Top RUC officer Archibald Hays OBE ‘sought to serve the whole community’, priest tells mourners

Former RUC assistant chief constable Archibald Oliver Hays OBE, 83, died in his Belfast home in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

His wife, Elizabeth, passed away last year and he is survived by his daughter Catherine, granddaughters Ann and Lynda, great-granddaughter Maisie and son-in-law William. His requiem mass was held today in the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Carryduff. 

Rev Michael Sheehan said that ‘Archie’ had left “very clear instructions” about his funeral - right down to the preaching -  “so that when it did happen, that he got what he wanted... that wasn’t like him, as you would know”.

He had been visiting the church since it reopened for individual prayer and Rev Sheehan saw him leaving on Tuesday afternoon. He took unwell not long after, in the early hours, and his death has been a particular shock to his granddaughters.

He was “a big quiet man, an imposing figure and distinguished in many of his accomplishments”.

Born in Rostrevor, he was educated in St Malachy’s College in Belfast and St MacNissi’s College in Co Antrim.

He enjoyed fishing, shooting and boxing, the latter in which he had also been a referee, and had been a rally driver in the Circuit of Ireland and also in Liege, Belgium.

In his earlier days he spent his summer holidays touring with a circus where he sold ice cream and “fed the lions”. He added: “Courage was not something that he lacked in those days or indeed in his years in the police”. Mr Hays had served as assistant chief constable and as head of traffic division, where he drove the campaign against drink driving.

“He sought to make time for God in his daily living, and he sought to serve him and his people and the whole community,” he added.

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