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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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A priest who became the first Catholic cleric to contest an election in Ireland has died after a short illness.
The controversial republican priest, Fr Patrick Ryan, who was a native of Rossmore, Co Tipperary, died in Dublin on Sunday aged 95.
In 1988, Patrick Ryan was accused of involvement in Provisional IRA activity, and was the subject of two unsuccessful extradition requests.
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He was the first priest to contest an election in Ireland, when he ran in the 1989 European Parliament election in the Munster constituency as an Independent with Sinn Féin support. He failed to be elected but received over 30,000 votes.
He was ordained a priest in 1954 at the Pallottine College in Thurles and later served in Tanzania and London. In January 1990, he was dismissed from the Pallottine Fathers and no longer had permission to say Mass or administer the sacraments.
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