The Gazette 1949-1952

November, 1950

THE GAZETTE of the I l NCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND

President W illiam J. N orman

Vice-Presidents T homas A . O ’R eilly D ermot P. S haw

Secretary E ric A. P lunkett .

FOR CIRCULATION AMONG MEMBERS

MR. WILLIAM S. HAYES W e have to record with deep regret the death of Mr. William S. Hayes, which occurred in Parkna- silla, where he was on holiday, on August 20th. William Samuel Hayes was born on 4th December, 1862. He was a son o f a solicitor, Mr. William Hayes, who had been admitted in 1840, and practised at 31 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin, and on 1st May, 1879, he was bound as an apprentice to his father. He headed the list o f successful candidates at the final examinations in 1884, and was awarded a Gold Medal and the Findlater Scholarship. Fie was admitted in Trinity Sittings, 1884, and from that time until his death he was associated with the firm of Playes & Sons, of which for the greater part of his life he was senior partner. The late Mr. Hayes belonged to a generation of solicitors which has few survivors. It can safely be said that in the history o f the Society since its foundation in 1841 there was no more outstanding figure. His position as a leader o f the profession

is indicated by the fact that when he was first elected to the Council in November, 1892, he was under 30 years o f age. He served on the Council from that time until his death in 1950, and during that long period he was re-elected anually, for many years at the head o f the poll, or close to it. He served as Vice-President in 1897/98, and as President in 1906/07. In his exertions for the advantage of the profession he was untiring. The Solicitors (Ire­ land) Bill, 1898, was introduced when he was Vice- President, and on his shoulders fell much o f the work connected with its passage into law. In 1906, when he was President, he took the lead in starting the Society’s G azette , a publication which, although necessarily limited in scope, served a need which had become felt with the growth in the Society’s functions since 1898. Fie was called as a witness to give evidence as to the professional custom and usage between Irish and English solicitors in the case o f Porter v. Kirtlan, which is the leading authority on that subject. At the end of his life he was closely associated as a member of the Council *7