James Ryan (Irish politician)
| James Ryan | |
|---|---|
| Minister for Finance | |
|
In office 20 March 1957 – 21 April 1965 |
|
| Taoiseach | Seán Lemass |
| Preceded by | Gerard Sweetman |
| Succeeded by | Jack Lynch |
| Minister for Agriculture | |
|
In office 9 March 1932 – 21 January 1947 |
|
| Taoiseach | Éamon de Valera |
| Preceded by | Patrick Hogan |
| Succeeded by | Paddy Smith |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
6 December 1891 Taghmon, Wexford, Ireland |
| Died | 25 September 1970 (aged 78) Kindlestown, Wicklow, Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Political party | Fianna Fáil |
| Spouse(s) | Máirín Cregan |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
James Ryan (6 December 1891 – 25 September 1970) was an Irish politician. He was elected to the First Dáil at the 1918 general election and, apart from the Third Dáil (1922–1923), held his seat for Wexford until his retirement at the 1965 general election. During his long career he served as Minister for Agriculture (1932–1947), Minister for Health and Social Welfare (1947–1948 and 1951–1954) and Minister for Finance (1957–1965).
Ryan was born on the family farm at Tomcoole, near Taghmon, County Wexford in 1891. The second youngest of twelve children he was educated at St Peter's College, Wexford and Ring College, Waterford. In 1911 Ryan won a county council scholarship to University College Dublin where he studied medicine. He passed his final medical exam in March 1917 and subsequently opened a medical practice in Wexford town. Four years later in 1921 Ryan moved to Dublin where he opened a practice at Harcourt Street, 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. Ryan lived there and it remained a working farm until his death.
In July 1919 Ryan married Máirín Cregan, originally from County Kerry and a close friend of Sinéad de Valera throughout her life. Cregan, like her husband, had also fought in the Easter Rising 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, one of Ryan's future cabinet colleagues and a future President of Ireland. 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. Another sister, Agnes, married Denis McCullough, a Cumann na nGaedheal TD from 1924 to 1927.
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