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 interview 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 interviews 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
