South Dublin County Libraries

Thomas Joseph Byrne was born in Kingston upon Thames on 15th November 1876 to an English mother, Harriet (nee Knight) and and Irish father, Richard Byrne of the Royal Irish Fusiliers who had been born in Bagnelstown, County Carlow. At the age of fifteen he began his training for architecture, articled to Edward Carter ARIBA of London, where he worked for four years. He then came to Ireland to work in Drogheda in the office of Anthony Scott, whose daughter, May, he subsequently married in 1901. In 1898, at the age of twenty two, he went back to England to work with London County Council as an assistant architect while completing his studies with the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 1901, he returned to Ireland where he enjoyed a distinguished career until his death in 1939. T.J. Byrne was an inspiring external examiner in Architecture for the National University of Ireland, and a founder member of the Institute of Christian Art. He played an important part in the development of Dublin Airport, and also had an involvement in the airports at Baldonnel and Rineanna. Byrne carried out a number of private commissions over the years, including a house for his son, T.B. Byrne, in Rathfarnham, and the Bridge House public house in Chapelizod.