25-07-2025
Patrick Ryan, ‘Terror Priest' Who Aided the I.R.A., Is Dead at 94
Patrick Ryan, who grew up in the 1930s in County Tipperary, Ireland, understood that as the second son — and one of six children — he could not hope to inherit the family farm.
But that didn't concern him. He had known since the age of 10 that he wanted to become a Roman Catholic priest.
In those days, he once said, nothing confirmed the social status of a family in rural Ireland more than 'a bull in the field, a pump in the yard and a priest in the family.'
When he was 14, he entered a junior seminary run by the Pallottine order, also known as the Society of the Catholic Apostolate, which preaches comity and mercy. But even then, there were hints that he might someday find a calling more aligned with his natural proclivities.
Every night, he thrilled to stories his mother would tell about fending off the Black and Tans, the loathed British paramilitary forces (named for the uniform they wore), during the Irish War of Independence. An accomplished poacher even as a child, he was skilled at shooting and skinning wild rabbits. Later, in East Africa, he would shoot elephants for sport.
Posted there by the Pallottine order in the 1950s, Father Ryan built housing and hospitals and distributed pharmaceuticals. He learned how to excavate freshwater wells and pilot a plane, which he flew on daring medical missions.
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