Josephine Ryan

Mary Josephine Ryan (29 December 1884 – 16 April 1977) was an Irish Nationalist. A member of Cumann na mBan and the honorary secretary of the executive committee, she took part in the 1916 Easter Rising and the War of Independence.

Background Born Mary Josephine Ryan in Tomcoole, near Taghmon in County 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. She graduated in 1908 from the National University after she had 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, on which each sister contributed to the notebook by writing a letter. The notebook ended up being a great method of communication between the Ryan sisters and travelled around Europe.

While Ryan was in London, she stayed in contact with the Irish Nationalist diaspora. Following the end of World War I, Ryan returned to Ireland.

Personal life Before she married, she lived with her sister for a few years in Ranelagh. All twelve children from the Ryan family had secondary education, and eleven of them 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 a politician, her sister Nell was the first woman elected to Wexford County Council, while two other sisters, Mary Kate and Phyllis, were married (at different times) to Seán T. O'Kelly, second President of Ireland.

She met Seán Mac Diarmada, who later became one of the leaders of the Easter Rising, while she was in college. After graduation, she moved to London to attend the London University and gain her teacher 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 facility 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 Seán Mac Diarmada 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. She married General Richard Mulcahy on 2 June 1919 in Dublin. They had six children: Padraic, Seán, Risteárd, Elizabeth, Neillí, and Maura. At the beginning of their marriage, they lived in a flat, which was regularly raided by the British military; Ryan had her first child there.

During the Irish War of Independence, Mulcahy spends 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 since the frequent Black and Tan raids on them caused damage to the house. In September 1920, Ryan went to stay with her sister Agnes in Belfast for some months.

After Michael Collins's death, they moved to Lissenfield House, next to Portobello barracks because Collins had held meetings in several of their previous addresses, and it was not considered safe to remain there. Mulcahy then took over leadership of the army. Mulcahy later became commander-in-chief of the Irish Army and leader of Fine Gael from 1944 to 1948.

Many times throughout Ryan's life, she was uprooted by the raids carried out by the Black and Tans. Because her husband was constantly fleeing and could visit her only in secret, it was a very difficult time in her life. In September 1920, Ryan moved to Belfast for a few months to live with her sister. The park includes a playground, picnic area, dog park, memorial garden, walking track, water features, multi-use events area, play spaces, wildflower meadows and art/sculpture displays. There are also benches dedicated to each of the Ryan siblings.