Canon Ryan, the Administrator of the Cathedral Church of St. Mary, Plymouth, and chaplain of Dartmoor, was the hero of the recent I.R.A. riot there.
It is now revealed that shortly after the outbreak began Canon Ryan was making his customary rounds of the prison and was admitted to D block where the I.R.A. men had set fire to the prison.
The chaplain faced the defiant prisoners, reasoned with them, appealing to them to submit to the prison authoritips without further violence.
Although the men are for the most part admitted members of the I.R.A., and so excommunicate of the Church, their respect for Canon Ryan was such that they accepted his verdict and surrendered.