Life
1898-1964 [Richard N. Hayward]; b. Larne, Co. Antrim; ed. Larne Grammar
School; wrote curtain raisers for Ulster Players; witnessed launch of Titanic; fnd. Belfast Repertory Theatre, with Tyrone Guthrie; President
of PEN and Naturalist Field Club; wrote Ulster dialect; plays and novels;
singer, recorded Irish folksongs on more than a hundred disks, and published
them as wrote a travel series, This is Ireland; Leinster and
the City of Dublin (1949), Connacht (1952), Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon (1955), and Munster and Cork City (London
1964); also other Irish topographical works, notably Where the River
Shannon Flows (1940) and Belfast Through the Ages (1952); a
pamphlet, The Story of the Irish Harp (1954), for Guinness, and
a novel Sugar House Entry (1936), and early collections of poems, Love and Ulster and Other Songs (1920); Poems (1920); Ulster
Songs and Ballads (1925); broadcast on ‘Love in Ulster’
in 1924, and was heard by John Hewitt. DIL DIW IF DUB
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Works
Topography, In Praise of Ulster (London: Barker 1938; 4th
rev. ed., Belfast: William Mullan 1945), viii+371pp., with 48 drawings
by J Humbert Craig; Where the River Shannon Flows (London: Harrap
1940); The Corrib Country (Dundalk: Dundalgan Press [W. Tempest]
1943; 2nd edn. 1947), 164pp., with ills. from drawings in wash by J. Humbert
Craig, RHA, and foreword by Maurice Walsh; In the Kingdom of Kerry (Dundalk: W Tempest 1946), 350pp., ill. Theo. J. Gracey, and ded.
Maurice J. Walsh, ‘the father of this book’; This is Ireland [4 part series, illustrated], 1949-64; [This is Ireland:] Leinster
and the City of Dublin (London: Barker 1949), 256pp., ill. Raymond
Piper; This is Ireland: Connacht and the City of Galway (London:
Barker 1952); This is Ireland, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon (London:
Barker 1953) [ill. Raymond Piper]; Munster and the City of Cork (London:
Phoenix House 1964), 354pp. [pencil drawings by Raymond Piper]; Belfast
Through the Ages (Dundalgan 1952); The Story of the Irish Harp (Dublin: A Guinness 1954), pamph.; Border Foray (London: Barker
1957), 190pp.
Fiction, Sugar House Entry: A Novel of the Ulster Countryside (London: Arthur Barker 1936). Miscellaneous, ‘Biographical Dictionary of Irishmen in France’, in Studies (June 1944); ‘A Night to Remember’, in Ulster Illustrated (April 1958) [q.pp.].
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Criticism
G. B. Adam, ‘Richard Hayward, a bibliography of his published works’,
in Irish Booklore, 3, i,, 1976, p. 50ff.
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References
Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction [Pt. I] (Dublin: Maunsel
1919), lists Suger House Entry (London: Barker 1936) [set between
wars on Co. Down farm of the title; Johnny Montgomery, farmhand, attempts
to woo Rosie, who has her eye on Robert Dunseith, farm-owner, who is fond
of Johnny’s sister, working for him; Presbyterian folk and dialect.]
Kate Newmann, Dictionary of Ulster Biography (Belfast: QUB/IIS 1993), cites Belfast as his birthplace, and reports that he began his career there as a dramatist.
Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1979), notes ‘obstrusive Ulster jocularity’ in his travel writings and compares them unfavourably with Padraic Colum, The Road Round Ireland, and Harold Speakman’s here’s Ireland, or even Thackeray’s Sketch Book.
Booksellers: CATHACH BOOKS (Cat. No. 12) lists Munster and Cork City (London 1964) [pencil drawings by Raymond Piper]; Where the River Shannon Flows (n.d.); Border Foray ([1957]); This is Ireland, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon (London 1955) [ill. Raymond Piper]; The Corrib Country [2nd ed.] (Dundalk 1947) [ill. J. Humbert Craig]; This is Ireland, Connaught and the City of Galway (London 1952). HYLAND BOOKS (Oct. 1995) lists Leinster & the City of Dublin (1st edn. 1949); Border Foray (1st edn. 1957).
Ulster Libraries: BELFAST PUBLIC LIBRARY lists for Hayward, R., This is Ireland, Leinster (1949) ... Connacht (1952); In Praise of Ulster (Belfast 1938) [large octavo; 48 ills, by J Humbert Craig]; Belfast through the Ages (1952), Where the River Shannon Flows (1950) and other topographical and guidebook works. LIBRARY OF HERBERT BELL (Belfast) holds In Praise of Ulster (Belfast 1938); Where the River Shannon Flows (Dundalk 1940); Leinster and the City of Dublin (London 1949); Ulster and the City of Belfast (London In The Kingdom of Kerry (Dundalk 1950); Munster and the City of Cork (London 1964). ULSTER UNIVERSITY LIBRARY (Morris Collection) holds This is Ireland, Ulster and the City of Belfast (1950). LINENHALL LIBRARY lists under H. R. Hayward, Love in Ulster and other Poems (1920); Poems (1920), and Ulster Songs and Ballads (1925).
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Notes
Poetry unseen: G. B. Adam, ‘Richard Hayward, a bibliography
of his published works’, Irish Booklore, 3, I (1976), p.50ff.,
makes reference to an opera called Deirdre named on the title page
of The Jew’s Fiddle (1921) and Love in Ulster and Other
Poems (1922), but itself unseen by the bibliographer.
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