Q& A: JENNIFER O’LE ARY
For years, Father Patrick Ryan evaded the British security services while he acquired weapons, finances and even bomb components for the Irish Republican Army
For decades, Father Patrick Ryan had denied allegations relating to his involvement in IRA activities and outmanoeuvred multiple extradition attempts. This mask only slipped after a source told BBC journalist Jennifer O’Leary: “If you want a story about the IRA that’s never been told by the main player himself, there’s a Ryan you need to speak to, but I doubt he’ll talk.” But Father Ryan did talk during a landmark inter view on Spotlight, BBC Northern Ireland’s flagship current affairs program. Speaking with O’Leary, the priest finally admitted to being involved in multiple IRA attacks, including the attempted assassination of Margaret Thatcher in Brighton in 1984.
These few minutes on Spotlight only scratched the surface of Father Ryan’s story, and O’Leary held countless further inter views with the priest which were transformed into The Padre. O’Leary’s book breaks stunning new ground on Father Ryan’s involvement in the IRA’s financial, military and logistical dealings in Ireland, Libya and beyond, and how he converted a Swiss parking timer into a highly accurate bomb timer.
O’Leary spoke to History of War about Ryan’s changing role in the IRA and how, despite not being formally associated with it, he became the organisation’s leading representative in Libya. Here, O’Leary also shares her thoughts on navigating problematic and complex sources like Father Ryan’s and the importance of creating space for readers to come to their own conclusions.
How did you come to write a book about Father Ryan, given he had led such a clandestine life? I had spoken to Father Ryan over a number of years and was very mindful there was a lot more that he had to tell than what was already in the public domain. It was after he had agreed to go on camera for a BBC documentar y that I went back to him and put to him that I wanted to write a book. And he had no issue with that. From somebody who had spent their life being very careful, not really sharing their story, it took a long time to get the details that I did.
It absolutely was surprising. It took a lot of hard work and patience. Sometimes sources take a while to come to a decision as to whether you can put in the public domain what they share with you. I know that there were a number of attempts down the years to try and get him to tell the story on the record but I put in the work.
How would you desc
