The following is an excerpt from “Collections on Irish Church History” from the mss. of the Very Rev. Laurence F. Renehan, D.D., president of Maynooth College; and edited by The Rev. Daniel M’Carthy, D.D., Professor of S. Scriptures, Maynooth; Vol. II: Irish Bishops, published in Dublin, 1873.
The original book can be found online here: https://archive.org/details/CollectionsOnIrishChurchHistoryV2/page/n63
PATRICK RYAN, consec. 1805; ob. 1819.
Through the very great kindness of the nearest surviving relative of Dr. Ryan, we are enabled to give the following account of his family. (Note: See the “11 brothers” document).
About the year 1700 Edward Ryan, the bishop’s great-grandfather, descended of an ancient Irish stock, removed from the old family residence at Ballycarran to a house lately built in an adjoining part of the estate called Ballinakill,. within a few miles of Kilcock, in the county Kildare, where he died soon after. He was succeeded by his son Thomas, who died at an early age, leaving issue two sons, James and Edward, and three daughters. 1. James married Bridget Barnwall, daughter of Robert Barnwall, Esq., county Meath, and resided at Newcastle, county Meath, after his marriage.
2. Edward Ryan succeeded his father in Ballinakill, and. married the daughter of Philip O’Reilly, Esq., of Coolamber and Ballymorris, county Longford. They were blessed with a numerous offspring, two daughters and eleven sons. Thomas, the eldest son, who inherited the estate, married, April 19, 1798, Mary, eldest daughter of Edward and Magdalen Byrne, of Byrne’s Hill, county Dublin. Philip, the second of the eleven brothers, went to Copenhagen, and there married (first) a Danish lady, the daughter of Baron Firsh, and after her death married (secondly) a Miss Fanell, born in Denmark, but, as the name implies, of Irish extraction.
Patrick, the third of the brothers, the future bishop, was born in 1768 at the family mansion at Ballinakill, where his father, Edward Ryan, died in his 55th year, of fever. The bishop’s mother lived to a great old age, and died at Blackhall, county Meath, in her son Edward’s house, December 17, 1828.
We should not dwell on these details only that it has been often and confidently asserted that Dr Ryan was a native of the diocese of Ferns, and the assertion has been repeated and sanctioned by a recent clever and popular writer, who says further that the bishop was brother of a banker. This statement is inaccurate in both its parts. Every one of the eleven brothers was born in the same house at Ballinakill, county Kildare, and though, like many other educated Catholic youths, who saw no chance of promotion at home, three or four of the Ryans were forced to seek honourable service in strange lands; not one of them ever held a share in a bank. John, the fourth brother, joined the Spanish army; Bernard, the fifth, entered the East India Company’s service; James, the sixth, the well-known correspondent, J. R., of Charles James Fox, was an extensive wine merchant in Dublin, partner in the firm of Byrne, McDonnell, and Co., then the first commercial house in the city; Edward, the seventh, lived at Newcastle first, and then at Blackhall, county Meath; George, the eighth, died in Copenhagen, December 6, 1861, the last survivor of the brothers; William and Richard died young; and Joseph, the youngest brother, a gentleman of refined taste, kind and hospitable, after spending many years at Barcelona in Spain, came to reside at the Grove, county Meath.
To return to the bishop’s personal history. From his childhood, Patrick Ryan showed a decided leaning for the ecclesiastical state, and was sent, therefore, with the full approval of his pious parents, to Rome to pursue his studies. He must have entered college before 1788, as I find among Dr. Troy’s letters one of that date to him, enclosing money from his father. At the end of the usual course he was ordained priest, and returned to Dublin in the spring of 1798. His first mission was in the parish of St. Nicholas, and while still a curate there, he was admitted to the chapter as Prebendary of Wicklow, his successor being Daniel Murray. On the 5th January, 1803, he was appointed Secretary to the Board of Trustees, Maynooth College, and on the 2nd of October, 1804 (date of Bull), coadjutor bishop of Ferns, with title of Germanicia in partibus. February 15, 1806, he wrote from Dublin to several bishops, announcing his appointment as coadjutor, and stating that he had received from Mr. Marsden, on the part of the government, promise of support and protection in the discharge of his episcopal functions in Wexford. He could not, however, leave Dublin until April, and would gladly retain his office of secretary to the Maynooth Board with even the small salary of £56 19s. 6d., no provision being yet made for him in Wexford. In these letters he recommended a Mr. Barrett of Carlow for the rhetoric chair in Maynooth. The college trustees, with that paternal regard for personal feeling and interest which has ever been characteristic of their rule, allowed Dr. Ryan to keep his office until he resigned of his own accord on July 7th, 1807.
After his consecration in 1805, Dr. Ryan assisted most punctually at the councils of the Irish bishops, and acted very often as their secretary. Thus we find him at the meetings of 14th September, 1808, against the veto ; of 24th and 26th February, 1810, when the resolution of 1808 was solemnly renewed in a public address to the clergy and laity; and of 18th November, 1812, condemning Blanchard and Columbanus. He also signed the pastoral address of the bishops, May 26, 1813, against the securities in the relief bill, and the congratulatory letter to Pius VII., ordered at Maynooth May 21th, 1814. In this last document for the first time he assumed the title of Bishop of Ferns, his illustrious predecessor having died in the beginning of the same year.
Long before the death of Dr. Caulfield, the government of the diocese was in reality left to Dr. Ryan, who was young and vigorous, and well able to bear hard work. Besides the usual cares of his sacred office, he had to face, from the very beginning, dangers which in Ireland happily are not often to be met with. It was against these that he had the promise of protection from the government. For a long time after the rebellion, the priests of Wexford were kept in terror of their lives by a bigoted faction, who went about in the open day prepared with instruments of death. Priests were insulted in the public highways, and sometimes interfered with in their most sacred duty, as in their visits to the sick and dying. Dr. Ryan resolved at any risk to put down this intolerant spirit, and took what may be considered a strange way of effecting his purpose. The Orangemen were gathered together in large numbers in Enniscorthy on one of their great anniversaries, when, to their utter surprise, the bishop, accompanied by one lay gentleman of influence, entered the meeting. Having asked permission to say a few words to the gentlemen present on a subject of great interest to himself and the Catholics of Wexford, he appealed to them in a calm and most solemn manner not to goad their brethren into resistance by offensive words and displays. He assured them the Catholics were ready to forget all past wrongs and differences, and to live at peace with their fellow-countrymen. For his own part, his most sacred duty was to preach and practise Christian charity, and he would never yield to fear or force in the discharge of his ministry. The short speech was well received, and produced the best effect. From that, day party demonstration ceased in a great measure, and there was no further interference with the free exercise of religion. But although this danger passed away, the bishop’s health was much impaired by the struggle and strife, and by constant anxiety and labour. There was hardly a day that he did not spend eight or nine hours in the confessional. He preached morning and evening on Sundays, and visited nearly every parish in the diocese each year. Under this heavy strain his bodily strength failed, and a sudden and violent attack of paralysis weakened even his mental faculties. He died at Enniscorthy on the 9th March, 1819.
A mural slab of white marble in the Church of Enniscorthy, where his remains are laid, is thus inscribed:
Illustriss. et Reverendiss.
Patricius Ryan, Eps. Fernensis, natus
A.D. 1768.
Expleto studiorum ecclesiasticorum curriculo
ad animarum curam vocatus, et ab Archiepo.
Dubliniensi parochiae Clontarf pastor est
institutus A.D. 1797.
Coadjutor Epi. Fern. creatus A.D. 1805,
ipso jam defuncto in miniaterium Episcopale