Stand Me Now And Ever In Good Stead

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From top: The first Bloomsday, 1954, from left: John Ryan, Anthony Cronin, Flann O’Brien, Patrick Kavanagh and Tom Joyce; Patrick Kavanagh and John Ryan with the door of No. 7 Eccles Street,  Bloomsday, 1967.

For the day that’s in it.

As Father’s Day falls on June 16, I would like to take this rare opportunity to acknowledge my late dad John Ryan (beloved of Deirdre) painter, writer, editor and one-man Arts Council to impoverished genius and chancer alike.

Happy Bloomsday.

The First Bloomsday

Pics: National Library of Ireland/Leslie Mallory

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42 thoughts on “Stand Me Now And Ever In Good Stead

  1. Gene Mpl

    Make that documentary John! Dee will have the between the lines details.
    I read recently that even On Raglan Road was handed to Luke in your Dad’s The Bailey. John left an unsurpassed cultural legacy which should be properly documented. Get on it Boss.

  2. Lilly

    I wondered if you were related to the John Ryan… makes sense. Happy Bloomsday! They look so raffishly glamorous (well, except maybe for Kavanagh who looks like he might have egg encrusted in his shirt in pic 2.) It’s good to acknowledge our forebears and the imprint they made. Happy Father’s Day!

    1. Brother Barnabas

      brown-nosing won’t get you out of moderation, charger

      you’re there for keeps

  3. Verbatim

    Literally “with the door of No. 7 Eccles Street” I’m sure there’s a great story there.

    1. Jake38

      There is. The nuns in the Mater destroyed the most famous address in literature. Only the door was saved.

  4. Gabby

    Bless me Father for I have sinned. I have not yet read Joyce’s Ulysses. However, I have read The Thief’s Journal by Jean Genet.

    1. Dub Spot

      Most people haven’t read it. Many have started….

      “What’s the difference between people who claim to have read Ulysses and employees of Google?”

      Nothing. They’ll all tell you without your asking.

  5. Luke Brennan

    Lovely photo and wonderful to see your father remembered.

    Sure we’re only another page in a long story.

    Luke

  6. Paddle yer own cnuas.

    As a young buck I had the pleasure of drinking with him, Liam Brady & Jim Fitzgerald in the Waterloo after the annual March 17th gathering at the Kavanagh seat. I had to pour Fitzgerald into his taxi.

    And lest we forget your Dad’s wonderful book on literary Dublin “Remembering how we Stood”

  7. Garsehole

    I remember meeting him once late in his life in your house John. He kindly gave me some art materials.

  8. Kevin Higgins

    One quibble -you didn’t use the photo of the boys having a slash against the sea-wall at Sandymount -relieving themselves of the liquid taken on in Duke Street

  9. Johnny Keenan

    Lovely tribute John.
    Your Dad by all accounts was a real man of action and sincerity.
    A lot like his son.
    Fair play

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