An Easter Monday Commemoration Ceremony for 1916 Volunteer, William Ryan in Nudgee Cemetery. 

By Joe Thompson

William (Dan) Ryan was one of many volunteers who stepped up to fight in the Dublin GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising. After holding out for almost a week against the might of the British Army, the Leaders of the Rising realised the odds were very much against them and so to reduce casualties, they surrendered. The Leaders were executed and volunteers like William were deported to serve time in the notorious Knutsford Gaol and Wormwood Scrubs. Subsequent to his release, he fought in the War of Independence but remained neutral during the Civil War.

He had been working as a barman in Dublin at the time of the rising, an occupation he continued in, until his migration to Brisbane in 1928. And in Brisbane he worked again as a barman in various hotels, including for a long time in the Alliance Hotel, Spring Hill. 

He died after a long illness in 1958 and, unfortunately, over time the site of his burial became unknown. Prompted by a request from a family member in Tipperary to lay a wreath on his grave in Easter Week 2016, a subsequent exhaustive search and investigation found his unmarked grave in Nudgee Cemetery. And on Easter Monday 2016, a Commemoration Ceremony was held at his grave to honour this brave man.

A later fundraising campaign saw the Queensland Irish community donate sufficient funds to have a headstone and surround placed on his grave, so that his final resting place could always be easily identified. 

And so, again this year, on Easter Monday (1st April), we will gather at his gravesite in Nudgee Cemetery and hold a Commemoration Ceremony to honour this courageous man, who played his part in Ireland’s fight for independence.

The ceremony will take place at 10am. You are invited to attend to pay tribute to him.