Father Patrick Ryan

Father Patrick Ryan, an Irish Catholic priest, left the Pallottine order in 1973 after refusing a transfer to a parish church in England.

A decade later, and alleged by British intelligence of being an IRA volunteer, Fr Ryan was accused of involvement in IRA activities. In 1988, Ryan denied the accusation in an interview with The Tipperary Star, saying that he had raised money both inside and outside Europe for victims on the nationalist side in the troubles of Northern Ireland. But Ryan insisted that he had "never bought explosives for the IRA or anybody else", and had never been requested by the paramilitary group to do so.

Ryan was born June 26, 1930 in Rossmore, County Tipperary, one of six children in a farming family. He attended the local Christian Brothers school and the Pallotine College in Thurles, and as with the Pallotine students would have trained at St. Patrick's College, Thurles, he was ordained June 6, 1954. He worked on the missions in the diocese of Mbulu in Tanzania, and also in London.

On 1 May 1988, three off-duty British servicemen were assassinated in the Netherlands. On 30 June 1988, acting on a tip-off, Belgian police went to the home of an IRA sympathiser and arrested Ryan, who was believed to be acting as quartermaster of the IRA active service unit in Belgium. Upon his arrest, the police seized a quantity of bomb-making equipment and manuals, and a large sum of foreign currency. The British authorities provided substantial evidence in support of a request for Ryan's extradition from Belgium to face charges in Britain. Legal argument between the two countries ensued over the next five months and, following a three-week hunger strike in protest against his possible extradition to Britain, Ryan was instead transferred to Dublin on 25 November 1988.

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