Edward Norman Hay (19 April 1889 – 10 September 1943) was a Northern Irish composer and music critic. Early life Hay was born at 26 Newton Road, Faversham, Kent, the second son of Joseph Hay, an Inland Revenue Official, who was the son of Edward Hay of Coleraine, County Londonderry (d.1890), coachmaker, and Janet Robb (1864–1891) from Alloa, Scotland. His parents had married in Edinburgh in 1884, and their first son, Francis Edward Cecil Hay, died in Peebles in 1885. Joseph and Janet moved to Faversham shortly afterwards. His mother Janet died aged only 26 in January 1891 and was buried in North Merchiston Cemetery, Edinburgh, and the 1891 census finds Edward in the Cottage Hospital in Faversham. Edward moved across to Coleraine in Ireland shortly afterwards to be cared for by aunts. When young he contracted polio, which left him with a permanent limp, and apparently unable to walk until the age of 12. Education and career According to his own account he first studied the violin at the age of eight, but around the age of ten "I was suddenly filled with a longing to play a keyboard instrument ... and I took a vow one evening not to sleep until I had learnt the notes of the bass staff". He went on to take piano lessons and "during my five years with her [the teacher] I proceeded from Clementi and Dussek to the easier Beethoven, with not one trashy piece in between. And I think the finest thing she ever did was to leave Bach alone". Hay studied in Belfast, with Dr. Koeller and later with C.J.Brennan, Dr. E.M. Chaundy and Dr. Eaglefield-Hull. He took a bachelor's degree in Music at Oxford, and later a Doctorate in Music at Balliol College, Oxford for composition (1919). He was also a fellow of the Royal College of Organists (1911). Returning to Ireland he was organist at St. Patrick's Parish Church, Coleraine from 1914 to 1916, and thereafter was appointed organist at Bangor Abbey Church in 1922. In 1922-3 he served as Head of Music at Campbell College, Belfast, and from 1923 to 1924 was the external examiner (degrees) at Trinity College, Dublin, and shortly before his death was lecturer in music at Queen's University, Belfast. From 1926 he served as the music critic for the Belfast Telegraph using the pseudonym "Rathcol". He also was the general editor and arranger