[1] John Ryan had farms in three different parts of Kilconly, one which was held from a landlord known as "French of Tirowen", which is near Gort.
The second school he attended was in Kilconly, and was held in the chapel, with parish priest Father James Gibbons' permission.
[3] The National School system at the time was strongly opposed by the Catholic Archbishop MacHale who claimed it was a Protestant proselytising agency.
The first Commissioner appointed to serve on the National Board was the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Richard Whately, who attempted to establish a national and non-sectarian system of education in Ireland, on the basis of common instruction for Protestants and Catholics alike in literary and moral subjects, religious instruction being taken apart, similar to the template, almost 200 years later, on which integrated education in Northern Ireland is based.
[citation needed] Ryan, in the forward to his autobiography wrote that, next to his religion, Fenianism had been the most important thing in his life.