Ryan, Desmond (1893–1964)

English-born Irish socialist and historian, who wrote extensively on the history of revolutionary nationalism in Ireland. As secretary to his mentor Patrick Pearse, he joined the Irish Volunteers and fought in the General Post Office in the Easter Rising of 1916. He was the author of a definitive account of the insurrection, The Rising 1946, as well as biographies on principal figures in the struggle for independence, such as Pearse and Éamon de Valera, and the Fenian leaders John Devoy and James Stephens.

Born in London, the son of William Patrick Ryan, he grew up in Dublin and was educated at Patrick Pearse's nationalist school, St Enda's. Following his release from internment after the 1916 uprising, he edited Pearse's account of the school. He supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 but left Ireland in disgust at the ensuing Civil War, and in London wrote novels (including Invisible Army 1932, on the assassinated revolutionary Michael Collins, and the picaresque St Eustace and the Albatross, 1934). His other works include an autobiography of his youth, Remembering Sion 1934, a study of the Irish language, The Sword of Light 1938, and edited collections of Fenian correspondence, Devoy's Post Bag 1948 and 1953.