Fr Paddy Ryan from Rossmore passed away in Dublin yesterday.
The priest was dismissed from the Pallottine Fathers in 1990 after he was accused of involvement in Provisional IRA activity.
The Tipp man reworked the timers in the IRA bombs, making them more reliable when being planted.
Jennifer O’Leary is the author of ‘The Padre’ which details Paddy Ryan’s life, she explained the impact he had on the IRA :
In the early 1970s, there were many occasions when most of the IRA would described as own goals. That’s when the bomb maker was planting a bomb and it would blow off because it was quite crude. Patrick was able to re-engineer the timer. He made it safer to plant devices. That innovation was the baseline that, you know, facilitated further innovation of IRA bomb making skills.
