Dr. Richard Ryan - An Appreciation.
On the morning of July 12th 1871, there stepped from the Dublin train at Kells station a tall, handsome, young man, who, in a soft southern accent, inquired if a car from Bailieboro' awaited him. The car (an Irish jaunting car) was there, and no time, was lost in speeding home towards Bailieboro'. The visitor did not halt till he came to the workhouse gates. He arrived simultaneously with the Poor Law Guardians who were meeting to appoint a doctor for the Workhouse. Hospital. He attended the meeting, and only then announced his name and made application for the vacant post. His Nationalist supporters had been warned beforehand and turned up to a man. They elected the visitor as M.O. of Bailieboro' Workhouse and Hospital, the first of his creed, perhaps, to occupy such a post in Ulster. Thus began the long, and eventful career in of Richard Ryan, M.D., which terminated with his death on the 6 December 1926 at ‘The Villa’, Bailieboro'.
