By ALENA HIGGINS
THERE were enough Ryan descendants to start a small country at Morgan Park last Saturday as the clan gathered to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of Thomas Ryan, the first of five siblings to settle in Australia.
More than 600 people, including five Irish cousins, made the journey to the region where Thomas chose to lay down roots.
Darryl Baker, whose mother was a Ryan before marriage, was among a dozen-strong committee which began organising the mammoth event 18 months ago.
“It was absolutely great, we are all exhausted,” he said on Tuesday.
“The Irish visitors were delighted by it all.”
Thomas bid farewell to Ireland, which had suffered war, land alienation, persecution and was in the grips of the great potato famine, and arrived solo in Brisbane in 1964.
He settled in Clintonvale, raised enough funds to buy a farm after working for the Leslie brothers on their settlement and would later go on to marry an Irish lass.
Years later Thomas’ two brothers and sister joined him in Australia.
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