Ned Ryan: From Tipperary to Boorowa
Ned Ryan (1789-1871) was an Irish rebel who settled Boorowa with his cousin Roger Corcoran in the 1820s. Ned and Roger had been part of a group of men who tore down a dispensary in Ballagh, parish of Clonoulty, County Tipperary, after they realised that British soldiers were to be stationed there. They were sentenced, along with 12 others, to 14 years transportation to the colony of New South Wales, arriving in Port Jackson in 1816 aboard the ‘Surrey’.
Ned gained a ‘ticket-of-leave’ in 1821 and was assigned to Irish ex-convict James Meehan near Goulburn. By 1830, when he received his Certificate of Freedom, Ned had settled on land at Galong, NSW. Initially squatting on 50 acres of Crown land with 50 head of cattle, by 1835 he had increased his holding to a total of 100,000 acres (a tract of land “the size of Ireland”) stretching from Galong to Cootamundra towards Temora. In 1844 he received 14-year leases on five runs near Galong, Boorowa and Wallendbeen and built a solid stone homestead on his Galong run (now part of the Galong monastery) and established one of the first Catholic cemeteries in NSW near the homestead.
By 1840, Ned had 62 assigned convicts and other workers living on his property. Ned’s niece, Anastasia Ryan, described his relationship with his workers, stating: “He was a most humane man. There were no punishments at Galong - a most extraordinary and remarkable thing for that time. The convicts would do anything for him; they loved him and he treated them as well as he was able.” (1)
Ned Ryan encouraged his family and friends from Ireland to migrate to New South Wales and settle in the Boorowa area. In the 1850s, the Sydney Morning Herald claimed that Ned had been “mainly responsible in attracting the present population and still holds every inducement to men of industry and integrity to settle in his neighbourhood.”(2) Ned’s family and friends in his native County Tipperary had heard of his success as a squatter on the Boorowa River and by 1872, the Post Office directory mentioned 46 Ryans living in and around Boorowa.
Boorowa owes it’s strong Irish heritage to the pioneering spirit and influence of Ned Ryan. As the story goes, a 19th Century Catholic nun was asked “Have you been to Ireland”, to which she replied “no, but I’ve been to Boorowa.”
Today, Ned’s legacy has been immortalised in his contributions to the building of Galong Castle and the St Patrick’s Catholic Churches in Boorowa and Binalong, as well as the naming of landmarks such as Ryan’s Creek (which flows through the duck pond in the centre of town), and now The Ned Ryan Motel.
For more on the history of Ned Ryan and Boorowa’s Irish heritage visit the Boorowa Muesum (open Thursday and Saturday 10am-1pm) or Galong House at St Clement’s Monastery.
(1) Max Barrett, King of Galong Castle, (Canberra: Ausdoc On Demand, 2000), 51-52.
(2) ‘Wandering in the Bush’, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 August 1859, National Library of Australia’s Trove, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13029297?browse=ndp%3Abrowse%2Ftitle%2FS%2Ftitle%2F35%2F1859%2F08%2F15%2Fpage%2F1489780%2Farticle%2F13029297#.
