Kevin Francis O’Byrne was born in Galway on December 2, 1934, the second son of Seán and Mary O’Byrne. He had an older brother, Brendan and a younger sister, Máire. He received his education at St Patrick’s National School and St Joseph’s College (The Bish ). He was a very good student and a brilliant all-round sportsman. He featured strongly in the Patrician Brothers’ Hurling Leagues and in the school’s athletics events. Rugby was his favourite game; he played scrum half for his school, for his various clubs and twice for Connacht, both times against Ulster. He was also a fine soccer player, and with Johnny Dooley starred in the match when UCG won their first ever Collingwood Cup by beating UCD by three goals to two in the final, which was played at the Grammar School grounds in 1955.
That was also the year he graduated from UCG with a first-class honours degree in civil engineering, with the highest marks in the country that year. Also around that time, he joined Opus Dei as he felt his mission in life was to help others.
Having graduated, he went to work as a hydrometric engineer for the ESB. Two years later, he changed jobs and began work as a design engineer for the British Reinforced Concrete Engineering Company.
In 1958, he met Fr Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, who was canonised in 2002. Fr Escriva asked him if he would go to Kenya to help the work there, so he moved to Nairobi, where he would spend the rest of his life.
He worked as a design engineer with the company Ove Arup and was involved in the construction of a number of major projects while he was also teaching the Theory of Structures and Soil Mechanics in the Royal Technical College.
He was involved in the design of Strathmore College, a first and second level school, and when it opened, he worked there preparing advanced level students for the Cambridge Higher School Certificate in Mathematics, Pure Mathematics and Applied Mathematics.
He continued to play football, tennis and rugby in the position of scrum half for East Africa from 1960-65, and he put together the first multi-racial side in Kenya in 1961, an exercise that was described as ‘a study in Black and White rugby’.
Meanwhile, Strathmore College began to grow and grow so that today the complex contains a primary and a secondary school, a technical school and it also has university status. The technical college is famous for giving out scholarships, often to poor boys walking the streets, and allowing them to find their true potential. At the moment, there is a major development under way there as they are constructing a new 12-storey engineering school which will be named after Kevin O’Byrne, a significant honour which tells us of the enormous influence he had on that college. Indeed we should all be proud of the impact he made on this part of Africa.
Our first photograph is of the Bish junior rugby team of 1951. They are, back row: John Cahill (referee ), —— Begley, Joe Kinneen, Paschal Walsh, Kevin Sheridan, Joe Tyrrell, Seán Killeen, Mickey Joyce. In front are Jimmy Gleeson, G Lee, —— Fleming, Paddy Harty, Kevin O’Byrne, captain, —— Crowley, Tom Higgins and E Ó Máille.
Our second photograph is of the 1956 Connacht Rugby team. They are, back row: Tommy Lenihan, Connacht Branch, Brendan Guerin, Joe Brennan, Joe Tyrrell, Tony O’Sullivan, Cormac Greally, Hubie O’Connor, Chalie Garavan, Dr J Keane, President, Connacht Branch. Seated are Dickie Roche, Johnny Dooley, Seán Healy, Maurice Griffin, Rynal Coen, and Dick Fullerton. In front are Kevin O’Byrne and Paddy Kilcommins.
Our final image is a portrait of Kevin O’Byrne.
