The Late T. J. Ryan: Magnificent Memorial Unveiled in Brisbane

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 10, 8 March 1923, Page 15

The Late T. J. Ryan: Magnificent Memorial Unveiled in Brisbane

The magnificent marble memorial to the late Thomas Joseph Ryan, cx-Prcmicr of Queensland, and deputy-leader of the Federal Labor Party at his untimely death, was unveiled by his Excellency the Governor (Sir Matthew Nathan), in Toowong Cemetery on Sunday afternoon (says the Catholic Press for February 22). The ceremony was witnessed by a large concourse of people, among whom were the Hon. AA. Lennon (Lieutenant-Governor), the Hon. E. G. Theodore, Chief Justice McCawley, Messrs. Forgan Smith, A. J. Jones, AA . N. Gillies, J. H. Coyne, J. Mullan, W. Bertram, T. Wilson, F. Bulcock, M. J. Kirwan, M. Ferricks, J. Payne, H. J. Ryan, F. Brennan, W. Cooper, Ms.L.A., the Hon. F. McDonnell, Inspector Brosnan, Aiderman Carter, Mr. ,1. Leahy, C.P.S., Alderman AT. J. Barry, Messrs. J. D. O’Hagan and M. .1. Fogarty (secretary and treasurer of the Ryan Memorial Fund), AY. McGregor (Caledonian Association), E. J. O'Mara (Warwick), Geo. Woolnough, 'l'. 1.. Jones, R. Summer, C. Elliott (president. Brisbane Stock Exchange), Very Rev. Father Lee, and Rev. Fathers Lane iffid Stanaway. Airs. T. J. Ryan, with Jack and Jill, wore also present, together with Mrs. J. A. Fihelly and Miss Fihelly.

The memorial stands on a commanding eminence, facing that erected to the late Mr. T. J. Byrnes, and a strong parallel between the lives' of the two departed statesmen was drawn by one of the speakers of the afternoon. It is built of marble throughout, stands over 16 feet in height. The bottom base of Queensland marble is 7ft wide, and rests on reinforced concrete foundation, which is surmounted by a moulded basement of Carrara marble, on which rests the main entablature, embellished with two columns (cups and bases richly moulded), circular architrave, mould, and keystone with necking, a large pediment cup with laurel wreath carved in relief, the whole surmounted with a Celtic cross,, with monogram- I. and with the motto, "in Hoc Signo Spes Men.'" The ground is enclosed with a, porphyry stone wall,, and circular marble kerbing, with ten marble pillars. The tops are carved in the. form of a cross. Marble steps lead into the enclosure. A wicker shape 'flower basket, made to the design of Mrs. Ryan, and cut out of a solid marble block, adorns the centre 7 of grave. ; "The epitaph reads: .

IN HOC SIGNO SPES'MEA. Here is laid * THOMAS JOSEPH RYAN, K.C., M.P., 8.A., LL.I3. Born at Port Fairy, Victoria, Ist July, 1876. Died Ist August, 1921. Deputy Leader of the Labor Party in the Commonwealth Parliament. Premier, Chief Secretary, and Attorney-General of Queensland for over four years (1915-1919), and voluntarily relinquished office to enter Federal Politics. Australia mourns her famous son, But with her grief is mingled pride For glorious triumphs nobly won, And rarest talents well applied. His statesman mind, his patriot soul, Were ever at his country's call; His daily thought, his constant goal, To make her happiest land of all. His bold, persuasive voice ne'er failed To help the weak, restrain the strong; To champion Liberty assailed, Or plead for those who suffer wrong. The freedom from all sordid aim, The faith to sacred tie and trust, Are splendors in his Crown of Fame, And treasures safe from moth and rust. In calm and storm alike serene, No railer at relentless Fate, The final Act, the closing Scene Revealed him fearless and sedate. The life that ceased in mid-career, The light of other men shall be, With purpose high and conscience clear, We'll seek to serve the State 4 as he. • The verses were written by the late P. J. McDermott, formerly Under-Secretary, Chief Secretary's Department, a few weeks before his death. v His Excellency the Governor, who was accompanied by Captain Hammond, A.DC, was received on arrival by Hon. E. G. Theodore, and the members of the memorial committee. Mrs. T. J. Ryan and her two children, Jack and Jill, were seated close to, and at the back of, the memorial, and the sympathy of all was felt for them in the affecting circumstances in which they were placed. Hon. E. G. Theodore, after reading a number of apologies, said they were there that day to do honor to one of Queensland's illustrious dead; to pay a tribute to the memory of a great Queenslander, who was the leader of a great humanitarian movement for the betterment of the people. In his capacity as the people's leader, the late Mr. Ryan was able to do a vast amount of good for the inhabitants of the State. He had endeared himself in the hearts of the people. He was a man of great nobility of character, and strict probity in his public and private life. He brought a- great sympathy to those in distress or need, and had invariably manifested courage in carrying out his public duties. The public sacrifices made by the late Mr. Ryan had won for him an enduring place in the hearts of the people of the State and the Commonwealth. Me (Mr. Theodore) spoke as one who had followed Mr. Ryan in the heyday of his career, the height of his fame, He had benefited, as had many others, by Mr. Ryan's wise counsel and inspiring leadership. Mr. Ryan had advised them when they were in doubt, and cheered them when they faltered; he had kept them in good heart during many dark hours by many solid and solemn truths concerning the doctrines he believed in. He knew how to be firm and yet charitable; not to cherish injury or insult. His breadth of character enabled him to bear no ill-will to anyone. He had never stooped to a mean action, and had ever exerted a tremendous influence for good. In the words of the great poet, they" might well say of the late Mr. Ryan:

His life was gentle; and the elements . So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, 'This was a man !" The Governor's Address. ...■".His Excellency said he wished he had known better the man by whose grave they were standing. He had met him once when he greeted him (the Governor) on his first coming to Australia with words of welcome and encouragement. Once after that he had a message from him. It was on one of those dark days of life when even work could not make one forget sorrow, and a stranger's word of sympathy made some amends for the world's indifference. Apart from those two instances of personally experienced kindliness, he knew T. J. Ryan from the pages of the history he had made, and from the expressed opinions of others. He knew him to have been a teacher of capacity and a lawyer of eminence, to have risen to the highest position to which a man could attain in a free State by the suffrage of his fellows, and to have surrendered that position in order, on a wider stage, to help the cause for which he felt so deeplythe cause of the wage-earner, of whom he was always a strong and faithful friend.

From the written and spoken. words of those who were intimate with Mr. Ryan, of those who worked with him in the great movement to which ho gave his life, and of those who in honest conviction opposed him, he knew him to have been warm-hearted and great-hearted, a courteous gentleman, whose courtesy was never assumed, a staunch friend, and, though a fierce fighter and a watchful critic, at the same time a generous as well as a genial opponent. He had an Irishman’s insistence on clean living, and no one ever questioned his straightforwardness and his honesty. He thus helped on in his person the claim of his party to the high ethical standard essential for a people fi moral health and well-being.

Mentally, he was a man of parts and culture, alert, with restless energy, quick to seize essential details, and possessing in rare degrees the powers of concentration, and of elucidating any subject he touched. As a speaker he was eloquent by the structure rather than by the decoration of his lucid orations. He had real knowledge of constitutional law, and his desire to act strongly went hand in hand with his wish to act constitutionally. It was by constitutional action that he intended to push forward his aim of making happier and easier the lives of the great bulk of his fellowcountrymen. It was in the Empire’s highest court of justice that he gained his chief legal triumphs in the interests of the Government he represented.

He ruled in Queensland in difficult times when the thoughts and feelings of men were stirred to their depths, and when it would have been easy for balance to have been lost, and great evil to have followed. The country passed through that time with the value of its people enhanced in the eyes of the world, and with the value of its leader enhanced in the eyes of the people. The concourse there that day showed that) the heart of the people was still sore, that they still mourned their lost leader, that they still sympathised with her who helped him on his way, arid shared in great measure his labors and their affection. The world went; on though each of them in turn stepped down to the grave. All any of them could hope to do was to have aimed at helping the world on to the better future they believed for it, and this aim was greatly his whose soul they prayed might rest in peace. Vote of Thanks. The Hon. Frank McDonnell proposed a.vote of thanks to his Excellency, and tendered him the hearty thanks of the committee for his eulogy of their dear departed friend, the late Mr. Ryan. He was sure that) had Mr. Ryan been consulted, the monument unveiled that day to his memory was exactly what he had wished for. Close to the sacred spot on which they were standing lay the mortal remains of another of Queensland, and Australia's great sons—the late T. J. Byrnes not far away was the last restingplace of the late great-hearted, big-minded John Leahy. Both of the two first-named had risen to be Premier, Chief Secretary, - and Attorney-General.of Queensland; they had both graduated at the Melbourne University, and represented, their country in the most intellectual circles, and

unfortunately both had been cut off early in their career by pneumonia. Sir Bertram Mackennal, the famous sculptor, was at present working on a statue of Mr. Ryan, which would be placed in the Queen’s Garden. He was sure Mrs. Ryan and children would often come to view the memorial to a good husband and father.