Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

County surveyor of Cos. Monaghan, 1900-1912, and Wexford 1912-1942. William Barry, son of Gerald Fitzjames Barry, a solicitor in Dublin, and his wife, Frances Catherine, née Smyth, was born in Dublin on 18 June 1864.(1) He obtained the diploma in engineering from the Royal College of Science of Ireland and then spent two and a half years working as a mechanical engineer at the Inchicore works of the Great Southern and Western Railway. He also worked on the West Clare Railway. By the time he was twenty-three, in 1887, he was employed in the office of the Queen's County (Co. Laois) surveyor, HENRY VINCENT WHITE  HENRY VINCENT WHITE at Portarlington. This was followed by a spell as resident engineer on the water supply schemes at Enniscorthy and Ferns, Co. Wexford, after which, from 1895 until 1899, he was an assistant county surveyor in Co. Kilkenny under ALEXANDER MITCHELL BURDEN.  ALEXANDER MITCHELL BURDEN.

In 1899 Barry was appointed acting county surveyor of Monaghan in succession to STAFFORD GAFFNEY.& STAFFORD GAFFNEY.& #160; The following year he was made permanent. He remained in Monaghan until January 1912, when, after several attempts to move to other counties, he was finally appointed county surveyor of Co. Wexford.(2) He remained in the latter post until his retirement in 1942. He died at the age of eighty-eight in December 1951.   At the time of the 1911 census, he was a widower and had no children.

ICEI: elected associate, December 1887.

See WORKS.



References

Information in this entry not otherwise attributed is from ICEI membership applications, II, 114, from the brief obituary of Barry in IB 94, 5 Jan 1952, 30, and from Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 92-94, which gives the fullest account of Barry's career. A photograph of Barry is in IB 54, 20 Jan 1912, 33.

(1) www.familysearch.org.
(2) IB 54, 20 Jan 1912, 33, 57; Building News 102, 19 Jan 1912, 109.


2 work entries listed in chronological order for BARRY, WILLIAM FITZ-GERALD


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Building: CO. MONAGHAN, CARRICKMACROSS, FEVER HOSPITAL
Date: 1911
Nature: Improvements & renovation
Refs: IB 53, 14 Oct 1911, 694

Building: CO. WEXFORD, WEXFORD, WESTGATE, COUNTY COURT HOUSE & COUNTY OFFICES
Date: 1929-1930
Nature: Reconstruction of part of Co. Gaol complex to form new court house.
Refs: IB 71, 21 Dec 1929, 1139; 72, 18 Jan 1930, 45