Frank Ryan (Irish republican) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Francis Ryan
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Frank Ryan c. 1936, while in Spain
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| Nickname(s) | Frank Ryan |
| Born | 11 September 1902 Bottomstown, County Limerick, Ireland |
| Died | 10 June 1944 (aged 41) Loschwitz, Dresden, Germany |
| Allegiance |  Irish Republic Second Spanish Republic |
| Service/ |
Anti-Treaty IRA International Brigades |
| Battles/wars | Irish Civil War Spanish Civil War World War II |
Frank Ryan (Irish: Proinsias Ó Riain; 11 September 1902 – 10 June 1944) was an important Irish figure. He was a politician, journalist, and activist. He first became known as an Irish republican at University College Dublin. He fought for the Irish Republican Army during the Irish Civil War.
Ryan later became interested in socialism, a political idea about fairness and equality. This led him to leave the IRA. He then helped start a new political group called the Republican Congress. He also edited its newspaper, An Phoblacht.
Ryan went to fight in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Popular Front. He joined the International Brigades, a group of volunteers from many countries. He was captured by Italian soldiers and sentenced to death. However, he was released in 1940 with help from German officials. After his release, he worked with Nazi Germany. He believed that a German invasion of Britain would help the Irish cause.
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Frank Ryan's Early Life
Frank Ryan was born in a small place called Bottomstown in County Limerick, Ireland. His parents were teachers and loved Irish traditional music. Their home was full of books. He went to St. Colman's College in Fermoy. From a young age, he was dedicated to bringing back the Irish language.
He studied Celtic Studies at University College Dublin. While there, he joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA) training group. He left college early in 1922 to join the IRA's East Limerick Brigade. He fought on the Anti-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War. During this time, he was injured and held as a prisoner.
In November 1923, he was set free and went back to university. He was very active in Irish-language groups. In 1924, he won a gold medal for speaking Irish. He also wrote for Irish-language newspapers. He even edited a paper called An Reult (Irish: The Star). Before finishing college in 1925, he started the University Republican Club. He led many protests with this group.
After university, he taught Irish at Mountjoy School in Dublin. But his main passion was journalism. He worked editing Irish Travel for the Tourist Board. He also edited An tÓglach (Irish: The Volunteer) for the IRA. In the evenings, he taught Irish and gave talks on history and literature.
In 1926, he helped reorganize the Dublin Brigade of the IRA. Ryan always believed in anti-imperialism. This means he was against one country controlling another. A big influence on him was a meeting in Brussels in 1927. He went there as a delegate for the IRA.
In 1929, Ryan became the editor of the Republican newspaper An Phoblacht. He worked with Geoffrey Coulter. Together, they made the paper exciting and popular. This greatly increased its number of readers. In the same year, he was elected to the Army Executive. This was a high position in the IRA.
In May 1930, Ryan visited the United States for several weeks. He spoke at Irish meetings. There, he saw the start of the Great Depression. This was a time when many people lost their jobs. In 1931, he was put in prison for publishing articles in An Phoblacht. Later that year, he was jailed again. After the 1932 Irish general election, a new government came to power. Ryan was released from prison in March 1932. Thousands of other republican prisoners were also set free.
Forming the Republican Congress
In 1933, Ryan, along with George Gilmore and Peadar O'Donnell, suggested a new idea. They wanted to create a new group called the Republican Congress. This group would aim to unite workers and small farmers. They hoped it would become a large movement for change. They tried to get the IRA to agree, but they failed.
When Ryan, Gilmore, and O'Donnell held a meeting to push for the Congress, the IRA removed them from their positions. Other IRA members who supported the Congress were also told to stop their activities. Despite this, Gilmore, Ryan, and O'Donnell went ahead with the Republican Congress. Ryan became the editor of its newspaper.
For months, there were many debates. People argued about how to deal with government pressure. They also discussed the rise of a group called the Blueshirts. This group had some ideas similar to fascism. The Republican Congress itself began to have disagreements. Ryan and his friends believed the Congress should be a united front. This meant it would be a group for all Irish Republicans. Another group believed it should be a vanguard party. This meant it would be a smaller, more organized group leading the revolution.
At a meeting in September 1934, they voted on this issue. The idea of a united front won. However, those who wanted a vanguard party immediately left the group. This was a big blow to the Republican Congress. It never fully recovered and stopped existing by 1936.
Fighting in the Spanish Civil War
When the Spanish Civil War began, Peadar O'Donnell and George Gilmore went to Spain. They reported on what was happening. They came back as strong supporters of the Spanish Republicans. Ryan was very upset that Eoin O'Duffy, a leader of the Blueshirts, was organizing an Irish Brigade. This brigade went to Spain to fight alongside the Fascists.
Ryan wrote open letters criticizing Cardinal McRory. The Cardinal was raising money to support Francisco Franco, the Fascist leader. The Republican Congress started holding public meetings to support the Spanish Republicans. This was hard because many people in Ireland supported Franco. This support was encouraged by parts of the Catholic Church and some newspapers. Meetings supporting the Republicans were often attacked. Once, Ryan had to climb a lamp-post to escape a crowd that attacked his meeting.
Peadar O'Donnell was too old to fight, and George Gilmore had a broken leg. So, they couldn't go back to Spain. Despite being deaf, Ryan traveled to Spain in late 1936. He brought about 80 men he had recruited. They went to fight for the International Brigades on the Republican side. Ryan's men are sometimes called the "Connolly Column".
He served in the Lincoln-Washington Brigade and became a Brigadier. He worked on publicity for the 15th International Brigade. This involved writing, broadcasting, and visiting the front lines. He fought in several battles. At the Battle of Jarama in February 1937, he took command of the British Battalion. This was after it lost many soldiers. He was seriously wounded in March 1937. He returned to Ireland to get better. While there, he started another newspaper called The Irish Democrat.
When he returned to Spain, he continued to fight. In March 1938, Italian troops captured him. He was accused of murder and sentenced to death. He was held in Burgos Prison in 1938. He was under a death sentence for 16 months. During this time, he said he disagreed with the IRA's bombing campaign in England. In January 1940, his death sentence was changed to 30 years of hard labor.
Release from Prison in 1940
In October 1938, the Irish Minister to Spain, Leopold H. Kerney, visited Ryan in prison. Kerney hired a lawyer for Ryan. But even with all his efforts, he could not get Ryan released. The lawyer had contacts with Wilhelm Canaris, who led a German military intelligence group called Abwehr. These contacts helped Ryan get released into Abwehr's care on July 15, 1940.
The handover happened at the Spanish border. A story was spread that Ryan had "escaped." Ryan was taken to the border by a German agent. From there, he went to Biarritz and then to Paris. He was then taken to Berlin. There, he met Seán Russell on August 4, 1940.
Working with Nazi Germany (1940–1944)
In Berlin, Ryan met an SS officer named Dr. Edmund Veesenmayer. This officer was involved in German plans for Ireland. Ryan was not involved in these plans at first. Seán Russell became ill and died during a mission. The mission was stopped, and Ryan returned to Germany.
After this, Ryan stayed in Berlin. From late 1940 to January 1943, he lived with Helmut Clissman. Clissmann was married to Elizabeth "Budge" Mulcahy, a friend of Ryan's. Clissmann had known Ryan and other Irish republicans in Dublin. Ryan was not in good health because of his war wound and time in prison. He even had a stroke. He had to keep a low profile and generally avoided talking about politics.
He became increasingly deaf. His friends sometimes thought he pretended to be deafer than he was. This was to avoid difficult talks with German officials. He couldn't be left alone at night because he couldn't hear air-raid sirens. He often spent his days outdoors or in cafés. There, he became friends with Francis Stuart, whom he knew from Dublin. Ryan would bring Irish newspapers to Stuart. He also shared extra food rations he received. Stuart would take Ryan on trips to the countryside.
Some people claimed Ryan and Stuart were doing propaganda work among Irish prisoners of war. This was not true. They visited a camp for Irish prisoners. Ryan and Clissmann also visited a camp where some men wanted to form an "Irish Guard." Ryan had nothing to do with this plan, and it never happened. Ryan regretted visiting the camp. He told Stuart that the whole idea disheartened him. He only felt sympathy for men who were prisoners, like he had been.
Around late 1940, a campaign in the Irish Press newspaper asked, "Where is Frank Ryan?" In response, Frank Ryan wrote a letter to Leopold Kerney, the Irish Minister in Madrid. He explained where he was. The Irish government learned of Ryan's location in December 1940. Elizabeth Clissmann delivered the letter. Ryan told Clissmann not to tell Kerney that Russell had died.
Ryan's political beliefs did not change after his release from prison. His friends said he remained "an Irish Republican and a Connolly Socialist" his whole life. However, he felt frustrated because he could not do anything for Ireland. After the summer of 1941, he was concerned about Ireland staying neutral in the war. He agreed with the Irish leader, De Valera, on this point. There was also a shortage of weapons in Ireland to defend itself.
In 1941, Ryan wrote letters to Leopold Kerney in Madrid. The Germans allowed this to learn about events in Ireland. They also wanted to understand Ryan's views. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, keeping Ireland neutral became even more important to them. Ryan became more important in their eyes. Ironically, this invasion made Ryan even more against German plans. In his letters, he often said he wanted to return to Ireland.
He died in June 1944 at a hospital in Loschwitz, Dresden. His funeral in Dresden was attended by Elizabeth Clissmann and Francis Stuart. According to them, he died from pleurisy and pneumonia.
Frank Ryan's Funeral
In 1963, a historian found Ryan's grave in Dresden, Germany. In 1979, three volunteers from the International Brigades went to East Germany. They brought Ryan's remains back to Ireland. On June 21, his remains arrived at Whitefriar Street church in Dublin. This was his local church when he lived there. The church was full of people from different political groups. Friends from his past, like the Stuarts and the Clissmanns, were there. Peadar O'Donnell spoke at the service.
The procession to Glasnevin Cemetery stopped at the GPO. This was to remember those who died in 1916. Irish veterans of the Spanish Civil War carried his coffin to the grave. These included Frank Edwards, Peter O'Connor, Michael O'Riordan, and Terry Flanagan. Con Lehane gave the funeral speech. A piper played "Limerick's Lamentation." Frank Ryan is buried next to Eamonn MacThomais.
See also
- Irish Socialist Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War
- IRA Abwehr World War II – Main article on IRA Nazi links
- Friesack Camp
- John Codd
- Liam Devlin – Fictional character inspired by Frank Ryan.
