[1] Ryan was still eligible for the minor grade when he was first selected to play at adult level with the Clara junior hurling team.
Ryan collected a second successive Leinster Minor Championship medal as a non-playing substitute in 1976, however, Kilkenny suffered a 2–20 to 1–07 defeat by Tipperary in the subsequent All-Ireland final.
After success at club level with Clara, Ryan was a late addition to the Kilkenny senior panel during the 1982-83 National League.
He was an unused substitute when Kilkenny secured the league title after a 2–14 to 2–12 defeat of Limerick in the final but was dropped from the panel for the subsequent championship campaign.
[3] After being again omitted from the panel the following year, Ryan impressed in a series of tournament games and earned a recall prior to the start of the 1985 Leinster Championship.
[citation needed] Ryan broke onto the starting fifteen during the 1985-86 National League and claimed a second winners' medal in that competition after Kilkenny's 2–10 to 2–06 victory over Galway in the final.
In 2008 he served as manager of the Ireland national hurling team and guided them to a 1–10 to 1–09 victory over Scotland in the annual Shinty-Hurling International Series.