[7] Alice Ryan was a supporter of the Canadian Women's Suffrage Association (CWSA), previously the Toronto Woman's Literary Club (TWLC).

[8][9] She was a family friend of the Attorney General of Ontario, Sir Oliver Mowat —later a pall-bearer for her brother Hugh Ryan[10]— who oversaw the 1883 committee created to urge the Toronto City Council to petition the Ontario Government to pass a bill conferring the municipal franchise upon women.

"[13] As a result of the committee's petition (which was passed by the Toronto City Council 20 to 5)[14] and Mowat's legal support, Sir John A. Macdonald introduced a bill to the Parliament of Canada that same year which stipulated granting municipal franchise to unmarried women and widows possessing the required property qualifications.

[16] Alice Ryan married land developer Michael Doheny, a cousin of Irish-American oil tycoon Edward L.

[18] Ryan's only daughter, Margaret Isabelle McHenry (née Doheny), was a primary beneficiary of her mothers' estate.

[29] Alice Ryan died on 27 October 1906 in Brockville, Ontario, with her body being transported by private train to Montreal, Quebec, where the funeral service was held at the Irish-Catholic St Ann's Church.

[30][31] The requiem mass was attended by the entire extended Ryan-Doheny clan, as well as Gilded-Age society women; including Mrs. Mary Augusta Kennedy (wife of P. J. Kennedy), and Mrs. Mary Inez Cloran (wife of Senator Henry Joseph Cloran).