Books

Book review: Compelling story of priest who was only sorry his bombs didn’t kill more in Troubles

Biography of militant republican Fr Patrick Ryan who decided he wanted ‘to shift the Brits out’ when the North erupted into violence

Father Patrick Ryan, left, with then Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in 1989. ‘The only regret I have [is] that I wasn’t more effective; that the bombs made with the components I supplied didn’t kill more.’ Picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews

Father Patrick Ryan apparently has a flexible attitude to at least one of the Ten Commandments. By his own admission, he spent many years raising money, brokering arms deals and helping to make explosives for the Provisional IRA.

“My nationalism was more important to me than the Catholic Church,” he explains to the BBC journalist Jennifer O’Leary in this colourful and compelling biography. “The only regret I have [is] that I wasn’t more effective; that ...