She was active in building, endowing, and assisting over 100 churches, chapels, hospitals, and various charities, to which she gave more than US$3,000,000.

[2] Her father, Captain John Smith Barry (1829–1872),[2] was a prominent merchant and the owner of a line of vessels plying between Baltimore and the West Indies.

They furnished the interior of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Richmond, Virginia which had been given to the city by her husband, at a cost of US$500,000.

[7] Ida Mary Barry Ryan died from heart disease after being taken suddenly ill at her country home at Suffern, October 17, 1917.

[8] She was decorated with the Cross of St. Gregory and made a Countess by Pope Pius X for her philanthropic work.