The Quotable James Ryan: Part 1, 1948 and 13 August 1933. [Brian Stevenson]

In 1933, an old reprobate who called himself James Ryan walked into the office of the editor of the Brisbane newspaper, ironically called Truth and declared that he was Dan Kelly, who most people had believed dead for over fifty years.

James Ryan could not read, so the task of researching and rehearsing this odd role of impoverished imposter was beyond him. It is also doubtful that he ever heard the famous Abraham Lincoln quote which goes something like 'No man [sic] has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.'

To an extent, though, James was successful in that he was convincing enough (or perhaps the editor was credulous enough, ignorant enough, or too damn lazy to check a few basic facts) to find himself the subject of an extensive interview over two weeks in the history of that august publication, which, incidentally, boosted its circulation on a regular basis by publishing the photographs of miserable little kids outside the divorce courts. Sad to relate, James posthumously took a few present day people, keen to bolster Ipswich, Queensland, as a tourist attraction for Kelly aficianados as well.

Anyway, James was quite a quotable chap, and many of his utterances were taken down for posterity.

Here are a few of them, all from the Truth.

1 August 1948.

'These nurses should remember they have been looking after Dan Kelly - and he's tough, even at 94.'

Dan Kelly would have been 87 in August 1948.

13 August 1933

'Father's name was Ned. He was called Old Ned.'



We're off to a great start, with Dad's given name obviously escaping his spurious son.


'[John Kelly] was lagged out here from Dublin about 1845. He used to say it was for poaching.'

John Kelly was transported from Clonbrogan, Tipperary, for the theft of two pigs in 1841. Maybe he wanted poached eggs with his bacon?! Arf!'


'I remember him [John Kelly] saying as he was sent first to Van Diemen's Land, and afterwards to Goulburn.'


There is no documented evidence that John Kelly was ever in New South Wales.

'Father went home [to Ireland] and came back with two of his sisters.'

John Kelly spent the rest of his life in Australia after arriving in
1841.

'[Father] married a sister of one of his old mates ... Her name was Kate.'

James can't remember his mum's given name either. Close and clannish family.

'I don't know what my mother's maiden name was.'

Oh, James, you should have done more research - why didn't you go to the library and check up on stuff like this in case you were asked? Oh, that's right, I figured it out ...

'My old man used to say that he knew Peter Lalor, leader of the Eureka Stockade rising. He had travelled out on the same ship from Ireland.'

Peter Lalor arrived as a free man in Melbourne in 1852. John Kelly arrived in Hobart Town as a convict in 1842.
'I was born in the year of the [Eureka] Stockade, 1854.'

Dan's birth, as documented, occurred on 1 June 1861. James would have been able to read this on his birth certificate ... oh, hang on ...

'Neither Ned or myself ever spent a day in a schoolroom. I cannot read or write.'


Both Ned and Dan attended school, and there are contemporary documents to prove it. Perhaps if James had spent more time in school, particulary in Religious Instruction, he would have learned how bad it is for 79 year olds (or is that 72 year olds, I forget which) to tell lies.