After being captured by pro-Nationalist Italians, he was sentenced to death, later changed to 30 years but after an international campaign, Ryan was released from prison in 1940 with the help of German authorities.

[1] His parents, Vere Foster Ryan and Annie Slattery, were National School teachers at Bottomstown (parish of Knockainey) with a taste for Irish traditional music, and they lived in a house full of books.

During the Gaelic Revival era, he was commissioned to write for Irish-language publications – he briefly edited An Reult (Irish: The Star).

Evenings were devoted to teaching Irish at Conradh na Gaeilge, lecturing in history and literature, and leading the occasional céilidh.

[4] Starting in 1928 and lasting until the mid-1930s, Ryan would enter into a romantic relationship with Rosamond "Róisín" Jacob, a fellow Republican and socialist.

Because of a number of factors, such as the age difference between the two (she was 40 and he was 26 when they met, at a time when the norm in Ireland was that women should be younger than their partners), their different religious backgrounds (Ryan was nominally a Catholic, Jacob nominally a Quaker) and the fact that they were unwed, the relationship was considered "an affair" and they believed that it had to be kept a secret.

[5] In May 1930, Ryan spent several weeks in the US, addressing Irish conventions, where he witnessed the start of the Great Depression, and the ravages of unemployment.

[6] In 1933, Ryan, along with George Gilmore and Peadar O'Donnell, proposed the establishment of a new left-republican organisation to be called the Republican Congress.

Ryan was incensed at quasi-Fascist Blueshirt leader Eoin O'Duffy organising an Irish Brigade to fight alongside the Fascists, and in open letters to the papers criticised Cardinal McRory for raising funds at church collections to support Franco.

On 22 September 1936 Ryan replied to that suggestion:"...may I assure your Eminence that as a Catholic I will take my religion from Rome, but as a Irish Republican, I will take my politics from neither Moscow nor Maynooth.

This was no easy task, given the strength of pro-Franco feeling at the time, which was whipped up by sections of the Catholic Church and the Irish Independent.

Despite his deafness[clarification needed], in late 1936 Ryan travelled to Spain with about 80 men, including Dubliner Tommy Wood, who was 17.

He was attached to the staff of the XV International Brigade in charge of publicity: writing, broadcasting and visiting the front line to see conditions first-hand.

While imprisoned under harsh conditions in Burgos, Ryan refused to sing the Nationalist anthem or give the fascist salute.

Ryan was taken to the border by Madrid-based Abwehr agent Wolfgang Blaum and handed over to Sonderführer Kurt Haller.

When Russell became ill and died during the journey (of a perforated ulcer), the mission was subsequently aborted and Ryan returned to Germany via Bordeaux.

[20] Ryan was not in good health as a result of his wound and treatment in the Spanish prison, and at one stage he had a stroke, but he remained convivial and drew around him a small circle of friends.

In response, Frank Ryan wrote a letter to Leopold Kerney, Irish Minister in Madrid, explaining his whereabouts.

[24] In May 1941, Abwehr's Operation Whale ("Unternehmen Walfisch" in German), a plan to land a seaplane on a lake in Ireland, was expanded to include resupply of the IRA with money and a transmitter.

The written proposal for Operation Sea Eagle gives some supposedly biographical details for Ryan composed by Veesenmayer.

"Although Operation Sea Eagle was first postponed after being shown to Hitler on 6 September 1941 and then ultimately cancelled, Ryan's part in planning is unsubstantiated.

They said they were aware of Ryan's "anti-Fascist credentials" and although due to his contacts and knowledge of languages would be useful to "the enemy", they did not believe he would ever work for Fascism.

[27] According to left-wing IRA man Seán Cronin (citing Francis Stuart and the Clissmanns), Ryan did not change his political views after his release from the Spanish prison.

Once a feared invasion of Éire by US troops stationed in Northern Ireland in 1942 failed to materialise, Ryan was dropped as a possible mission specialist in further covert Abwehr and Foreign Ministry plans and operations.

[31] He was approached late 1943 for his opinion on the feasibility of a "Geheimsender" (secret transmitter) propaganda operation in Ireland for broadcast to the United States, but the plan never reached fruition.

[citation needed] Three volunteers of the International Brigades, Frank Edwards, Peter O'Connor and Michael O'Riordan travelled to East Germany as a guard of honour to repatriate Ryan's remains in 1979.

The church was packed with all shades of Republican and left-wing opinion, as well as those from his past such as the Stuarts, Elizabeth "Budge" and Helmut Clissmann, Peadar O'Donnell (who spoke at the service), George Gilmore, and ex-comrades and sympathizers from all over the world.

His coffin was borne to the grave in Glasnevin Cemetery by Irish veterans of the Spanish Civil War, Frank Edwards, Peter O'Connor, Michael O'Riordan and Terry Flanagan.

Con Lehane delivered the funeral oration while an uilleann piper (Peter Browne) played "Limerick's Lamentation".