Ryan, William Patrick (1867–1942)

Irish journalist and historian. His journal, the Irish Peasant, which he owned and edited, spread socialist views with the aim of fostering a distinctive Irish culture. After it was closed down in 1911 by Church censorship, he wrote novels, anticlerical tracts, and critical studies, while serving as assistant editor of the London Daily Herald.

Born in Templemore, County Tipperary, Ryan went to work in London as a journalist, but returned to Ireland in 1906 to start his journal. He expressed his anger at its suppression in The Pope's Green Island (1912), and The Plough and the Cross (1918). His other works include The Irish Literary Revival (1894), The Irish Labour Movement (1919), and Gaelachas i Gléin (1933), a study of European contributions to Gaelic scholarship.