James Ryan (6 December 1892 – 25 September 1970) was an Irish politician who served in every

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christia ...

government from 1932 to 1965, successively as Minister for

Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

(1932–1947),

Health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organ ...

and

Social Welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

(1947–1948 and 1951–1954), and

Finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...

(1957–1965). He served as a

Teachta Dála A Teachta Dála ( , ; plural ), abbreviated as TD (plural ''TDanna'' in Irish, TDs in English), is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament). It is the equivalent of terms such as ''Member of Parl ...

(TD) for

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 ...

from 1918 to 1922 and 1923 to 1965, and as

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

from 1965 to 1969. He was a member of

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gr ...

until he joined Fianna Fáil upon that party's foundation in 1926.

Early and private life

Ryan was born on the family farm at Tomcoole, near

Taghmon Taghmon (; ) is a village in County Wexford, Ireland. It lies on the R738 regional road, 14 km west of Wexford town and 25 km east-southeast of New Ross. History It can be established, from historical records, that the area now com ...

County Wexford County Wexford ( ga, Contae Loch Garman) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was based on the historic Gaelic territory of Hy Kinsella (''Uí C ...

, in 1892. The second-youngest of twelve children, he was educated at

St Peter's College, Wexford St Peter's College, Wexford is an Irish secondary school and former seminary located in Summerhill, overlooking Wexford town. It is a single-sex school for male pupils. Currently, the school's population is over 770. History Founded in 1811 by ...

, and Ring College,

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

. In 1911, he won a county council scholarship to

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 33,284 student ...

where he studied medicine. He passed his final medical exam in March 1917 and subsequently opened a medical practice in

. Four years later, in 1921, Ryan moved to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

where he opened a practice at

Harcourt Street Harcourt Street is a street located in Dublin City, Ireland. Location It is a little over in length with its northerly start at the south-east corner of St Stephen's Green and terminates in the south at the point where Adelaide road becom ...

, specialising in skin diseases at the Skin and Cancer Hospital on Holles Street. He left medicine in 1925, after he bought Kindlestown, a large farm near Delgany,

County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by ...

. Ryan lived there and it remained a working farm until his death. In July 1919, Ryan married

Máirín Cregan Máirín Cregan (27 March 1891 – 9 November 1975) was an Irish nationalist who was involved in the 1916 Easter Rising and Irish War of Independence. She later made her name writing for children, as well as writing plays and novels for adults. E ...

, originally from

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

and a close friend of

Sinéad de Valera Sinéad de Valera (; 3 June 1878 – 7 January 1975) was an Irish author of a number of children's books in both Irish and English. She was married to Taoiseach and third president of Ireland, Éamon de Valera. Background She was born Jane O'Fl ...

throughout her life. Cregan, like her husband, had also fought in the

Easter Rising The Easter Rising ( ga, Éirí Amach na Cásca), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with t ...

and was subsequently an author of children's stories in Irish. They had three children together. One of Ryan's sisters, Mary Kate, married

Seán T. O'Kelly Seán Thomas O'Kelly ( ga, Seán Tomás Ó Ceallaigh; 25 August 1882 – 23 November 1966), originally John T. O'Kelly, was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as the second president of Ireland from June 1945 to June 1959. He also serve ...

, one of Ryan's future cabinet colleagues and a future

President of Ireland The president of Ireland ( ga, Uachtarán na hÉireann) is the head of state of Ireland and the supreme commander of the Irish Defence Forces. The president holds office for seven years, and can be elected for a maximum of two terms.Constitu ...

. Following her death O'Kelly married her sister, Phyllis Ryan. Another of Ryan's sisters, Josephine ('Min') Ryan, married Richard Mulcahy, a future leader of

Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil É ...

. Another sister, Agnes, married

Denis McCullough Denis McCullough (24 January 1883 – 11 September 1968) was a prominent Irish nationalist political activist in the early 20th century, who served as President of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) from 1915 to 1916. Early career – IRB ...

, a

Cumann na nGaedheal Cumann na nGaedheal (; "Society of the Gaels") was a political party in the Irish Free State, which formed the government from 1923 to 1932. In 1933 it merged with smaller groups to form the Fine Gael party. Origins In 1922 the pro-Treat ...

TD from 1924 to 1927. He is also the great-grandfather of Ireland and Leinster Rugby player James Ryan

Revolutionary career

While studying at university in 1913 Ryan joined the Gaelic League at

Clonmel Clonmel () is the county town and largest settlement of County Tipperary, Ireland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian army which sacked the towns of Drogheda and Wexford. With the exception of the townla ...

. The company commander recruited the young catholic nationalist, who became a founder-member of the

Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers ( ga, Óglaigh na hÉireann), sometimes called the Irish Volunteer Force or Irish Volunteer Army, was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists and republicans. It was ostensibly formed in respon ...

and was sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood the following year. During the

in 1916, Ryan was the medical officer in the

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. ...

(GPO). He was, along with James Connolly, one of the last people to leave the GPO when the evacuation took place. Following the surrender of the patriots Ryan was deported to HM Prison Stafford in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and subsequently at

Frongoch internment camp Frongoch internment camp at Frongoch in Merionethshire, Wales was a makeshift place of imprisonment during the First World War and the 1916 Easter Rising. History 1916 the camp housed German prisoners of war in a yellow distillery and crude h ...

. He was released in August 1916. Ryan rejoined the Volunteers immediately after his release from prison, and in June 1917, he was elected Commandant of the Wexford Battalion. His political career began the following year when he was elected as a

candidate for the constituency of Wexford South in the 1918 general election. Like his fellow Sinn Féin MPs, Ryan refused to attend the Westminster Parliament. Instead he attended the proceedings of the First Dáil on 21 January 1919. As the

War of Independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence. List See also * Lists of active separatist movements * List of civil wars * List of ...

went on, Ryan became Brigade Commandant of South Wexford and was also elected to

Wexford County Council Wexford County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Loch Garman) is the authority responsible for local government in County Wexford, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for ho ...

, serving as chairman on one occasion. In September 1919, he was arrested by the British and interned on Spike Island and later Bere Island until he was released after the June 1921 truce.

Anglo-Irish Treaty The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty ( ga , An Conradh Angla-Éireannach), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the ...

which he voted against. In the 1922 "pact election" Ryan and one of the other two anti-Treaty Wexford TDs lost their seats to pro-Treaty candidates, and Ryan was imprisoned during the subsequent

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

. While interned he won back his Dáil seat as an abstentionist at the 1923 general election.

Political career

In 1926, Ryan was among the Sinn Féin TDs who followed leader

Éamon de Valera Éamon de Valera (, ; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was a prominent Irish statesman and political leader. He served several terms as head of govern ...

out of the party to found

. They entered the Dáil in 1927 and spent five years on the opposition benches.

Minister for Agriculture

Following the 1932 general election, Fianna Fáil came to office and Ryan was appointed as

Minister for Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...

, a position he would continuously hold for fifteen years. In agriculture the government's policy was based on the idea of self-sufficiency or autarky. "Irish farmers should have always been looking for prosperity from the towns of Britain. If they got people working in our own towns they would consume Irish produce," he declared at Blackwater, County Wexford calling it the idea of a cyclical arrangement. Ryan was given the task of implementing the following policies: imports of wheat, sugar and other agricultural produce were restricted; farmers were given a guaranteed price for wheat; farmers were forced to use home-produced grain in animal feed and bakers had to use a certain percentage of Irish flour in their bread; and the sugar beet industry was expanded with the opening of new factories. While these policies saw increases in sugar-beet production and in the growing of wheat the small farmers of

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following t ...

and

Connacht Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms ( Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and ...

gained little while the large farmers were the real beneficiaries. Ryan faced severe criticism over the Economic War with Britain: serious harm was done to the cattle trade, Ireland's main export earner. The government tried to compensate by giving bounties equal to the British duties, however, these had to be paid for by the taxpayer. The economic war ended in 1938 with the signing of the

Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement The Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement was signed on 25 April 1938 by Ireland and the United Kingdom. It aimed to resolve the Anglo-Irish Trade War which had been on-going from 1933. Scope The prime minister Neville Chamberlain summarised the 4 possible ...

between both governments, after a series of talks in London between the British Prime Minister

Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeaseme ...

, de Valera, Ryan and Seán Lemass. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

self-sufficiency in food became essential. The

Department of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...

ordered every farmer to till one-eighth of his land. This was raised to three-eighths in 1944. In spite of strict rationing and severe shortages, basic foodstuffs remained available. At war's end farmers discontent emerged once again. A new political party,

Clann na Talmhan Clann na Talmhan (, "Family/Children of the land"; formally known as the ''National Agricultural Party'') was an Irish agrarian political party active between 1939 and 1965. Formation and growth Clann na Talmhan was founded on 29 June 1939 in ...

, was established in the late 1930s to represent the interests of smaller farmers in the west of Ireland. Similarly, much of the country's land had become exhausted due to increased wartime productivity and a shortage of fertilisers.

Minister for Health and Social Welfare

In 1947, after spending fifteen years as Minister for Agriculture, Ryan was appointed to the newly created positions of Minister for Health and Minister for Social Welfare. The minister brought the draft Health Bill to the cabinet's attention later that year. This legislation proposed to modernise the health service into two aspects – mother and child welfare and infectious diseases. De Valera was anxious about accepting these measures as government policy due to opposition from the Catholic Church. In fact, much of the legislation was enacted by

Noel Browne Noel or Noël may refer to: Christmas * , French for Christmas * Noel is another name for a Christmas carol Places *Noel, Missouri, United States, a city *Noel, Nova Scotia, Canada, a community * 1563 Noël, an asteroid * Mount Noel, Britis ...

, Ryan's successor as Minister from 1948 to 1951. Following Fianna Fáil's return to power at the 1951 general election, Ryan returned as Minister for Health and Social Welfare. During his second period in office he clashed with the Church once again over the implementation of the remaining aspects of the

Mother and Child Scheme The Mother and Child Scheme was a healthcare programme in Ireland that would later become remembered as a major political crisis involving primarily the Irish Government and Roman Catholic Church in the early 1950s. The scheme was referred to as ...

. Following negotiations with the hierarchy, adjustments on such issues as means testing and medical inspections were made and the legislation was passed in the Dáil. Following the 1954 general election, Fianna Fáil lost power and Ryan moved to the backbenches once again.

Minister for Finance

Following the 1957 general election, Fianna Fáil were back in office and de Valera's cabinet had a new look to it. In a clear message that there would be a change to economic policy Ryan, a close ally of Seán Lemass, was appointed

Minister for Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

, replacing the conservative Seán MacEntee. The first sign of a new economic approach came in 1958, when Ryan brought the First Programme for Economic Development to the cabinet table. This plan, the brainchild of T. K. Whitaker, recognised that Ireland would have to move away from self-sufficiency towards free trade. It also proposed that foreign firms should be given grants and tax breaks to set up in Ireland. When Seán Lemass succeeded de Valera as

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the of ...

in 1959, Ryan was re-appointed as Minister for Finance. Lemass wanted to reward him for his loyalty by also naming him

Tánaiste The Tánaiste ( , ) is the deputy head of the government of Ireland and thus holder of its second-most senior office. The Tánaiste is appointed by the President of Ireland on the advice of the Taoiseach. The current office holder is former Tao ...

; however, the new leader felt obliged to appoint Seán MacEntee, one of the party elders to the position. Ryan continued to implement the First Programme throughout the early 1960s, achieving a record growth rate of 4 per cent by 1963. That year an even more ambitious Second Programme was introduced; however, it overreached and had to be abandoned. In spite of this, the annual growth rate averaged five per cent, the highest achieved since independence.

Retirement and death

Ryan did not stand in the 1965 general election, after which he was nominated by the Taoiseach to

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 ...

(the

upper house An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restric ...

of the

Oireachtas The Oireachtas (, ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the bicameral parliament of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of: *The President of Ireland *The two houses of the Oireachtas ( ga, Tithe an Oireachtais): ** Dáil Éireann ...

), where he joined his son,

Eoin Ryan Snr Eoin David Ryan (12 June 1920 – 14 December 2001) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician, and a Senator for thirty years. Ryan was born in Dublin. When Ryan was born, his father and mother were actively engaged in the War of Independence. His mo ...

. At the 1969 dissolution he retired to his farm at Kindlestown in

, where he died at age 77 on 25 September 1970. His grandson Eoin Ryan Jnr served in the Oireachtas from 1989 to 2007 and later in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

from 2004 to 2009.

References