O'KEEFFE, MATHIAS THOMAS

Engineer and architect, of Cork and London. Mathias O'Keeffe, who was born in Cork circa 1830,(1)  was articled in 1850 to PETER JOSEPH KLASEN PETER JOSEPH KLASEN , a district engineer in the Board of Works. He then worked on various engineering projects in England, Ireland and Scotland, before settling in Cork in about 1859.(2) He remained in Cork until at least 1880, when he held the position of city engineer and surveyor,(3) but by 1887 had moved to Brixton in London.(4) The English census of 1891 shows him as a sixty-one year old civil engineer and architect living at 13 Villa Road, Brixton, with his thirty-three year old Cork-born wife, Margaret, and two-year-old daughter, Mary.

A survey drawing by O'Keeffe, signed, addressed and dated 23 November 1876, showing the plan and section of the route for a proposed viaduct from Cobh cathedral over Middleton Street and West Street to the Crescent is among the Ashlin and Coleman drawings in the Irish Architectural Archive.(5)

ICEI: elected member, 3 February 1875;(6) still on list of members for 1890 (without an address) but not on that for 1896.

Address: 15 Cook Street, Cork, 1871;(7) 18 South Mall, 1876;(8) Brixton, London, 1887;(9) 13 Villa Road, Brixton, 1891.

See WORKS.

References

(1) His father might possibly have been the Mathias O'Keeffe who was principal of a school in St Patrick's Place, Cork, in 1854 (information from Roger Herlihy, Cork, Dec 2010).
(2)   ICEI membership Applications, II, 17 (microfilm in NLI, Pos. 9384).
(3) Thom's Directory (1881), 1204.
(4) TICEI 17 (1885-86), list of members at Jan 1887.
(5) Acc.76/1.3/2; his address is given as 18 South Mall, Cork.
(6) TICEI 11 (1874-1876), 8.
(7) Fulton's City of Cork Directory (1871).
(8) See note 2, above.
(9) See note 2, above.

4 work entries listed in chronological order for O'KEEFFE, MATHIAS THOMAS

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Building:	CO. CORK, CORK, ST JOSEPH'S CEMETERY
Date:	1863
Nature:	Proposed improvements to cemetery, including rearrangement of graves to make them 'more consonant with uniformity'.  For Capuchin Fathers.
Refs:	Cork Examiner, 7,11 Feb 1863.(information from Roger Herlihy, Cork).

Building:	CO. CORK, COBH, VIADUCT FROM CATHEDRAL TO CRESCENT (PROPOSED)
Date:	1876
Nature:	Survey drawing showing plan and sections of proposed route for viaduct.
Refs:	Drawing, signed and dated 23 Nov 1876 in IAA, Ashlin & Coleman drawings collection, Acc. 76/1.3/2

Building:	CO. WATERFORD, CAPPOQUIN, INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS & CONVENT OF MERCY
Date:	1877
Nature:	2-storey, T-plan. with dormitory of 70 x 26 ft. For Sisters of Mercy. Opened 8 May 1877. Builder: John Sheehan, Cappoquin. Work superintended by Michael Morrissy.
Refs:	IB 19, 1 Jun 1877, 165; B 35, 2 Jun 1877, 565

Building:	CO. WATERFORD, KILMACTHOMAS, CONVENT OF MERCY, CHURCH & SCHOOLS
Date:	1880
Nature:	New convent for 13 nuns, church to seat 350 and schools for 300 children in course of erection. Builder for convent: Thomas Flynn, Waterford. Builder for Schools: Ed. Shimmick, Cork. Estimated cost for all buildings £13,000.
Refs:	IB 22, 1 Sep 1880, 244(illus.)