One of the assailants berates the priest for “taking advantage of your cloth” to which the priest replied succinctly “that’s what it’s there for”. Some grandiose claims in the Prologue however stretch this observation somewhat. The legacy of the Penal Laws, where Catholic priests faced persecution, was deeply enmeshed in the oral tradition. The aura of the ‘republican priest’ in Irish history has a deep resonance with those who took part in the physical force tradition, especially in rural areas. The concept of Fr Murphy in 1798, leading the charge against British Yeomanry, confers a moral absolution on those who took up the proverbial pike and that tradition has been all but apostolic for generations ever since.
Prior to the widespread exposition of clerical sex abuse within the Catholic Church the status of priests was almost reverential, beyond the scope of checkpoint suspicions and travel scrutiny: certainly a status that posed obvious and significant advantages for Irish republicans. Fr Patrick Ryan dovetailed neatly into that niche. The product of a War of Independence, an Anti-Treaty upbringing forged his formative thoughts on national politics as did Catholic rituals, regularly observed, on his spiritual direction. As noted in the text having a priest in the family afforded a certain gravitas but also the priesthood or convent at the time guaranteed economic independence for the individuals involved.
His early years as a priest spent in African missions are portrayed almost stylised, between his interactions with British Officers involved against the Mau Mau in Kenya and the symbolic provision of water to drought riven villages. Africa was the ultimate symbol of colonisation, and in a post World War II global theatre, colonialism was deemed a remnant which that conflict needed to defeat.
And for Irish republicans the death knell of colonialism included its presence in Ireland also. The simmering tensions around civil rights and housing in Derry in the mid-sixties had little impact on Fr Ryan as he applied the technical skills he learned in Africa to improvements on his Tipperary homestead. His sojourn in an East London parish is referenced to demonstrate that his idea of priesthood was more directed to a hands-on vocation as opposed to hands clasped in abstract prayers.
Like many others, the explosion of the civil rights campaign in Derry, and its brutal suppression by the sectarian statelet, moved Fr Ryan in a very deep and genuine way. And again, like many others, his personal response was centered on relief for those burned out and fleeing across the border. However his transition from relief aid to military aid is not adequately explained as suddenly Fr Ryan became Father Paddy.
The first foray into establishing a weapons supply from Libya is competently covered demonstrating solid interviews with individuals directly involved in the enterprise. It is precise and to the point and reads better than when the author drifts into ornate and floral descriptive writing, which, unfortunately, they have a continual tendency to do. Equally the Claudia episode is detailed as an introduction to Ryan’s involvement within Libya which translates plausibly but also sets in train a blame game approach which can set a course for whatever agenda it satisfies whether it has veracity or not. And Ryan does lay blame at a certain door.
With the ascension of Seamus Twomey to the position of Chief of Staff a more formal approach was taken into establishing solid links with the Libyan Administration of Colonel Muammar al-Gaddaf, an individual who had singlehandedly transformed Arab influence on the global stage. Interestingly, at this point Ryan seems to have eschewed his devotion to the church which is not completely explained as to whether it was an inner crisis of faith or as a result of the Catholic Church’s long denunciation of Irish republicanism from Cardinal Cullen to Cardinal Daly. It also coincides with the author’s ceasing to use the title Father instead using the more simpler Ryan (not unlike my own in this review).
The mechanics of establishing Ryan as an IRA representative to Libya centres on a curious insistence by Ryan himself that his membership of the IRA was not a pre-condition into accepting this role. The author puts this down to Ryan’s obsession for control, a paradoxically very Provo trait. As he based himself in Europe, according to his own admissions, monies and munitions began making their way to Ireland. Details on these are sparse. He claims ‘many millions’ over several years, which would raise eyebrows amongst full-time volunteers who lived a pauper’s existence. As to details of the munitions supplied there are none, which is disappointing for credibility, because at this remove what difference would such details make?
Perhaps Ryan’s most well known contribution to the IRA’s war effort was the chance discovery of the Swiss made Memo Park Timer, a small circular device, roughly an inch and a half in diameter, with a leather key ring attachment to remind users that their hour long parking meter was about to expire. In a short brisk chapter the ingenious discovery is efficiently described, as is the huge transformational impact on IRA engineering and operational effectiveness the slightly adapted timers had.
His most public association with the device (not referred to in the book) was an awkward encounter with Roger Cook of the Cook Report where he ‘doorstepped’ Ryan on his election campaign in Waterford. Arrogantly swinging the timer around in his hand Cook then memorably dropped it proving conclusively how things can simply happen.
The book relates that his seeming fall from grace with the IRA leadership stems from a change in that leadership, coupled with a change in strategic direction. The argument is not convincing because it is only Ryan himself who is making it. And this is a weakness throughout the text, the lack of corroboration of the many claims that he makes. There is a certain degree of gilding the lily both from the author and Ryan himself.
Undoubtedly his seminarian training fashioned a capable mind, an absolute must for the tasks which were undertaken, but at times Ryan comes across as something from a spy novel, playing mental chess with all his opponents with an uncanny ability to manipulate anyone into doing his bidding. That said he did do the IRA a great deal of service, perhaps beyond his own comprehension but outlandish claims of ‘having a hand in them all’ betrays an element of self-flattery, a very un-Fenian trait.
Jennifer O'Leary, 2023, The Padre: The True Story of the Irish Priest who armed the IRA with Gaddafi’s Money. Merrion. ISBN-13: 978-1785374616.
⏩ The Fenian Way was a full time activist during the IRA's war against the British.
⏩ The Fenian Way was a full time activist during the IRA's war against the British.
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