The Ryans (Part 1)

Brothers Eddie (27) and Kieran Ryan (26) were charged with possession of a 9mm Browning semi-automatic pistol and 15 rounds of ammunition at Carrigmartin, Ballyneety, Co Limerick, on 26 May, contrary to section 27(a) of the Firearms Act, 1964.  Also charged was John Collins (18) from 23 Monabraher Road, Ballynanty. The Ryan brothers, from Hogan Avenue, Kileely were only stopped by Gardaí from the Emergency Response Unit after their Toyota Avensis was rammed out in Ballyneety.  There is some speculation that they were out to avenge the recent shooting of Daniel Phillips.

While the Ryan brothers never really went away, their profile has been lower in recent years.

It’s nearly 10 years, in November 2000, when their father, Eddie Senior, was gunned down in the Moose Bar by the Keane-Collopy gang – specifically by Kieran Keane and Philip Collopy. Kieran Ryan, then just 17, was in the bar’s bathroom when the gunmen came into the Moose Bar and shot his father, Eddie Ryan Senior. Eddie’s wife, Mary, was 7 weeks pregnant at the time.

Eddie Ryan Senior

Eddie Senior had a long record of his own, from appearing in court on burglary charges when he was just 13, to being arrested and charged with murder when he was just 17, back in 1977. By then he had already some 12 previous convictions.

Eddie Senior then lived in Cregan Avenue, Kileely, just one road over from the Ryan familiy’s current home on Hogan Avenue.  On a Sunday night, 29 May 1977, when Ryan and a friend were going to a dance in a city centre hotel, they came across Christopher Jackson (24), from Raheen Square, Ballinacurra Weston. 

Jackson stood outside Cruises Hotel on Patrick’s Street. After a brief exchange ("I heard you were looking for me" "I wasn't" "There's rumours going round that you were" "I wasn't", etc.), Jackson punched Ryan in the face. Ryan ran off towards Roches Stores, promising Jackson he wouldn’t forget that.  Jackson followed, saying to his friend, "I'll be back in a minute. I want to give this fellow something to think about". Jackson apparently pulled a razor on Ryan, while Ryan pulled out a knife, but kept backing off towards Sarsfield Bridge.  He turned up Henry Street, then up Bedford Row, by the Savoy Theatre.  Outside the Grand Central cinema, Jackson called to Eddie Ryan, saying they should just forget about fighting and shake on it.  As they went to shake hands, Jackson swiped at Ryan but missed.  Ryan lunged at him, stabbing him in the face. The fight moved back down towards the Savoy.  Jackson cut Ryan’s fingers but Ryan gave him a “dig or two with the knife”, “somewhere on the front of his body”, perforating Jackson’s heart twice. As Ryan ran away, Jackson fell back against a parked car before collapsing to the ground.

The old Savoy, closed in 1974, demolished 1988

 One passer-by, Dermot Cronin, later recounted at the trial how he had tried to phone the Guards as the two fought but had run to 3 different phone boxes before finding one that worked.

Gardaí later found blood stains for 20 yards leading to the Bedford Flats, as well as blood on the walls and windows of the outside of the lower flats themselves. The State pathologist, Professor John Harbison, found 7 stab wounds on Jackson, including the two that penetrated his heart, causing death by internal haemorrhaging.

Gardaí located Ryan at his sister’s house in the early hours of the following morning.  The bloodied jacket, with the knife in the pocket, were downstairs on the washing machine, though Ryan told the arresting officer, Inspector Jeremiah O’Sullivan, he had never seen them before.  Ryan was brought in for questioning and, at 8 in the morning, a ‘cool and relaxed’ Ryan admitted to Gardaí he had stabbed Jackson.  Garda John Quinn,who had seen Ryan flee the scene, also picked him in an identity parade.

Eddie Ryan, described in court as ‘easily led’, was originally charged with murder, but was found not guilty by a jury after just 3 hours of deliberation.  Ryan did, however, plead guilty to manslaughter.  His barrister, a Limerick man, Kevin O’Higgins (now a judge in the European Court of Justice), arguing before sentencing, insisted that Ryan was ‘a disadvantaged person, with no specific educational attainments, nor had he any skills that would enable him to obtain employment, even if employment were available in Limerick City.’

Justice Sean Glennon, at the Dublin Central Criminal Court, sentenced Ryan to five years penal servitude with no leave to appeal.