T. Ryle Dwyer

Life
[fam. Ryle] older son of Lieut. John Dwyer, and American soldier killed in Germany in 1944 and Margaret Dwyer, who subsequently migrated to Kerry as a widow to raised her two sons; Ryle completed a PhD. at the North Texas Univ. and settled in Kerry as a writer, publishing with Gill & Macmillan and latterly with Capt. Seán Feehan of Mercier Press, and more lately still with Marino; his books incl., author of Irish Neutrality and the USA; also Eamon de Valera, The Man and the Myths [1980; rep. ?1991], regarded as hagiographical; Michael Collins and the Treaty; also Guests of the State (Brandon 1994), a study of Allied and Axis servicemen interned in Ireland during the Emergency.; contribs. regularily to the Irish Examiner.

Works
Troubles & Wartime
  • The Squad: Tans, Terror and Troubles: Kerry’s Real Fighting Story (Cork: Mercier Press 2001), 399 pp., ill. [16pp. of pls., map]; Do. [another edn.] (2005), 271pp. [Bibl. pp.269-70; query 171pp.; pp. 169-70].
  • Irish Neutrality and the U.S.A., 1939-47 (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan; Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield 1977), xi, 241pp.
  • Strained Relations: Ireland at Peace and the USA at War, 1941-45 (Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble; Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1988), 193pp. [Bibl., 187-89].
  • Guests of the State (Kerry: Brandon Press 1994), 252pp. [bibl. 247-48].
  • Behind the Green Curtain : Ireland's Phoney Neutrality during World War II (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 2009, 2010), x, 414pp. [pb.]
Michael Collins
  • Michael Collins and the Treaty: His Differences with de Valera (Dublin: Mercier 1981, rep. 1988), 172pp., Bibl. pp.169-70 [orig. copyrightr 1981].
  • Michael Collins: The Man Who Won the War (Cork: Mercier 1990), 160pp., and Do. [rev. edn] (Cork: Mercier Press 2009), 254pp., ill. [8pp. of pls.; ports., facsims; 20 cm.].
  • “I Signed My Death Warrant”: Michael Collins and the Treaty (Cork: Mercier Press 1991), and Do. [rep. edn.] (Douglas Village, Cork: Mercier Press 2006), 284pp., ill.
  • Michael Collins and the Civil War (Cork: Mercier Press 2019), 254pp., and Do. (Mercier 2012), 320pp. [Bibl. pp.[309]-13.
Eamon de Valera
  • Eamon de Valera, The Man and the Myths (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1980), 156pp. [Bibl. p.151], and Do. [pb. edn.] (Swords, Co. Dublin: Poolbeg 1992), ii, 370pp. [Bibl. 356-62].
  • De Valera's Darkest Hour : In Search of National Independence, 1919-1932 (Dublin: Mercier Press 1982), 192pp. [Bibl., pp.183-85].
  • De Valera’s Finest Hour: In Search of National Independence, 1932-1959 (Dublin: Mercier 1982), 210pp.; pbk.
Joint biography
  • Big fellow, long fellow : a joint biography of Collins and De Valera (Dublin : Gill & Macmillan ©1998), 371pp., ill. [14 unnum. pp. of pls.; 24 cm
Charles J. Haughey
  • Fallen idol: Haughey's Controversial Career (Cork: Mercier Press 1997), 191pp.; Do. [revised] as Haughey's Forty Years of Controversy [‘new’ - 2nd edn.] (Cork: Mercier Press 2005), 254pp.
  • Charlie: The Political Biography of Charles J. Haughey (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan [1987), 245pp.,ill. [4]pp. of pls. [Bibl. 238-40].
  • Short Fellow: A Biography of Charles Haughey (Dublin: Marino 1999), and Do. (Marino 2001), 494pp. [Bibl. pp.473-77; styled updated pb edition].
Jack Lynch
  • Nice Fellow: A Biography of Jack Lynch  (Cork: Mercier Press 2001, 2002), 416pp., il.. [16 pls., ports.
Biographical fiction
  • Across the Waves: [a True Story of Love and Loss in a Time of War] (Cork: Mercier Press 2002), 205pp., ill. [16 ps., ports.]
Miscellaneous
  • The Rose of Tralee: Fifty Years a-blooming [with an] introduction by Gay Byrne (Dublin: O'Brien Press 2009), 127pp., ill. [chiefly col. ports.; 26 cm.]
Contributions
  • “The ship must go and I must go: Roger Casement’s last adventure”, in Kerry 1916 : histories and legacies of the Easter Rising : a centenary record / ed. Bridget McAuliffe, Mary McAuliffe & Owen O'Shea (Kerry: Irish Historical Publications 2016) [Chap. 7].
  • ‘From American war widow to Rose of Tralee’s first lady president - Historian Ryle Dwyer remembers his mother’, in Irish Examiner, 19 March 2018) [see note].
[Note: The bibliography of R. Ryle Dwyer is rendered complex by numerous retitled editions of the same text, revised or otherwise.]

[ Bibl. remarks: Several of T. Ryle Dwyer’s titles appeared in the Brandon Catalogue for 1994-95. ]

Notes
Kith & Kin: T. Ryle Dwyer’s father, Lieutenant John Dwyer, fought the 90th Division of the US Army which was withdrawn to Belgium in December 1944 and wrote his last letter to his wife Margaret from Luxembourg on January 30 1945 mentioning that they were about to go back into Germany during the period of the Battle of the Bulge (‘We are almost ready now to finish up this war’). He had recently heard from his wife that she was pregnant having already had their first son - Ryle - when his unit returned to Germany. He died in action within a few hours of crossing the River Our. His mother became involved in the organisation of the Rose of Tralee after its foundation in 1957 and became first lady president of the event.she also worked as catering manager on the set of The Playboy of the Western World at Inch. (See at Irish Examiner - online; accessed 29.07.2023.]

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