Otherwise
Dr. James Ryan, Irish politician
1916 republican revolutionary.
He was the medical officer in the GPO, Dublin, during the Easter Rising, April 1916.


Son of John Ryan and Elizabeth Sutton Ryan, of Tomcoole, Co. Wexford, the second youngest of their 12 children

Member of Parliament [Westminster] for Wexford South, 1918-1922.
Member of Dail Eireann, 1918-1965
Member of Seanad Eireann, 1965-1969

Minister for Agriculture, 1932-1947
Minister for Health and Social Welfare, 1947-1948, 1951-1954
Minister for Finance, 1957-1965,



For further details, see the entry in Wikipedia,
James Ryan


His sisters

Cait Ní Riain Uí Ceallaigh Mary Kate Ryan O'Kelly, first wife of
Seán Tomás Ó Ceallaigh who later became President of Ireland.

Pillis Ní Riain Uí Ceallaigh Phyllis Ryan O'Kelly, second wife of
Seán Tomás Ó Ceallaigh President of Ireland


When he retired from the medical profession in 1925 to devote himself to full-time politics, he bought Kendlestown House, Greystones, which remained his home until he died.




From UCD School of Medicine website, December 2012.

James Ryan – one of twelve children of a county Wexford farming family, entered UCD to study medicine in 1909, the holder of a one of the first county council scholarships awarded for students to attend the new National University of Ireland.

At UCD he joined the student branch of Sinn Fein. In November 1913 he became a founding member of the Irish Volunteers, which was founded by UCD Professor Eoin MacNeill. He was sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood – the secret society, whose members plotted the 1916 Rising.

On Easter Sunday 1916 he delivered Eoin MacNeill's orders countermanding the Rising to the Cork Volunteers; when he heard that a Rising had actually broken out, he reported to the GPO with his medical kit and was appointed as chief medical officer. After the Rising he was interned, but he was among the first prisoners to be released, and he went back to complete his medical studies, qualifying in March 1917.

He set up general practice in Wexford town where he treated many cases during the influenza pandemic of 1918-19. He was elected as Sinn Fein TD in the 1918 general election and was among the 27 Sinn Fein TDs who took their seats in the Mansion House on 21 January 1919 - the first meeting of Dail Eireann. He voted against the Treaty in 1922, and in the same year he was appointed to the staff of the City of Dublin Skin and Cancer Hospital – Hume Street – whose ultimate legacy is now represented by the Charles Institute – now located on the UCD Belfield campus.

When the civil war broke out later that year, he picked up his medical kit once more and acted as medical officer in the Four Courts and O'Connell Street. He was later interned and went on a 36-day hunger strike, which damaged his health and prompted him to abandon medicine in favour of farming and a business career – he founded the New Ireland Assurance Co.
He was a founder member and treasurer of Fianna Fail and served as Minister for Agriculture, the first Minister for Health and Social Welfare, and Minister for Finance.

And, bringing this story back to UCD – it was James Ryan, who as Minister for Finance, approved the capital funding for UCD's move to Belfield – the first capital funding provided by an Irish government for higher education.