Richard Francis Hayes (1882 – 16 June 1958) was an Irish politician, historian and medical doctor. He was a volunteer and fought in the Easter Rising in 1916 and was involved in the Garristown and Ashbourne fighting. He was elected as a

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...

MP for

Limerick East Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. With a populati ...

at the 1918 general election. In January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs who had been elected in the Westminster elections of 1918 refused to attend the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

and instead assembled in the

Mansion House, Dublin The Mansion House ( ga, Teach an Ard-Mhéara) is a house on Dawson Street, Dublin, which has been the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin since 1715, and was also the meeting place of the Dáil Éireann from 1919 until 1922. Histor ...

as a revolutionary parliament called

Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( , ; ) is the lower house, and principal chamber, of the Oireachtas (Irish legislature), which also includes the President of Ireland and Seanad Éireann (the upper house).Article 15.1.2º of the Constitution of Ireland read ...

. Hayes could not attend as he was imprisoned by the British authorities at the time. During the

War of Independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence. List See also * Lists of active separatist movements * List of civil wars * List of o ...

he was interned in the

Curragh Camp The Curragh Camp ( ga, Campa an Churraigh) is an army base and military college in The Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. It is the main training centre for the Defence Forces (Ireland), Irish Defence Forces and is home to 2,000 military personnel ...

. He was elected at the 1921 elections as a Sinn Féin

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parli ...

(TD) for Limerick City–Limerick East and was released after the truce. He supported the

Anglo-Irish Treaty The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty ( ga , An Conradh Angla-Éireannach), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the ...

and voted in favour of it. He was re-elected at the 1922 general election as a pro-Treaty Sinn Féin TD and subsequently as a

Cumann na nGaedheal Cumann na nGaedheal (; "Society of the Gaels") was a political party in the Irish Free State, which formed the government from 1923 to 1932. In 1933 it merged with smaller groups to form the Fine Gael party. Origins In 1922 the pro-Treaty G ...

TD at the 1923 general election. He resigned from the Dáil in January 1924 and retired from politics. He later became Irish Film Censor (1941–1954) and Director of the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the pu ...

. As a historian, he was a leading authority on Irish connections with France from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. He authored several major historical studies, including ''The Last Invasion of Ireland: When Connacht Rose'' (1st ed. 1937), which has been reappraised by

Guy Beiner Guy Beiner (born in 1968 in Jerusalem) is an Israeli historian of the late-modern period. He was formerly a full professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel. In September 2021, he was named the Sullivan Chair in Irish ...

as a groundbreaking book for its use of oral traditions alongside more conventional archival sources. Other titles include ''Ireland and Irishmen in the French Revolution'' (1932), ''Irish Swordsmen of France'' (1934), ''Old Irish Links with France'' (1940), and ''Biographical Dictionary of Irishmen in France'' (1949), alongside numerous articles. For his work on the Irish military in France, he received the Légion d'honneur. He was a hard-working and much-loved doctor.

Frank O'Connor Frank O'Connor (born Michael Francis O'Donovan; 17 September 1903 – 10 March 1966) was an Irish author and translator. He wrote poetry (original and translations from Irish), dramatic works, memoirs, journalistic columns and features on a ...

records that he deduced, correctly, that their mutual friend

George William Russell George William Russell (10 April 1867 – 17 July 1935), who wrote with the pseudonym Æ (often written AE or A.E.), was an Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, painter and Irish nationalist. He was also a writer on mysticism, and a centra ...

had terminal

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

simply because Russell (who had moved to England) in a letter to O'Connor complained of what he believed to be

colitis Colitis is swelling or inflammation of the large intestine ( colon). Colitis may be acute and self-limited or long-term. It broadly fits into the category of digestive diseases. In a medical context, the label ''colitis'' (without qualification) ...

. When O'Connor showed Hayes the letter he read it quickly and said "I am sorry but that is cancer, not colitis." For several years he was the closest friend of Frank O'Connor, who acknowledged the extraordinary help Hayes gave him in researching ''

The Big Fellow ''The Big Fellow'' is a 1937 biography of the famed Irish leader, Michael Collins, by Frank O'Connor. ''The Big Fellow'' covers the period of Collins's life from the Easter Rising in 1916 to his death during the Irish Civil War in 1922. Unlike ...

'', his biography of

Michael Collins Michael Collins or Mike Collins most commonly refers to: * Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922), Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician * Michael Collins (astronaut) (1930–2021), American astronaut, member of Apollo 11 and Ge ...

. After some years, however, the friendship cooled, and the portrait of Hayes in O'Connor's memoir ''My Father's Son'', is surprisingly unflattering, given their earlier closeness. He is buried in Deansgrange Cemetery.

References

Sources

* Robert Brennan (1950), ''Allegiance'' * Guy Beiner (2007), ''Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory'' (University of Wisconsin Press) * Ray Bateson (2015), ''Deansgrange Cemetery and the Easter Rising''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, Richard 1882 births 1958 deaths Early Sinn Féin TDs Cumann na nGaedheal TDs Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood Members of the 1st Dáil Members of the 2nd Dáil Members of the 3rd Dáil Members of the 4th Dáil Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Limerick constituencies (1801–1922) UK MPs 1918–1922 Politicians from County Limerick 20th-century Irish medical doctors Medical doctors from County Limerick