After an education at Hamblin and Porter's Grammar School in Cork, and instruction from Mr. O'Neill in practical surveying, he entered the office of Sir John Benjamin McNeill, civil engineer of London and Glasgow.
From 1854 to 1859 he was in California, where he superintended hydraulic works, bringing down the waters of the Sierra Nevada to the goldfields by means of canals and aqueducts.
He took payment in shares, and thus occupied the unusual position of engineer, contractor, and the largest proprietor.
[citation needed] He subsequently suggested to the government the construction of a dock in a bay near Monkstown, but the Haulbowline site was finally adopted.
On 10 December 1872 he was elected in a by-election to represent Cork City in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, after the death of John Francis Maguire.