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Desmond
Ryan was born on 27 August 1893 in Dulwich, London, where his father William
Patrick Ryan worked as a journalist. He was
educated by the Christian Brothers until 1906, when his father moved
the family back to Ireland to become editor of the Irish
Peasant. When Pádraig Pearse opened St
Enda's School in Dublin in 1908, Ryan became
one of the first pupils. Pearse was to prove a dominating influence in
Ryan’s youth. After he completed his studies in St Enda’s and went
to study at University College Dublin, he maintained his association
with St Enda’s, teaching classes, living in the school and acting as
Pearse’s secretary.
This
led to his involvement with the
Irish Republican
Brotherhood, as a member of the Mitchell
Circle. He took part in the Easter Rising of 1916, serving in the
General Post Office under Pearse. After the rebels’ surrender, Ryan
was interned in Stafford Jail, Wormwood Scrubs and Frongoch internment
camp. Following his release, he returned to UCD, where he took his BA.
Ryan
then followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a journalist,
working initially for the Freeman’s
Journal. As Pearse’s literary executor, he wrote The
Story of a Success, an account of Pearse’s educational
experiment in St Enda’s. Despite writing about Pearse several times,
he never wrote the definitive biography many expected him to complete.
An admirer of Michael
Collins, Ryan supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty
of 1921, but the horrors of the civil war turned him against
nationalism and led him to pacifism. The anti-de
Valera policy of the Freeman’s
Journal and his general disillusionment caused him to leave
Ireland for London in 1922, where he began work as a journalist on the
Daily Herald.
During
his time in UCD Ryan had become interested in the Irish labour
movement, supporting the workers in the 1913 Lock-out, an interest
which was to remain with him. During his time in London he became more
involved in the theories and work of James Connolly, publishing his
first book on Connolly in 1924. He continued to publish books on
various aspects of Irish nationalism throughout the following years.
These included books on Éamon de Valera, Seán Treacy, and John Devoy
and Fenianism. Other areas of interest during this period included the
Anti-Partition campaign, the experience of the Irish in London, and
the Spanish Civil War.
When the Second World War broke out
in 1939, Ryan and his wife Sarah (née Hartley, whom he married in
1933) returned to Ireland. He took up a position as editor of the Torch,
a labour periodical. The publication ceased in 1944 however, due to a
lack of support for his views from the Labour Party. He and his wife
later moved to Swords, County Dublin, where they ran a poultry farm.
Desmond Ryan died on 23 December 1964. | 
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