Josephine Ryan

Background

Born Mary Josephine Ryan in Tomcoole, near Taghmon in Co. Wexford to John Ryan and Eliza Sutton. She was better known as Min to her friends. She was educated in both the Loreto Abbey in Gorey and Dublin, and attended boarding school in Thurles called The Ursuline. After leaving secondary level education, she attended the Royal University of Ireland taking English, German and French, graduating in 1908 from the National University having spent some time in both France and Germany. Ryan was a teacher in Germany for two years and taught English, she then taught in London for a further four years. After they graduated, each of Ryan’s sisters taught English in Germany or France. As they were all in different countries, the sisters used a different method of communication. They sent around a large notebook, each sister contributed to the notebook by writing a letter. The notebook ended up being a great method of communication between the Ryan sisters. The book travelled around Europe. While Ryan was in London, she stayed in contact with the Irish Nationalist diaspora. After the Great War, Ryan returned to Ireland.

Personal life

Before she married her husband, she lived with her sister for a few years in Ranelagh. Ryan was an intelligent and practical woman and very popular with her many nephews and nieces and other young friends. She was happiest when she was planning, when she and her sisters met together they were full of ideas and notions for themselves, their husbands and their children. She was a very attractive woman with a strong interest in current affairs although not with a great insight into the subtleties of politics and the struggle for national independence. She was at her best at family and social gatherings. All twelve children from the Ryan family had secondary education and eleven out of the twelve went on to the old Catholic University or to University College Dublin. Ryan was one of the last students to attend the institution. Her family was very much a nationalist house with several of her 11 siblings involved in the Easter Rising and subsequent wars. Her brother James went on to become an Irish politician while two of her sisters, Mary Kate and Phyllis were married to Seán Ó Ceallaigh, second President of Ireland.

She met Seán Mac Diarmada, the man who became one of the leaders of the Easter Rising, while she was in college but after her graduation she moved to London to attend the London University and gain her teachers certification. In 1914 she founded the local Cumann na mBan branch there. In 1915 she returned to Dublin to teach German at the Rathmines Technical School. Mac Diarmada asked her to go to Germany because of her facilitation with the language but on her sisters advice she didn't go. Joseph Plunkett was sent instead.

Ryan was engaged to Seán Mac Diarmada, he described her as the woman he would have married had he lived. She was one of the last people to visit him before he was executed by the British after the Rising.

1916 involvement

Early in the morning before Sean McDermott was executed, she outlined her visit in an article with her sister Phyllis to him. Ryan was present at the house where some of the leaders of the planned insurrection met and it was decided, by them, to call off the event for Easter 1916. Ryan was sent to Wexford by Eoin MacNeill with the message that there would be no Rising. She delivered the message but hoping that in fact the rising would still take place she told the men in Wexford her opinion and returned to Dublin to see what would happen. Despite being involved with one of the leaders of the Rising, Ryan was unaware of the plans. Only that she could tell something was to happen and that her fiancée was extremely busy and stressed.

During the Rising itself Ryan was used to transport messages to the wives of three captured British officers and to other members of the rebellion. She witnessed O'Rahilly giving orders to treat the captives in the GPO with dignity and fairness. The prisoners themselves confirmed this later telling how he had ensured their good treatment and safety. After the surrender Ryan was not arrested as she wasn't present in any of the locations, she had returned home when a sniper had shot a dog in front of her while she was headed back to the GPO and passing in front of the College of Surgeons. She and Louise Gavan Duffy went to Jacob's Factory on the Sunday morning to witness the final surrender of the men there. Again, none of the women in that location were arrested. The British officer on the site wasn't interested in the women.

A conversation was recorded on RTE for the fiftieth anniversary of the Rising between Ryan and Mulcahy. The conversation entails Ryan's encounters and experiences in the week of the Rising. This all happened before Ryan had met her husband. After this a discussion about Easter week occurred which gave a good understanding of the week which was experienced by Ryan. Her experiences gave more of a romantic view of the Rising.

After the Rising

Ryan was sent to America to give John Devoy a first hand account of the Rising. Ryan married General Richard Mulcahy on 2 June 1919 in Dublin. They had six children, Padraic, Seán, Risteárd, Elizabeth, Neilli, and Maura. At the beginning of their marriage they lived in a flat which was regularly raided by the British forces, Ryan had her first child there. During the War of Independence her husband spend a significant amount of time on the run and the family lived in the old buildings used by Pearce for St Enda's School. Eventually his mother asked them to leave as the frequent Black and Tan raids on them were causing damage to the house. In September 1920 where she stayed with her sister, Agnes, in Belfast for some months. After Michael Collins' death, they moved to Lissenfield House, next to Portobello barracks because Collins had held meetings in several of their previous addresses and it wasn't considered safe to remain there. Mulcahy took over leadership of the Army at that time. Mulcahy was later the become commander-in-chief of the Irish Army and leader of Fine Gael 1944-48.

There were many times throughout Ryan’s life that she was up rooted by the raids due to the Auxiliaries/the Black and Tans. Due to the fact that her husband was constantly fleeing and could only visit her in secret, it was a very difficult time in her life. In September 1920, due to the many difficulties there were in Dublin at this time, Ryan moved to Belfast for a few months to live with her sister. The Northern Ireland Cumann na Saoirse was a brief organisation that was to represent the small group of pro-treaty within Cumann na mBan.

Ryan was acknowledged in the Wounded Soldiers’ Comforts fund after the civil war. She worked alongside her sister Phyllis for the Army Benevolent Fund, even though they were on opposite wars during the civil war. Ryan was a treasurer of the ladies committee of the 43rd Battalion, which was chaired by Kathleen Lemass. The committee knitted pullovers and socks for the local Defence Force. She was said to be a possible candidate for Seanad Éireann in 1925. She did some fundraising for the Cental Catholic library by organising bridge tournaments. She also helped with fundraising for the building of a new Catholic church in Cabra. She was the president of the Loreto past pupils union. She was also a part of the fund raising committee for Meath Hospital. Mary and her family remained in residence in Portobello until 1966, where they brought up six of their children, three sons and three daughters. With the use of her managerial skills she managed to maintain a well-operating household, with the help of servants. On the few acres that were attached to the house they kept fowl and dairy cattle and grew fruits and vegetables. Later in her life Ryan took up gardening and golf as hobbies.

Mulcahy died at the age of 85 in 1971. After his death, Ryan lived with another woman from Wexford named Maggie in her son Seán's house. Although Ryan maintained good physical health during her last few years of life, the clarity of her mind and the integrity of her personality began to deteriorate. Eventually, Ryan was admitted to Our Lady's Hospice in Harold's Cross in Dublin due to her battle with dementia. Ryan died there a few days later on 11 April 1977 at the age of 92. Mr and Mrs Mulcahy were remembered by their children as a loving couple although it may not have been visible to the public eye.