engineer for JOHN FOWLER JOHN FOWLER , on the construction of the breakwater. In 1881 he went to England to work on the construction of the Alexandra Dock, Hull under ARTHUR CAMERON HURTZIG ARTHUR CAMERON HURTZIG , who had also been an assistant to T.R. Winder at Rosslare.
Horan was appointed county surveyor for the western district of Co. Limerick in October 1884. In September 1893 he was given responsibility for the whole county at a salary of £600 per annum, and in the same year he started to practise privately in Limerick. In 1899 he reported to the County Council on a proposed scheme for improved arterial drainage and land reclamation in Limerick. He resigned from his post at the end of March 1913. He was also engineer to the Rathkeale and Newcastle Junction Railway Company from 1896 or earlier until 1900 or later. He died on 31 July 1919. According to the 1911 census, He had married his English-born wife, Elizabeth Hannah (née Barker) in 1885 or 1886 and had four surviving children., His pupils and assistants included PATRICK JOSEPH SHEAHAN. PATRICK JOSEPH SHEAHAN.
ICEI: elected member, 7 February 1912.
Inst.CE: elected associate member, 13 January 1880; transferred to member 25 February 1890.
RSAI: elected member, 17 July 1889.
Incorporated Association of Municipal and County Engineers: elected member, 12 December 1891.
Addresses: Work: County Surveyor's Office, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick, 1890; 50 George Street, Limerick, 1894-1900; 82, George Streeet, 1901-1911; 4 Pery Square, 1911-1913.
Home: Bushville, Tagoat, Co. Wexford, 1879; Churchtown, Newcastle West, Co. Limerick, 1889; Templemungret, Limerick, 1917.
See WORK.
References
All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for was provided by Mrs Carol Morgan, Archivist, Institution of Civil Engineers, or comes from ICEI membership applications, IV, 116, and from membership lists in Proceedings of the Association of Municipal & County Engineers.
IB 36, 15 Mar 1894, 73.
Building News 77, 21 Jul 1899, 87; IB 41, 1 Aug 1899, 98.
Building News 104, 28 Feb 1913, 301.
Post Office Directory (1896), 211; (1900), 211.
TICEI 38 (1911-12), 85.
Contributed to correspondence in Min.Proc.Inst.CE on subject of River Seine (Vol. 84 (1885-86), 337-8, and of Alexandra Dock, Hull (Vol. 92 (1887-88), 179-80.
JRSAI 19 (1889), ?.
See note 7, above.
