Top RUC officer Archibald Hays OBE was ‘a compassionate and insightful man’ says colleague

A retired RUC assistant chief constable has been described by a former colleague as “a compassionate and insightful man”.
Retired RUC ACC Archibald Hays OBE passed away this weekRetired RUC ACC Archibald Hays OBE passed away this week
Retired RUC ACC Archibald Hays OBE passed away this week

Archibald Oliver Hays OBE, 83, died peacefully in his Belfast home on Wednesday. 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.

Mr Hays was born in 1937 and grew up in Rostrevor. He joined the RUC in 1955 and served in Armagh, Blackwatertown, Bessbrook, Enniskillen, Kesh, Cullyhana, Draperstown, Belfast, Strabane and Newry.

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His father Sam was an RUC inspector and an international boxing referee. An imposing 6ft 3in, ‘Archie’ was not afraid of danger either; during a riot in the early 1970s he was seriously injured when a brick hit him in the chest.

A passion for cars saw him win a rally trophy for the RUC in Belgium and, appropriately, he went on to become head of Traffic Division where he played a key role combating drink-driving.

As ACC he moved to HQ and served on UK committees relating to traffic, training and officer welfare.

A fellow retired ACC said he was “a compassionate and insightful man and colleague who took a keen interest in officer welfare, and he will certainly be remembered with affection by his colleagues”.

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Although he retired in around 1998, he gave evidence to the Smithwick Inquiry into Garda-IRA collusion in 2011, where it was revealed that in 1989 he chaired an urgent meeting in Armagh with senior Special Branch and Army figures about a leading republican.

His daughter Catherine also paid tribute. “If we ever needed someone to turn to, we could always go to him for counsel,” she said. “He loved his granddaughters and idolised his great-granddaughter, who called him ‘big Ga-ga’.”

A member of the Roman Catholic Church, they had a strictly non-sectarian home.

“We never talked about that in the house. On the Twelfth my mother went next door to polish our neighbour’s collarette and then he took me down to see the Sandy Row bonfire.”

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She noted how well respected he was by colleagues, with over 20 of them attending her mother’s funeral last year.

At 13 she found a hoax bomb on their doorstep, and they had to move once due to death threats. Their next home was targeted twice by burglars. “But the third time dad peppered them in the backside with his shotgun.”

One special memory was accompanying her father to receive his OBE from the Queen, which was “a bit overwhelming”. He never talked about it, but she knew it meant a great deal as he featured it prominently in his own funeral plans.

Private Requiem Mass is at 11am today in Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Carryduff, broadcast via www.drumbocarryduff.ie

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