Josephine Ryan

Min Ryan
Min Ryan and husband Richard Mulcahy
Born	Mary Josephine Ryan (1884-12-29)29 December 1884 Tomcoole, Wexford, Ireland
Died	11 April 1977(1977-04-11) (aged 92) Dublin, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Other names	Josephine Mulcahy

Mary Josephine Ryan (29 December 1884 – 16 April 1977) was an Irish nationalist. She was a member of Cumann na mBan and the honorary secretary of the executive committee. She took part in 1916 Easter Rising and War of Independence.

Born Mary Josephine Ryan in Tomcoole, near Taghmon in Co. Wexford to John Ryan and Eliza Sutton. She was better known as Min to her friends. She was educated in both the Loreto Abbey in Gorey and Dublin, and attended boarding school in Thurles called The Ursuline. After leaving secondary level education, she attended the Royal University of Ireland taking English, German and French, graduating in 1908 from the National University having spent some time in both France and Germany. Ryan was a teacher in Germany for two years and taught English, she then taught in London for a further four years. After they graduated, each of Ryan’s sisters taught English in Germany or France. As they were all in different countries, the sisters used a different method of communication. They sent around a large notebook, each sister contributed to the notebook by writing a letter. The notebook ended up being a great method of communication between the Ryan sisters. The book travelled around Europe. While Ryan was in London, she stayed in contact with the Irish Nationalist diaspora. After the Great War, Ryan returned to Ireland.

Before she married her husband, she lived with her sister for a few years in Ranelagh. Ryan was an intelligent and practical woman and very popular with her many nephews and nieces and other young friends. She was happiest when she was planning, when she and her sisters met together they were full of ideas and notions for themselves, their husbands and their children. She was a very attractive woman with a strong interest in current affairs although not with a great insight into the subtleties of politics and the struggle for national independence. She was at her best at family and social gatherings. All twelve children from the Ryan family had secondary education and eleven out of the twelve went on to the old Catholic University or to University College Dublin. Ryan was one of the last students to attend the institution. Her family was very much a nationalist house with several of her 11 siblings involved in the Easter Rising and subsequent wars. Her brother James went on to become an Irish politician while two of her sisters, Mary Kate and Phyllis were married to Seán Ó Ceallaigh, second President of Ireland.