Life
1902-1976 [Richard James Hayes; R. J. Hayes; Risteard de Hae], b. Abbeyfeale,
Co. Limerick; ed. Clongowes and TCD; LLD; joined library, 1923; Asst.
Lib., 1929; Director 1940-67; Comparative Idiom (1927), an introduction
to study of mod. langs.; Catalogue of MSS relating to Irish History
in Irish and Foreign Libraries, 11 vols. (US 1966); appt. Government
director of Abbey, 1931; worked in Irish intelligence during World War
II; sometime director of Abbey and member of Arts Council; issued bibliographical
works incl. Clár
Litridheacht na Nua-Ghaedhilge, 1850-1936, with Brighid Ní Dhonnchadha [3 vols.] (1938-40); Manuscript Sources for the History
of Irish Civilisation (11 vols., 1965), and Sources for the History
of Irish Civilisation: Articles in Irish Periodicals (9 vols., 1970),
with 270,000 entries gleaned from 200 Irish-published periodicals; d.
21 Jan., Dublin. DIW DIB DIH OCIL
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Works
Manuscript Sources for the History of Irish Civilisation, 11 vols.
(Boston 1965), and same, First Supplement, 3 vols. (1979); Sources
for the History of Irish Civilisation, Articles in Irish Periodicals,
9 vols. (Boston: G. K. Hall 1970); Also Clár Litridheacht
na Nua Gaedilge 1850-1936 (Dublin: Oifig
Dhiolta Foillseacháin Rialta 1938-40) infra]
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Notes
Garret Fitzgerald: ‘Dr. Richard Hayes, director of the National Library was a brilliant [code expert] admired by MI5 - but he also interrogated German
agents after their capture, used chemicals to reveal a secret message
sent by Hermann Görtz from his cell in Athlone, and in another case
was able to show that an apparently authentic identity document found
on a spy was partly forged. (In his spare time he also ran the library!)
Incidentally, not only was Hayes’s opposite number at the National
Museum, Dr Adolf Mahr (who was in Germany when the war broke out and was
unable to return here) the head of the Nazi Party in Ireland, but we also
learnt at the launch of these two books in the National Library that the
director of the National Gallery during the war was a British agent!’
(Review of Eunan O’Halpin, ed., MI5 and Ireland 1939-1945,
in The Irish Times, 31 Dec. 2002.)
Frank O’Connor, Book of Ireland (London: Collins 1959),
gives extract from a recorded folk-memory of the French landing and Castlebar
Races in 1798.
W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition, 1984) cites R. J. Hayes, Sources for the History of Irish Civilisation: Articles in Irish Periodicals, vols. vi and vii (Boston 1970). (Stanford, p.186.)
Eunan O’Halpin, ed., MI5 and Ireland, 1939-1945: The Official History (Dublin: IAP 2003), gives account of the operations of G2 (Irish Intelligence) especially those of Colonel Dan Bryan (Director) and code-breaker Dr Richard Hayes, as well as the spies themselves. (See “First Flush”, Books Ireland, Feb. 2003).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)