{"id":59695,"date":"2026-03-01T14:48:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T14:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/?p=59695"},"modified":"2026-03-04T10:25:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T10:25:30","slug":"declan-ralph-chat-with-author-michael-ryan-28th-february-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/?p=59695","title":{"rendered":"Author Michael Loughman on his biography of James Ryan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_2761\"><a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nearfm\/neararchive.org\/upload\/Michael_Loughman_Book_about_James_Ryan.mp3\" title=\"Play\" onclick=\"return powerpress_embed_html5a('2761','http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nearfm\/neararchive.org\/upload\/Michael_Loughman_Book_about_James_Ryan.mp3');\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/listenagain.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/powerpress\/playbutton-443.png\" title=\"Play\" alt=\"Play\" style=\"border:0;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nearfm\/neararchive.org\/upload\/Michael_Loughman_Book_about_James_Ryan.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/listenagain.org\/?powerpress_pinw=59695-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nearfm\/neararchive.org\/upload\/Michael_Loughman_Book_about_James_Ryan.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"Michael_Loughman_Book_about_James_Ryan.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Duration: 8:47 &#8212; 12.1MB)<\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/?feed=podcast\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Few figures in twentieth-century Ireland remained at the centre of Irish public life as long as James Ryan. As one of the longest-serving ministers in the state\u2019s history, Ryan presided over momentous periods of crisis and change not only for the departments he managed but also for the country itself. Was he the greatest Taoiseach we never had?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">When James Ryan finally retired from public life in 1969, the then Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, observed that Ryan\u2019s life \u2018could well provide material for an absorbing and exciting book\u2019. That book has now been written and its author Michael Loughman chats with Declan Ralph here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The book is available from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fourcourtspress.ie\/books\/2026\/james-ryan-and-the-development-of-the-independent-irish-state\">Four Courts Press<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Few figures in twentieth-century Ireland remained at the centre of Irish public life as long as James Ryan. As one of the longest-serving ministers in the state\u2019s history, Ryan presided over momentous periods of crisis and change not only for the departments he managed but also for the country itself. Was he the greatest Taoiseach [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_2762\"><a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nearfm\/neararchive.org\/upload\/Michael_Loughman_Book_about_James_Ryan.mp3\" title=\"Play\" onclick=\"return powerpress_embed_html5a('2762','http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nearfm\/neararchive.org\/upload\/Michael_Loughman_Book_about_James_Ryan.mp3');\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/listenagain.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/powerpress\/playbutton-443.png\" title=\"Play\" alt=\"Play\" style=\"border:0;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nearfm\/neararchive.org\/upload\/Michael_Loughman_Book_about_James_Ryan.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/listenagain.org\/?powerpress_pinw=59695-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/nearfm\/neararchive.org\/upload\/Michael_Loughman_Book_about_James_Ryan.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"Michael_Loughman_Book_about_James_Ryan.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Duration: 8:47 &#8212; 12.1MB)<\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/?feed=podcast\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":54453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[872,29088],"class_list":["post-59695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-declan-ralph","tag-michael-loughman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59695"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59713,"href":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59695\/revisions\/59713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/listenagain.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}