The death of Frank Ryan

TIME LINE

FRANK Ryan was a native of Limerick with strong Clare connections – his mother’s family came from Kilfenora. The family were well educated and Frank attended St Colman’s, Fermoy, where he won a scholarship to UCD.

He later earned a degree in Celtic studies and even began studying for a masters. The “later” was caused by his involvement in the War of Independence and the Civil War. He joined the East Limerick Brigade of the IRA while still a student and took the Anti-Treaty side in the Civil War. It was only when he was released from internment in the Curragh that he resumed his studies.
In the mid-’20s, he remained involved in the IRA but gradually became more left wing in his views.
He wrote for An Phoblacht and later became its editor. Working closely with Peadar O’Donnell, they argued for better housing, employment, social conditions and action against poverty and emigration. They founded Saor Éire in 1931 and later the Republican Congress. They were bitterly opposed to Eoin O’Duffy and the Blueshirts and when O’Duffy organised his brigade to fight with the rebels in the Spanish Civil War, O’Donnell and Ryan organised the Connolly Column to fight for the Republic in the International Brigade.
In December 1936, Ryan and 80 others left for Spain. Within two months, he was badly wounded at Jamara and returned to Ireland to recuperate. Returning to Spain, he was captured in April 1938 and sentenced to death. Following representations from the Irish Government, this was commuted to 30 years in prison.
It was from then on that his life became complicated. He was a committed socialist, fighting against the Fascists, yet he ended his days in the extremely fascist Nazi Germany.
Official contact with Franco was done by the Irish Ambassador Leopold Kearney. Kearney tried to arrange a prisoner swap and when that failed, he tried to link Ryan’s release with a trade agreement. Eventually, Franco gave in but would not agree to Ryan being released. Instead an ‘escape’ was to be organised and Ryan was to be handed over to the Germans, taken out of the country immediately and never to return. Thus, he was brought to Berlin in 1940, where he met Seán Russell, chief of staff of the IRA, where he was looking for help from Germany. Russell had been totally opposed to Ryan’s socialism but both were sent back to Ireland together by U-boat. Russell died on board, their plans were scrapped and Ryan returned to Germany.
There Ryan never changed his political beliefs but was tolerated by the Germans because of the threat of an Allied invasion of Ireland and he was their only hope of keeping in contact with what was happening here. When that threat faded, Ryan was no further use to them but was left to himself. At one stage in 1943 he was approached about setting up a propaganda operation in Ireland for broadcast to America but the plan came to nothing. He lived out his life in Dresden.
Frank Ryan, veteran of the War of Independence, the Civil War and the Spanish Civil War and a campaigner for better social care here in Ireland, died in Dresden in Germany on June 10th 1944 – 66 years ago this week.