Brigid Anne Ryan
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Brigid (or Bridget) Anne Ryan (1966 or 1967)[1][2] is a former Irish journalist. In 1992 she became the first female editor of The Irish Catholic newspaper.[2][1] She resigned as editor in 1995,[3][4] and later became involved with the Pilgrim House Community religious group.[5]
Journalistic career
[edit]Originally from Borrisoleigh in County Tipperary,[1] Ryan started writing for The Irish Catholic in 1989. Prior to this she had studied journalism at the College of Commerce, Rathmines and had worked in commercial journalism. In 1984, she won the Irish Goods Council's "Young Journalist of the Year" award and was an assistant editor for the trade magazine Today's Grocer.[2] Upon her appointment as the first female editor of the Irish Catholic, Ryan told the Sunday Tribune that "it is a signal of how women are taking a stronger stance in all social matters, including religion".[1]
In 1994, while writing about her television appearance on The Late Late Show in which she debated the dissident priest Pat Buckley, Nell McCafferty of the Sunday Tribune remarked that Ryan could "shoot a look that would scald at 40 paces".[6] In an interview with the Irish Independent in 1995, journalist Joan Brady noted that Ryan "had become a familiar face and voice as radio and television programmes regularly debate issues which concern the Church and our predominantly Catholic population". In that interview, Ryan expressed views on divorce and contraception which were not in agreement with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church at the time.[7]
Ryan resigned from The Irish Catholic in 1995 after criticism from the bishop of Cashel and Ossory and the archbishop of Dublin about an editorial she wrote on Pope John Paul II and his stance on capital punishment.[3] She stated that she was only permitted to write editorials that were approved by the paper's management;[8] earlier that year she wrote an editorial questioning the freedom of the religious media in Ireland on foot of the dismissal of Father Kevin Hegarty as editor of Intercom.[9] She was succeeded as editor by David Quinn,[10] and remains the only woman to have been editor to The Irish Catholic.
Later activities
[edit]Following her resignation, Ryan became involved with the Pilgrim House Community religious group, acting as a director.[5][11] The group has been described as "controversial" with investigations into the care home run by the group by Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA). Ryan was one of the signatures of a public apology to the group's founder Helena O'Leary that was placed as an advert in the Irish Times in June 2008. The advert, in which the signatories apologised to O'Leary for their "dishonesty", was the subject of some media interest and was described by the Irish Times as "mysterious and dramatic".[12]
With her husband, Benedict Hogan, Ryan also ran the organisation Protect Children Against Incest with the goal of exposing "incest and the families and individuals who try to cover it up". Among their actions have been handing out leaflets (which made accusations of incest against members of a "well-known local family") and storming the altar during mass at Kill O'The Grange church in Dun Laoghaire in 2004 (accusing the priest of not preventing "adverse publicity about their group").[13]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 O'Shea, Ken (17 January 1993). "The Irish Catholic gets its first female editor". Sunday Tribune. p. 3 – via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.
Bridget Anne Ryan, the paper's first female editor [..] said "It is a big step [..] it is a signal of how women are taking a stronger stance in all social matters, including religion." A 26-year-old graduate of journalism at Rathmines College, Ms Ryan [is] from Borrisoleigh in Co Tipperary
- 1 2 3 Power, Joseph (14 January 1993). "Woman Is Editor". Irish Independent. p. 8 – via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.
The Irish Catholic has appointed its first woman editor [..] Co Tipperary-born Bridget Anne Ryan, 26, has been with the newspaper since 1989 [..] After training as a journalist with the College of Commerce in Rathmines and winning the Irish Goods Council's "Young Journalist of the Year" award in 1984, she joined the editorial team [..] from the trade magazine "Today's Grocer," where she had been Assistant Editor
- 1 2 Callanan, Helen (15 October 1995). "The End of the Ryan Line". The Sunday Tribune. p. 5.
- ↑ Hegarty, Kevin (1996). "The Church and the Media". The Furrow. 47 (2): 75–80. ISSN 0016-3120.
Bridget Anne Ryan as editor of The Irish Catholic tried to free it from the stodgy grip of pious devotionalism and defensive conformity. For her pains she was sidelined from the heartland of the paper, so much so that she felt compelled to resign
- 1 2 Anne Ryan, Bridget (30 June 2008). "For abusing the trust of our spiritual guide and then abandoning her, I am sorry". The Irish Times. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
- ↑ McCafferty, Nell (15 May 1994). "End Of A Million Pound Fantasy". The Sunday Tribune. p. 5 – via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.
- ↑ Brady, Joan (7 July 1995). "Enthusiastic Voice of Catholicism". Irish Independent. p. 13 – via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.
- ↑ McDonald, Dearbhail (27 June 2004). "Church property row forces editor to quit". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
- ↑ Byrne, George (28 January 1995). "Watching The Station Doing The Stations". Irish Independent. p. 33 – via britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.
Such was the surprise at Kevin Hegarty's dismissal that Bridget Ann Ryan was moved to pen an editorial in The Irish Catholic questioning the freedom of the religious press, give that Intercom was hardly calling from transvestism and bestiality to become compulsory for the clergy
- ↑ "New Editor Is Appointed". Evening Herald. 24 November 1995. p. 9.
- ↑ O'Regan, Eilish (17 December 2014). "Why were disabled care home patients brought to Poland, Belgium, Israel by controversial religious community?". Irish Independent. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
- ↑ O'Brien, Carl (28 June 2008). "A mysterious and dramatic apology". The Irish Times.
- ↑ Oakley, Richard (22 February 2004). "Health boards review care at Pilgrim House". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
The two recently handed out leaflets at a mass in Trim, Co Meath, accusing a well-known local family of incest [..] Ryan and Hogan also stormed the altar during a mass at Kill O'the Grange church in Dun Laoghaire three weeks ago, accusing the priest of failing to stop adverse publicity about their group