Langrishe, Richard (1834–1922), architect and engineer, was born 6 November 1834 in Knocktopher Abbey, Kilkenny, younger son among two sons and one daughter of Rev. Sir Hercules Langrishe, politician and clergyman, and Maria Langrishe (née Cottingham) of Somerville, Co. Cavan. Educated first by a governess at his home, he was sent (1845) to a Church of England school at Rossall Hall, Lancashire, where he studied for one year. After a further year of private tuition he entered Kilkenny College as a boarder (1847), remaining until 1852, when his father brought him home to manage the family estate and farm at Knocktopher Abbey. It was not a career that appealed to him, and under the guidance of his cousin Lt.-col. J. H. Dopping, an engineer, he was recommended to articles under Samuel Ussher Roberts, then the district engineer of the Lough Corrib drainage and navigation works at Galway. On completion of his articles he was appointed assistant county surveyor for the Connemara district of the board of works and lived in Oughterard, Co. Galway. A year later he moved to Co. Down, where he assisted in the drainage of Lough Neagh and the lower Bann valley. In 1857 he joined the team of Sir John Macneill (qv) preparing surveys for railways across Ireland. In 1863 he embarked on a business venture partnering Ethelstane Blake of Renvyle, Co. Galway, in a company specialising in the exploitation of mineral deposits in Europe. After a number of years working in France and Italy, the company ceased to trade and Langrishe returned to Kilkenny where, in partnership with his sister Charlotte, he worked a farm at Firgrove, near Ballyduff. In June 1869 he was appointed clerk of the peace in Kilkenny, with a deputy to perform all his duties. Towards the end of 1870 he moved to Sion Lodge, Maudlinsland, Kilkenny, and, having been accepted into the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE) in 1864, he was appointed clerk of works at the Kilkenny Lunatic Asylum.
In 1872 he was appointed diocesan architect for the diocese of Ossory in the Church of Ireland, which, after disestablishment in 1869, was charged with the repair of its own churches and clergy houses. His enduring association with St Canice's cathedral, Kilkenny, began when he sat on its restoration committee from 1876; and in 1879, following his acceptance by the RIAI, he was officially appointed to superintend the restoration of the cathedral, receiving 3 per cent of contracts as remuneration. He completed the move from engineering to architecture by resigning from the ICE. Having given a paper on the cathedral to the British Archaeological Association in August 1878, he published Handbook to the cathedral church of St Canice, Kilkenny (1879). In 1880 he moved to Athlone when appointed architect to the western district of the Irish church commissioners, working to restore churches and church halls. He resigned in 1892 and returned to Kilkenny to resume architectural duties at St Canice's, where his work included the installation of stalls using Austrian oak and laying down an Irish marble floor in the sanctuary. In 1893 he was appointed JP for the borough of Kilkenny and, along with his eldest son, Henry (Harry) Hoadly, a solicitor, was admitted a freeman to the city of Kilkenny. Despite moving to Dundrum, Dublin, in 1899, he travelled frequently to Kilkenny, and during Queen Alexandra's visit (1904) he showed her his work on the cathedral. In 1907 he retired to Kilkenny and bought Archersfield, Castle Rd, where he added a two-storey house to the existing cottage.
He had a deep interest in history, genealogy, and heraldry. In 1872 he was elected a member, and in 1879 a fellow and vice-president, of the Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland, later the RSAI, contributing a series of articles to its journal on the sieges of Athlone and its walls, and on Irish church bells. He completed a three-volume survey, two volumes of which survive, written in longhand, entitled ‘Acts of the dean and chapter of the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity, Dublin’. Long years of research saw the production of a family history in 1890, and this research eventually resulted in a grant of arms through Dublin Castle from the Ulster Herald. Relevant notebooks, documents and letters have been deposited in the NAI.
Having enrolled in the Shamrock Lodge No. 101, Athlone (1883), Langrishe made freemasonry an increasingly important part of his life, and in 1912 he was appointed grand master of the Provincial Grand Lodge (South Eastern Counties), having earlier served as secretary. In October 1863 he married Frances Stafford Chaine (d. May 1867) of Spring Farm, Antrim; they had no children. He married secondly (August 1871) Sarah Ogle Moore, daughter of Very Rev. Ogle William Moore, dean of Clogher, but she died giving birth to their second child in December 1873. He married thirdly (1882) Amitia Sneade Brown, daughter of Rev. Frederick Brown of Beckenham, Kent: they had six children. He died 7 October 1922 in Kilkenny and a carved marble panel was erected in St Canice's cathedral in his memory.