Life
1927- [M. N. Hayes]; b. Killough, Co. Down, son of Waterford man who fought
in World War I, and Kerry girl who worked in Dublin and fled to Belfast
after the Rising pub-owner, becoming manager of Denver’s Hotel, Downpatrick;
ed. De La Salle Brothers, Downpatrick; read English at Queen’s University,
Belfast; taught for seven years in Downpatrick, and became Town Clerk;
fluent Irish-speaker; followed career of civil servant, acting Permanent
Secretary to the Health & Social Services, 1983-87; senior Catholic civil
servant at Stormont, post-Sunningdale; supplied weekly reports on politics in the “Irish Republic” to the Northern Ireland Executive, 1974; chaired Belfast Areas of Special
Social Need Committee to March 1975; head of personnel for the Northern
Ireland Civil Service, secretary to the County Down Gaelic Athletic Association,
and a member of the Senate at Queens University in Belfast, before assuming
the post of Ombudsman (Community Relations Commission) for N. Ireland
on retirement; resigned chair after Bloody Sunday (29 Jan. 1972); issued
Sweet Killough, Let Go Your Anchor (1994), a celebration of his
native community; also Minority Verdict (1995), recording ‘the
experiences of a Catholic public servant’; issued a second part of
his autobiography as Black Puddings with Slim (1996); member of
Patton Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland, Chairman of Northern
Ireland Hospitals Review; Senator in Oireachtas (Republic of Ireland),
on nomination of Bertie Ahern (Taoiseach), 1997; Board member of Independent
News & Media; a director of Regtel; governor of the Linenhall Library,
Belfast; and a member of the Royal Irish Academy; Chairman of International
Ireland Funds Board and Advisory Committee; Chairman of the Ireland Fund
of Monaco Literary Prize and Bursary Committees (Dublin).
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Works
Sweet Killough, Let Go Your Anchor (Belfast: Blackstaff 1994;
Chester Springs: Dufour 1995), 219pp. [0 85640 528 0]; Minority Verdict,
Experiences of a Catholic Public Servant (Belfast: Blackstaff; Chester
Springs: Dufour Edns. 1995), 336pp.; Black Puddings with Slim: A Downpatrick
Boyhood (Belfast: Blackstaff 1996), 192[258]pp.
Professional reports, Community Relations and the Role of the Community Relations Commission in Northern Ireland [Runnymede Lecture 15 June, 1972] (1972), 9pp.; Conflict Research [Univ. of Ulster: Centre for the Study of Conflict Ser.; No. 2] (1990) [as Chairman,] Ireland: Look the Land is Bright: Ireland Funds Conference - Kilkenny (1990), 32pp.; National Forum on Europe - Chairman’s Report: The First Phase of Work of the National Forum on Europe, October 2001 to January 2002 (2002); A Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland?: A Review of the Police Complaints System in Northern Ireland (1996, 1997); [as Commissioner,] Recommendations for the Grouping of Wards into District Electoral Areas for the Purpose of Local Government Elections in Northern Ireland: Report by the District Electoral Areas (1992) Why Can’t They Be Like Us?: A Lecture Dedicated to the Memory of John Malone (1984).
Miscellaneous, ed., The Flight Path: Writings by the Winners of the American Ireland Fund Literary Award 1972-1996 (1996), 91pp.
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Criticism
Douglas Carson, review of Maurice Hayes, Sweet Killough, in Summer
Books, Supplement with Fortnight, 330, Aug., p.7.
Robert Greacen, review of Black Pudding with Slim, in Books Ireland (Dec. 1996, p.356). See also Commentary, infra.
Sean MacMahon, review of Minority Verdict, in Books Ireland
(Nov. 1995), p.286.
Fergus Pyle reviews Minority Report, in The Irish Times (12.8.1995).
Marianne Elliott, ‘Besieged by rhetoric’, review of Minority Verdict, with other works on N. Ireland, in TLS, (9 Feb. 1996), pp.4-5.
C. E. Brett, review of Minority Report, in Linen Hall Review (Winter 1995-96).
Vincent Brown, ‘Educating the Irish Electorate’, interview with Maurice Hayes, The Irish Times (12 Jan. 2002, Weekend, p.8.
Margaret O’Callaghan, ‘Our Man in Dublin’ [on Hayes], Fortnight, Feb. 2005), p.8-9.
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Notes
Brian Lenihan, the Fianna Fail minister, reviewed Minority
Verdict (1995), for the Irish Independent shortly before his
death, calling it an ‘astute and sometimes acerbic in pithy anecdotes
on a number of public personalities’ (as quoted in Blackstaff Catalogue,
1996).
Glucksman House: Maurice Hayes read from Minority Verdict: Experiences of a Catholic Public Servant (Dufour 1995), at Glucksman Ireland House, Centre for Irish Studies at NY University, 8 May 1996.
Michael Longley’s poem “Chenec” in The Ghost Orchid (1995), p.29, is dedicated to Maurice Hayes.
Belfast: Areas of Special Social Need Committee, chaired by M. N. Hayes to March 1975 and by J. M. C. Parke from May 1975; report issued 1977.
Hospitals Review: Dr Maurice Hayes, former ombudsman and perm, sec. of Dept. of Health 1983 - 1987, chaired Acute Hospitals Review Group, with eight others senior in the medical, academic and health provision sectors; calls for focusing of accident and emergency services in nine hospitals and a downgrading of A&E services in five. (See The Irish Times, 21, June 2001.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)