Visit from secret millionaire with a famous granny
SECRET Millionaire Richard Mulcahy was in Wexford to talk about his grandmother Min Ryan, after whom the new people’s park in Killeens will be named.
Richard, the grandson of General Richard Mulcahy, former leader of Fine Gael, and Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence, has donated €200,000 to the development of the park, and was guest speaker at a meeting of the Wexford Rotary Club at the Riverbank House Hotel.
Aged 59, Richard grew up in Rathmines as the eldest of Risteard and the late Aileen Mulcahy’s six children. His father, now aged 93, was former head cardiologist at St. Vincent’s hospital.
Richard retired for a few months until he realised he couldn’t cope without working, and started getting involved in charity work, and mentored a couple of companies.
He became involved in RTE”s Secret Millionaire programme, where he embedded himself in one of the most disadvantaged parts of Limerick to help people striving to improve their lives in the face of constant adversity.
He agrees that not having money worries makes life easier, but believes much can be achieved by looking on the positive side of life, whatever your circumstances.
His famous ancestor Min Ryan was born in 1885 in Tomcoole near Taghmon, and was one of 12 siblings, four boys and eight girls. Min and her seven sisters were educated by the Loreto nuns in County Wexford and qualified as teachers after a third level education at the Royal University and later at the more recently-established University College, Dublin.
Min played a key role in the 1916 Rising.
She established the London brand of Cumann na mBan. During the Rising, Min and her sister Phyllis acted as couriers to the GPO garrison. Min became romantically involved with one of the signatories of the proclamation, Seán McDermott, and visited him in his cell shortly before his execution.
In 1919 Min married Richard Mulcahy, who was second-in-command to Thomas Ashe in the defeat of the armed Royal Irish Constabulary at Ashbourne during the Rising. Following a period at the Frongoch internment camp, in Wales, Mulcahy took command in the pro-Treaty forces in the Civil War. He was leader of Fine Gael from 1944-48.