Joseph
Patrick Ryan: "No country like Canada and British Columbia is its
jewel"
By
Michael J Morris
Four
years ago on December 19, 2009, a founding member of the Gaelic Athletic
Association (GAA) in Ireland 125 years before, who emigrated to Canada and
started a new life in the Kootenays, was honoured in Cranbrook. The GAA is the
biggest sports organization in Ireland today.
Joseph
Patrick Ryan was remembered at a mass at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, with
a wreath laying ceremony following at his grave in the cemetery here. The mass
was celebrated by Father Harry Clarke and Father Conrado Beloso, and attended by
civic dignitaries. Ryan died on March 25, 1918 in Cranbrook.
As many readers will know, for the
past four years, I have been writing a weekly column called Chapleau Moments for
my home town newspaper, about the life and times of the community. I also post
them on my own blog. I will be the first to admit that I don't know too much
about the early history of Cranbrook, but found Joseph Patrick Ryan quite
interesting so decided to share a bit about him.
Terry
Segarty of Cranbrook who organized the event at the local level said that
members of the Knights of Columbus who were celebrating 125 years in Cranbrook
and members of the St. Vincent De Paul Society attended. He noted that Ryan was
a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus of St. Mary`s Parish.
Terry
added that the celebration remembering Ryan's involvement with the founding of
the GAA was one of the final events in the celebration of the association's
founding in 1884 and was attended by Brian Farmer, of Toronto, president of the
Canadian Gaelic Athletic Association, as well as other GAA members. Other
dignitaries include John Keane Rosemount, the Honorary Consul of Ireland in
Seattle as well as Paul McGarry, vice president of the Seattle Gaels and Jim
Cummins, chair of Seattle's Irish Immigrant Support Group.
While
attending a mineral exhibition show in Chicago in 1913, Ryan wrote glowingly
about his adopted country and city. He said that the minerals, "grasped the eyes
and attention of many thousands of people whom fruit and grains did not concern
in the slightest and once you had them in conversation it was no trouble to
preach the general doctrine that there is no country like Canada and that
British Columbia is its jewel."
Ninety-one
years after his death. Joseph Patrick Ryan, a son of Ireland who greatly
contributed to the early development of Cranbrook and British Columbia, was
honoured here by the Gaelic Athletic Association which he helped found in his
homeland 125 years ago before coming to Canada. The GAA web site says in part
that at 3.00 p.m. on Saturday 1st November 1884, a small group of men ... met in
the billiard-room of Miss Hayes's Commercial Hotel in Thurles, and there founded
the Gaelic Athletic Association for the Preservation and Cultivation of National
Pastimes. Patrick Ryan was there.
In
an editorial appearing in The Cranbrook Herald after Ryan died, printed
between heavy black bands top and bottom, the newspaper said in part that “a
gloom was cast over the city” when his death was reported calling him “Judge
Ryan” who “possessed fluency of language to an unusual degree ... his Irish
brogue and wit will long be remembered.” It added that as mining reporter for
the Herald his place would be difficult to fill.
Ryan
who was born in Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary, in April 1857 became a solicitor in
Ireland before emigrating to Canada in 1899 and becoming involved in the life of
British Columbia with the Board of Trade, the mining industry, as a Police
Magistrate and prominent journalist.
In
a memoir on Ryan's life, his son-in-law Alf MacLochlainn describes him as “a
voluble, articulate life -of-the-party” person during the years he lived in
Canada.
The
Cranbrook Herald of March 28, 1918, gives an overview of Ryan's life in
Canada. “Cranbrook lost one of its best known residents through the death of
Joseph Ryan ... It is about eighteen years since Mr. Ryan came to Canada from
Ireland. He settled first in the West Kootenay, where he spent some six years as
a broker and doing conveyancing, his legal training in the land of his birth
proving of great value... He moved to this district about twelve years ago
undertaking secretarial work in connection with mining undertakings... He was
Police Magistrate for several years.
“While
not having practical mining experience, Mr. Ryan was a student of geology... He
was always optimistic being described as the best advertising medium in the
district .”
The
Herald also reported on Ryan's funeral which was held in the Roman Catholic
church. It reported that Mrs. J.E. Kennedy sang 'Face to face” with deep feeling
while the pallbearers were N.A. Wallinger, John Miller, William Greaves, Joseph
Brault, Frank Goddens and A.L. McDermott.
Ryan
lived in Kimberley before moving to Cranbrook in about 1906 where he became
involved in Conservative party politics, but his real interest became the Board
of Trade, as his son-in-law notes that he wanted to promote the east Kootenay
and Cranbrook in particular.
By
1910 he had established himself as a public relations officer for the area. He
was appointed to prepare a mineral exhibit relative to the mineral wealth of the
St.Mary`s Valley for the Spokane Fair. He showed mineral exhibits twice there,
once with his friend Noel Wallinger, and at shows in Lethbridge and
Chicago.
All
in all, Ryan was one of the city's early citizens who made a contribution to the
community as well as the province and his adopted country. My email is mj.morris@live.ca
Full disclosure: I am not now and never have been a member of the Citizens for a Livable Cranbrook Society; however, I did conduct a workshop for its members for which I was paid.
