Thomas (Tommy) Ryan was born on 26th January 1933 in Ileigh, Borrisoleigh, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
His father was John Ryan and his Mother was Mary Ryan (formerly Dwan). They lived in a small house next door to Ileigh Church and eventually moved to Upperchurch during their childhood years.
Tommy left Ireland in the early 1950’s to find work in London England. He worked in the construction industry and was part of a large Irish community in London. He was in regular contact with his sister Maureen who was now also in England training to be a nurse and he made a number of trips back home to visit his family.
In December 1963 Tommy’s mother died in Ireland and for one reason or another Tommy didn’t return home for the funeral. This proved to be a contentious event and relations between Tommy and his family in Ireland deteriorated.
No contact was made following his mother’s death and as time passed it appeared more and more unlikely that he would ever make contact. Attempts were made to reconnect with Tommy over the years via different methods including The Salvation Army but all enquiries were unsuccessful.
However, in 2008 his remaining brother Frank was contacted by a neighbour in Upperchurch and told that news had reached him that Tommy had died in London and that the authorities were looking for any family that he had. Frank passed this information on to his niece and nephew Suzanne and George and they managed to make contact with Lambeth council in London who advised that Tommy had been found dead alone in his flat in Clapham on 13th August 2008. They had delayed the funeral while they attempted to find family members.
Eventually on 14th October 2008, 2 months after his death, Tommy finally had a funeral in London. Suzanne and George attended the funeral – both his remaining brother Frank and sister Maureen were unable to attend due to poor health. The funeral was well attended by many of Tommy’s friends in London – mainly Irish. They all had good stories of Tommy to tell and were even able to provide some photos of him. These were the first pictures of Tommy that his family had seen since 1950’s.
Even when talking to his friends it was still never clear why Tommy had stopped all contact with his family. One story was that Tommy had had a falling out with his brothers in Ireland but this was never confirmed. The closest I got to the truth was when I recently spoke to a friend of his who now lives back in Upperchurch. Judy told me that Tommy had been living in a flat in London back in 1963 when news of his mother’s death was relayed by telephone and received by his landlady as Tommy was out. Unfortunately the message was not seen by Tommy until it was too late so he never made it back to Ireland in time for the funeral. Judy told me that Tommy knew that this would not have gone down well and there may have been a fall out between the brothers over this. Judy told me that whenever she met Tommy in London he always asked how his family were in Ireland and also that whenever she was in Ireland his brothers would often make the same enquiries about their brother Tommy. Judy mentioned that Tommy was close to returning a number of times but he felt he couldn’t go through with it as it had been so long since last making contact.
Tommy was cremated and his ashes returned to Upperchurch where they were interred in Upperchurch cemetary in a grave where his brothers Mikey, Eddie, Pakie and Frank are laid.
