Hidden story of RUC man

THE hidden story of a Tipperary man who was the first member of the then-RUC to be killed by the IRA is set to be aired on local radio at the weekend.

Drombane native, constable John Ryan, was killed in west Belfast in February 1933.

The two-part documentary on Tipp FM will explain how after the civil war Mr Ryan, a Catholic father-of-one, tried to join the civil guard, the precursor to the Garda Siochána. However, he encountered difficulties due to his previous association with the Royal Irish Constabulary, Ireland’s pre-civil war police force.

Shortly after meeting his wife, Catherine Noonan, in 1922, the then 32-year-old moved to Belfast to take up a posting with the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

In February 1933, he was killed following a shoot-out with IRA gunmen who were trying to hijack a mail van on Grosvenor Road.

Mr Ryan’s wife and daughter Joanna, who was 10 when he died, have since died. But Tipp Today producer and the maker of the documentary, Tom Hurley, who received a grant from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, tracked down the family of the man believed to have shot the Irishman.

In the years leading up to his death in 1993, the family of Bob Bradshaw, from Divis Street in Belfast, said he confirmed his involvement “but never mentioned any of the other people involved”.

Mr Hurley said the broadcast will seek to highlight the hidden reality of life in the years immediately after the civil war. Among the contributors will be Trinity College professor of contemporary Irish history, Eunan O’Halpin, and retired RUC officer Ian Forbes, who regularly travels to Mr Ryan’s grave at Kilvalure cemetery in Co Tipperary.

* The documentary, Divided Loyalty: Tipperary’s RUC Casualty, will be aired on Tipp FM at 6.30pm on the next two Sundays.

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