John Ryan is an Irish journalist and publisher. He is a former editor of

Magill ''Magill'' was an Irish politics and current affairs magazine founded by Vincent Browne and others in 1977. ''Magill'' specialised in investigative articles and colourful reportage by journalists such as Eamonn McCann (who wrote its anonymous ' ...

and In Dublin. His publications include the magazines VIP and New York Dog (both with former business partner, Michael O'Doherty) and the websites blogorrah.com, and Broadsheet.ie. In 2009 Ryan also created and starred in a

RTÉ Two (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, while ...

comedy television show '' This is Nightlive'', which mimicked the antics of Ireland's newscasters and other newsroom members.

Early life

Ryan grew up in

Monkstown, County Dublin Monkstown (), historically known as ''Carrickbrennan'' ( gle, Carraig Bhraonáin), is a suburb in south Dublin, located in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. It is on the coast, between Blackrock and Dún Laoghaire. The lands of the Carrickbr ...

and was educated at

Christian Brothers College, Monkstown Park Christian Brothers College, Monkstown Park (or CBC Monkstown Park) is a private fee-paying Catholic school and Independent Junior school, founded in 1856 in Monkstown, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland. The college arrived at Monkstown Par ...

. A number of his relatives, including his father John Ryan Snr, were well known in the arts scene in Dublin. His grandfather,

Séamus Ryan Séamus Ryan (6 December 1895 – 30 June 1933) was a member of the Seanad Éireann from 1931 to 1933 representing the Fianna Fáil party. Early life He was born at the family farm in the townland of Deerpark in the County Tipperary Parish of K ...

, was a Senator in the Irish Parliament whilst his aunt

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 ...

was an actress.

Career

Early work

Ryan started his career in journalism with a local newspaper in north London, 'The Hornsey Journal'. Ryan served as a war correspondent during his early years, reporting from Bosnia, Rwanda an
apartheid South Africa
He was also editor of ''

'' magazine and ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' Culture section in addition to journalism with the '' Sunday Independent''.

Breaking the Charlie Haughey and Terry Keane Affair

In 1999 whilst editing the Culture section and working as a journalist at ''

'', Ryan broke the story of the long time affair between the former Taoiseach and

Terry Keane Terry Keane (1939 – 1 June 2008), born in Guildford, UK, was an Irish social columnist and fashion journalist. Life Born Ann Teresa O'Donnell in Guildford, Surrey, UK in 1939, Keane studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin. She dropped out ...

, a columnist of ''The Keane Edge'' at ''The Sunday Independent''. Keane had left ''The Sunday Independent'' on bad terms and Ryan, who had worked with her at ''The Sunday Independent'', approached her to sell her story to ''The Times''.

''The Sunday Supplement''

Ryan briefly hosted a Sunday morning current affairs show on Radio Ireland (later

Today FM Today FM is an Irish national commercial FM radio station, owned and operated by Bauer Audio Ireland Limited. Broadcasting since 17 March 1997, it broadcasts mostly music, with a daily news and current affairs programme. Today FM holds a lic ...

) entitled ''The Sunday Supplement''. Ryan was succeeded as host by journalist Sam Smyth.

Publishing

Ryan co-founded

VIP A very important person or personage (VIP or V.I.P.) is a person who is accorded special privileges due to their high social status, influence or importance. The term was not common until sometime after World War 2 by RAF pilots. Examples incl ...

with former business partner Michael O'Doherty In 2001 Ryan launched GI magazine, Ireland's first gay lifestyle glossy. The magazine, which struggled to find advertisers and was closed in 2003, was notable for a billboard campaign depicting two footballers wearing opposing GAA colours French kissing one another. Ryan's publishing company also owned the publishing venture ''

Stars on Sunday ''Stars on Sunday'' was an unsuccessful Sunday tabloid newspaper in Ireland which went bankrupt in May 2003 just two months after its launch the previous March. History ''Stars on Sunday'' was funded by the business partnership of John Donnelly ...

'' which folded following failure to meet projected circulation figures. He then set up the ''New York Dog'' magazine, which he promoted on '' The Late Late Show'', and a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based website, blogorrah.com, which was described by the ''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet new ...

'' as "a sort of ''

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

'' without portfolio". The site was edited by Derek O'Connor but stopped filing new posts in July 2007.

''This is Nightlive''

Ryan returned to Ireland in 2008 to pitch his idea for a new television show to

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

. The show, ''This is Nightlive'', launched in January 2009. It was satirical in nature and parodied a typical newsroom fronted by the fictional anchorman Johnny Hansom. Hansom (played by Ryan) and his team who present a Lifestyle News show on which they claim that "they are the news". Ryan modelled his show on ''

The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focuse ...

'', a show with a cult following on

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

cable television.

''Broadsheet.ie''

In June 2010 Ryan and writer Niall Murphy launched Broadsheet.ie as a "news source for the bewildered," combining news, satire, music, art, and missing dogs/cats/bikes. It was voted Best Web-Only Publication in the Realex Fire Web Awards 2014. Ryan posted under the pseudonym "Bodger" as well as under his real name on the site. In June 2022, Broadsheet announced that it was ending its operations; many commenters on the website attributed its demise to alienating readers through the prominence it gave to

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * * * * The term has a nega ...

around

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

's 2022 war against

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. Others insisted that Broadsheet.ie had acted with the utmost of integrity, reporting facts that the mainstream media were refusing to do

References

External links

*
''This is Nightlive'' site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, John Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Irish magazine editors Irish publishers (people) Magill people Today FM presenters People educated at C.B.C. Monkstown