Séamus Ryan

Who was Séamus Ryan?

Séamus Ryan was a member of the Seanad Éireann from 1931 to 1933 representing the Fianna Fáil party.

He was born at the family farm in the townland of Deerpark near the County Tipperary village of Kilfeacle in 1931. Early in his life he had been a supporter of the moderate Irish nationalist John Redmond, but family links made him increasingly sympathetic and committed to the Irish republican cause. Ryan married Agnes Harding from Solohead, County Tipperary in 1918. In that year they also opened a shop in Parnell Street, Dublin. It was the first of 33 outlets for the company they named The Monument Creameries after the famous monument to the Irish nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell located near their shop. During the Irish War of Independence the shop was a haven for members of the Irish Republican Army seeking refuge from British "Black and Tans" and later for Republicans during the post-Treaty conflicts. Among the Irish nationalists harboured within his Parnell Street shop was Seán Treacy who established a workshop where he put false bottoms on butter boxes to conceal dispatches and ammunition for IRA operations. Ryan transported the boxes by horse and cart to Kingsbridge Station. It was said he had "a face of such truly angelic innocence that no one could have guessed the subversive nature of his freight". Cash from the business funded the republican cause and later the new Fianna Fáil Party.