In 1942 he entered Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, and graduated with a first in Hebrew and Aramaic in UCD in 1945, he spent a year in Maynooth before attending the Irish College in Rome gaining his BD in 1948 at the St. John Lateran University, Rome, and returned to Clonliffe to complete his formation, where he was ordained, a priest on 28 May 1950.

[1] In 1954 he was awarded an MA in Semitic Languages from the NUI and followed by a licentiate in sacred scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

[2] He was ordained a bishop by Pope Paul VI in Rome assisted by Cardinals Bernard Alfrink and William Conway (Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland), on 13 February 1972.

Archbishop Ryan also took a traditional stand on social issues, including poverty, family life and opposition to abortion.

He was named in the Murphy Report on sexual abuse of children in Dublin; his actions in respect of complaints against priest Fr.