John Ryan (1925–1992) was an Irish artist, broadcaster, publisher, critic, editor, and
publican
In antiquity, publicans ( Greek τελώνης ''telōnēs'' (singular); Latin ''publicanus'' (singular); ''publicani'' (plural)) were public contractors, in whose official capacity they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed th ...
.
Ryan was a well-known man of letters, artist and a key figure in bohemian Dublin of the 1940s and 1950s. He founded ''
Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art
''Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art'' was a magazine published in Dublin, Ireland from December 1949 to July 1951. It was founded and edited by John Ryan.
During its brief existence, it published the work of a broad range of writers, Iris ...
'', in response to Irish trade and censorship restrictions. Friend and intimate (and sometime benefactor) to a number of struggling artists and writers in the post-war era, such as
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel ''Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life th ...
and
Brendan Behan
Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (christened Francis Behan) ( ; ga, Breandán Ó Beacháin; 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican activist who wrote in both English an ...
; Ryan's memoirs, ''Remembering How We Stood'', evoke literary Dublin of the period 1945-55. Involved in numerous literary events and happenings and, with
Brian O'Nolan
Brian O'Nolan ( ga, Brian Ó Nualláin; 5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966), better known by his pen name Flann O'Brien, was an Irish civil service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth ce ...
, organised the first
Bloomsday
Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, observed annually in Dublin and elsewhere on 16 June, the day his 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' takes place in 1904, the date of his first sexual encounter with his ...
.
Biography
John Ryan attended
Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College SJ is a voluntary boarding school for boys near Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, founded by the Jesuits in 1814, which features prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Yo ...
and the
National College of Art and Design
The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) is Ireland's oldest art institution, offering the largest range of art and design degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the country. Originating as a drawing school in 1746, many of th ...
(NCAD), Dublin. One of the eight children of
Séamus Ryan,
[
] a member of
Seanad Éireann
Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house).
It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its memb ...
, and his wife Agnes Ryan née Harding who came from Kilfeacle and Solohead respectively in
County Tipperary
County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after t ...
and who were
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
activists during the
Irish War of Independence. His mother was a patron of the painter
Jack Yeats
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (29 August 1871 – 28 March 1957) was an Irish artist and Olympic medalist. W. B. Yeats was his brother.
Butler's early style was that of an illustrator; he only began to work regularly in oils in 1906. His early pict ...
, amongst others. His sister was the actress
Kathleen Ryan
Kathleen Ryan (8 September 1922 – 11 December 1985) was an Irish actress.
She was born in Dublin, Ireland of Tipperary parentage and appeared in British and Hollywood films between 1947 and 1957. In 2020, she was listed as number 40 on ''Th ...
. Several of Ryan's children followed him into the arts: son and namesake
John Ryan (journalist, publisher and actor) Anna Livia Ryan (actress).
John Ryan studied at the
NCAD
The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) is Ireland's oldest art institution, offering the largest range of art and design degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the country. Originating as a drawing school in 1746, many of th ...
, but was largely a self-taught painter through a practice of 'careful intelligent observation' combined with 'a genuine and humorous love of land, sea and human tradition' (Hilary Pyle, 'John Ryan exhibition in Cork',
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
, 23 October 1981). He was a regular exhibitor at the
Royal Hibernian Academy
The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the RIA, the academy retained the word "Royal" after most of Ireland became in ...
(RHA) from 1946 onwards, and also showed at the annual Oireachtas and the Irish Exhibition of Living Art (IELA). Designed theatre sets for the
Abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The con ...
,
Gate,
Olympia and
Gaiety Theatres as well as for the stage in London. He also acted in and produced several plays.
In response to Irish trade and censorship restrictions founded ''
Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art
''Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art'' was a magazine published in Dublin, Ireland from December 1949 to July 1951. It was founded and edited by John Ryan.
During its brief existence, it published the work of a broad range of writers, Iris ...
'' (1949–1951), and was editor of ''
The Dublin Magazine
''The Dublin Magazine'' was an Irish literature, Irish literary journal founded and edited by the Irish poetry, poet Seumas O'Sullivan (real name James Sullivan Starkey) and published in ''Dublin'' by "Dublin Publishers, Ltd., 9 Commercial Buil ...
'' from 1970–75. As a writer and critic he contributed to literary magazines and newspapers. Publishing two memoirs, ''Remembering How We Stood'', a memoir of post-war literary Dublin, and ''A Wave of the Sea'' (Ward River, 1981), a marine memoir. A broadcaster from the early 1950s he became a long-time contributor to Sunday Miscellany on
Radio Éireann
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
(RTÉ Radio). Purchased The Bailey pub in 1957 which became a famous literary venue frequented by characters such as Kavanagh, O'Nolan, et al. A friend and intimate to a number of struggling artists and writers in the post-war period, such as
Behan,
Anthony Cronin
Anthony Gerard Richard Cronin (28 December 1923 – 27 December 2016) was an Irish poet, arts activist, biographer, commentator, critic, editor and barrister.
Early life and family
Cronin was born in Enniscorthy, County Wexford on 28 December ...
,
Patrick Swift Patrick may refer to:
* Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name
* Patrick (surname), list of people with this name
People
* Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint
*Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...
,
Seán O'Sullivan,
Pearse Hutchinson
Pearse Hutchinson (16 February 1927 – 14 January 2012) was an Irish poet, broadcaster and translator.
Childhood and education
Hutchinson was born in Glasgow. His father, Harry Hutchinson, a Scottish printer whose own father had left Dublin to ...
,
J. P. Donleavy
James Patrick Donleavy (23 April 1926 – 11 September 2017) was an American-Irish novelist, short story writer and playwright. His best-known work is the novel ''The Ginger Man'', which was initially banned for obscenity.
Early life
Donleavy ...
and
Brian O'Nolan
Brian O'Nolan ( ga, Brian Ó Nualláin; 5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966), better known by his pen name Flann O'Brien, was an Irish civil service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth ce ...
, et al., he was also a benefactor to some of these artists, particularly Patrick Kavanagh. During the war years he very cheaply rented a space above the family's Monument Creameries store (now a Burger King) on Grafton Street to sculptor
Desmond MacNamara
Desmond J. MacNamara (10 May 1918 – 8 January 2008) was an Irish sculptor, painter, stage and art designer and novelist.
MacNamara was born in Mount Street, Dublin. After graduating from University College, Dublin
University College Dubli ...
, and which became the site for a famous bohemian salon attended by all of the foregoing names and many more.
Ryan was an important early champion of James Joyce's work in Ireland at a time when Joyce was largely ignored in his homeland: with Brian O'Nolan he organised the first
Bloomsday
Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, observed annually in Dublin and elsewhere on 16 June, the day his 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' takes place in 1904, the date of his first sexual encounter with his ...
celebration; in 1951 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the death of James Joyce he published a special number of ''Envoy'' dedicated to Joyce "which would reflect the attitudes and opinions of his fellow countryman towards their illustrious compatriot" (Envoy, Vol. 5, No. 17, April 1951), inviting Brian O'Nolan to be guest editor; edited ''A Bash in the Tunnel'': James Joyce by the Irish,
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel ''Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life th ...
,
Brian O'Nolan
Brian O'Nolan ( ga, Brian Ó Nualláin; 5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966), better known by his pen name Flann O'Brien, was an Irish civil service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth ce ...
,
Samuel Beckett,
Ulick O'Connor,
Edna O'Brien
Josephine Edna O'Brien (born 15 December 1930) is an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer. Elected to Aosdána by her fellow artists, she was honoured with the title Saoi in 2015 and the "UK and Ireland Nobel" ...
(Brighton: Clifton Books 1970); saved
Leopold Bloom
Leopold Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's 1922 novel '' Ulysses''. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/ Odysseus in Homer's epic ...
's front door to
7 Eccles Street
7 Eccles Street was a row house in Dublin, Ireland.
It was the home of Leopold Bloom, protagonist of the novel '' Ulysses'' (1922) by James Joyce.
The house was demolished in 1967, and the site is now occupied by the Mater Private Hospital.
His ...
from demolition and used it in The Bailey pub in St. Anne Street, Dublin, from whence it was removed and transported to the Joyce Museum on N. Gt. George's St., Oct. 1995; arranged that the
James Joyce Tower
The James Joyce Tower and Museum is a Martello tower in Sandycove, Dublin, where James Joyce spent six nights in 1904. The opening scenes of his 1922 novel '' Ulysses'' take place here,
and the tower is a place of pilgrimage for Joyce enthusiasts ...
become a museum; Secretary of the James Joyce Society of Ireland 1970–74.
Envoy
December 1949– July 1951. Founded and edited by Ryan.
Envoy was inaugurated in response to Irish trade and censorship restrictions which had forced many writers to seek publication outside their homeland.
During its brief existence, ''Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art'', published the work of a broad range of writers, Irish and others. The first to publish
J. P. Donleavy
James Patrick Donleavy (23 April 1926 – 11 September 2017) was an American-Irish novelist, short story writer and playwright. His best-known work is the novel ''The Ginger Man'', which was initially banned for obscenity.
Early life
Donleavy ...
,
Brendan Behan
Brendan Francis Aidan Behan (christened Francis Behan) ( ; ga, Breandán Ó Beacháin; 9 February 1923 – 20 March 1964) was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican activist who wrote in both English an ...
's first short stories and his first poem, and an extract from
Samuel Beckett's Watt. Envoy included
Patrick Kavanagh
Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel ''Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life th ...
's infamous monthly "Diary".
Brian O'Nolan
Brian O'Nolan ( ga, Brian Ó Nualláin; 5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966), better known by his pen name Flann O'Brien, was an Irish civil service official, novelist, playwright and satirist, who is now considered a major figure in twentieth ce ...
was another substantial contributor and was "honorary editor" for the special number commemorating James Joyce.
Remembering How We Stood
An affectionate account of Bohemian Dublin in the 1950s with Behan, Kavanagh, J. P. Donleavy (q.v.), Anthony Cronin and other Dublin characters. Ryan:
Dublin was a town of ‘characters’ then as now, and I suppose will ever be. A man I knew was taking a stroll down Grafton Street one day when he happened to overhear part of a discussion which three citizens were having outside Mitchell’s café. The gist of their dialogue was that they were deploring the absence from the Dublin scene of any real ‘characters’. They appeared to be genuinely aggrieved. They were, in fact, Myles na gCopaleen, Sean O’Sullivan and Brendan Behan.
From the foreword by
J. P. Donleavy
James Patrick Donleavy (23 April 1926 – 11 September 2017) was an American-Irish novelist, short story writer and playwright. His best-known work is the novel ''The Ginger Man'', which was initially banned for obscenity.
Early life
Donleavy ...
:
As one reads his words, dressed in their wonderful finery of irony, the world he speaks of reblossoms to be back again awhile. To see, feel and smell the Dublin of that day... a masterpiece of reminiscence.
First Bloomsday Celebration
BLOOMSDAY (a term Joyce himself did not employ) was invented in 1954, the 50th anniversary, when John Ryan and the novelist
Flann O'Brien organised what was to be a daylong pilgrimage along the Ulysses route. They were joined by Patrick Kavanagh, Anthony Cronin, Tom Joyce (a dentist who, as Joyce's cousin, represented the family interest) and AJ Leventhal (Registrar of Trinity College). Ryan had engaged two horse drawn cabs, of the old-fashioned kind, which in Ulysses Mr. Bloom and his friends drive to poor Paddy Dignam's funeral. The party were assigned roles from the novel. They planned to travel round the city through the day, visiting in turn the scenes of the novel, ending at night in what had once been the brothel quarter of the city, the area which Joyce had called Nighttown. The pilgrimage was abandoned halfway through, when the weary pilgrims succumbed to inebriation and rancour at the Bailey pub in the city centre, which Ryan then owned, and at which, in 1967, he installed the door to No. 7 Eccles Street (Leopold Bloom's front door) having rescued it from demolition . A Bloomsday record of 1954, informally filmed by John Ryan, follows this pilgrimage.
Patrick Kavanagh: 'O commemorate me where there is water'
Whenever you mention Patrick Kavanagh’s seat on the
Grand Canal Dublin, most people will immediately think of the more famous park bench with the statue of Paddy himself sitting to one side of the seat almost beckoning for someone to sit down beside him. This bench is situated on the north bank of the Grand Canal between
Baggot Street
Baggot Street () is a street in Dublin, Ireland.
Location
The street runs from Merrion Row (near St. Stephen's Green) to the northwestern end of Pembroke Road. It crosses the Grand Canal near Haddington Road. It is divided into two sections:
...
Bridge and the upstream Eustace Bridge. John Coll produced the sculpture and the seat was unveiled by President
Mary Robinson
Mary Therese Winifred Robinson ( ga, Máire Mhic Róibín; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who was the 7th president of Ireland, serving from December 1990 to September 1997, the first woman to hold this office. Prior to her electi ...
on 11 June 1991, however this is not the original seat.
Only a relatively few people will be aware of the lesser known original Kavanagh seat situated on the South Bank at the Lock Gates close to Baggot Street Bridge. As is well known from his poem and heavy hints to his friends, he wished to be commemorated with a simple canal side seat near the lock gates of Baggot Street Bridge. To this effect shortly after his death in 1967, a committee was formed by the late John Ryan and Denis Dwyer to collect a sum of money to purchase the materials and labour for the seat. The seat was erected in the poet's memory by his friends in 1968.
[Liam Brady. His father and namesake was one of the original committee members, with John Ryan, of the Grand Canal South Bank Sea]
/ref>
References
Bibliography
Writer
*''Remembering How We Stood', John Ryan (Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1975)
*''A Wave of the Sea'', John Ryan (Ward River, 1981)
Editor / publisher
* Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art (1949–1951)
* The Dublin Magazine (1970–75)
*''A Bash In The Tunnel'': James Joyce by the Irish, (ed.) John Ryan (Brighton: Clifton Books, 1970)
Relating to
*''Dead as Doornails'', Anthony Cronin (Dolmen Press, Dublin, 1976)
*''Patrick Kavanagh: A Biography'', Antoinette Quinn (Gill & Macmillan, 2003)
*''Flann O’Brien'', an illustrated biography by Costello and Van der Kamp (1987)
*''No Laughing Matter: The Life and Times of Flann O'Brien'', Anthony Cronin (New Island Books, 2003)
*''Young John McGahern: Becoming a Novelist'', Denis Sampson (Oxford University Press, Feb 2012)
*''Patrick Swift 1927–83'', (ed.) Veronica O'Mara (Gandon Editions, Kinsale, 1993)
*Joyce's Critics: Transitions in Reading and Culture, By Joseph Brooker (The University of Wisconsin Press, May 2004)
*''The Irish Literary Periodical 1923–1958'', Frank Shovlin, Oxford English Monographs, Oxford University Press, United States (12 February 2004), p13
Google Books
*'' 'An Interview with John Ryan' The Journal of Irish Literature 17 (January 1988)
*The Life and Ideas of James Hillman: The Making of a Psychologist, Dick Russell, Arcade Publishing (2013
Google Books
External links
*[//www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/envoy-the-literary-magazine-that-sought-to-put-irish-culture-on-the-map-1.2319855 Envoy the literary magazine that sought to put irish culture on the map, Irish Times, Aug 17, 2015]
independent.co.uk Rescue of Leopold Bloom’s front door
kavanaghseat.com Kavanagh's Canal Bank Seat
Irish Literature Collections Portal – Southern Illinois University – Morris Library
The Life and Ideas of James Hillman - Envoy
Envoy, A Review of Literature and Art Records, 1949–1951
at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center
*First Bloomsda
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, John
1925 births
1992 deaths
Alumni of the National College of Art and Design
Bloomsday
Irish non-fiction writers
Irish male non-fiction writers
20th-century Irish painters
Irish male painters
People educated at Clongowes Wood College
Writers from Dublin (city)
Painters from Dublin (city)
People from County Kildare
20th-century non-fiction writers
Irish magazine founders