[4][5] He was an experienced IRA Volunteer and a member of the Dublin Brigade's Active Service Unit.

By 1920,[2] Bryan, as his surname came to be spelled for some reason, was living at 14 Henrietta Street, Dublin and was an electrician by trade.

[10] Found guilty of high treason, he was hanged, aged 24, along with Frank Flood at 8am on 14 March 1921.

[11] He is one of a group of men hanged in Mountjoy Prison in the period 1920–21, commonly referred to as The Forgotten Ten.

On 14 October 2001, he and the other nine, including Kevin Barry, were exhumed from their graves in the prison and given a full state funeral.