Roman Catholic Archbishop. Dublin born Dermot J. Ryan was the son of a physician who was educated by the Jesuits at Belvedere College in his native city. Entering Holy Cross College in Clonliffe, he spent periods of study at Maynooth University College and the Irish College in Rome being ordained priest at Holy Cross in 1950. Successively he lectured Oriental languages at University College Dublin until his appointment by Pope Paul VI as Archbishop of the metropolitan see of Dublin in late 1971. Receiving his episcopal consecration from Pope Paul VI, assisted by Cardinals Bernard Alfrink and William Conway on February 13, 1972, he was an active member of the Priests' Council at the time of his appointment and was popularly viewed as a liberal and a reformer in the Church. He consolidated much of the expansion of the archdiocese, restructured the financial ordering of the diocese and was notably interested in and encouraged liturgical reform. Overseeing a fuller implementation of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, Archbishop Ryan took a prominent stand on social issues such as poverty, family life and pro-life questions. He supported an amendment of the Irish Constitution in 1983 which aimed at securing greater rights to the life of the unborn. As archbishop he leased to the people of Dublin a public park in Merrion Square on a site previously designated for a proposed cathedral, later named Archbishop Ryan Park in his honour. As of 2010, it has been renamed Merrion Square Park following criticism about Ryan's stand on priests related to child abuse, mentioned in the Murphy Report the previous year. An aloof figure, towering at six feet four inches, during his episcopate in Dublin 56 new parishes, 47 new churches and 74 new schools weer opened. Appointed pro-prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples by Pope John Paul II on April 8, 1984, he was expected to be elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals but a sudden heart attack cut short his life in Rome on February 24, 1985, at the age of sixty. Upon the request of the named Pope, he was given the rare honour of a cardinal's funeral at St. Peter's Patriarchal Vatican Basilica, presided by the Pontiff himself, before his body was flown to his native Dublin where it was laid in the vaults of the Pro-Cathedral.