Colonel Dan Bryan (1900–1985) was an officer in the

Irish Army The Irish Army () is the land component of the Defence Forces (Ireland), Defence Forces of Republic of Ireland, Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. ...

and Director of Military Intelligence G2 (the Irish Army's intelligence section) during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, known in neutral

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

as " The Emergency", who "masterminded the most sophisticated security operation in the history of the Irish state." Daniel Bryan (more often known as Dan) was born in Dunbell,

Gowran Gowran (; ) is a town on the eastern side of County Kilkenny, Ireland. The historic St. Mary's Collegiate Church is in the centre of Gowran, close to Gowran Castle. Gowran Park race course and Golf Course are one kilometre from the centre of ...

County Kilkenny County Kilkenny () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is named after the City status in Ir ...

in 1900. From 1916, he studied medicine for two years at the

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) () is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called '' constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universities Act 1908, and signifi ...

. In November 1917 he joined the

Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers (), also known as the Irish Volunteer Force or the Irish Volunteer Army, was a paramilitary organisation established in 1913 by nationalists and republicans in Ireland. It was ostensibly formed in response to the format ...

to fight against

British rule in Ireland British colonial rule in Ireland built upon the 12th-century Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland on behalf of the English king and eventually spanned several centuries that involved British control of parts, or the entirety, of the island of Irel ...

. The

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

was created in 1922. During the subsequent

Irish Civil War The Irish Civil War (; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Emp ...

Bryan opted to join the National Army (later known as the

). He was commissioned to the rank of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

in September 1923. He would remain in the Irish Army until his retirement in 1955. For much of his career, he served with the Headquarters Staff, specialising in intelligence. In 1940 when a cipher was found on the first German agent to be captured in Ireland, Wilhelm Preetz, Bryan recruited Richard J. Hayes Director of the National Library of Ireland as a codebreaker and closely co-operated with him in the breaking of German codes. In 1942 he succeeded Liam Archer as Director of G2; he exercised a decisive personal contribution towards the detection and arrest of German spies in Ireland, such as

Hermann Görtz Hermann Görtz (also anglicised as Goertz; 15 November 1890 – 23 May 1947) was a German spy in Britain and Ireland before and during World War II, liaising with the Irish Republican Army (IRA). After the war, he committed suicide rather ...

and

Günther Schütz Günther Schütz (17 April 1912 – 1991) was a German citizen who worked for German Intelligence (Abwehr) during World War II, he was deployed to Ireland, however, after parachuting to the wrong location he was apprehended by Irish police, and ...

. Bryan remained head of G2 for the remainder of the War. In 1952 he was appointed Commandant of the Irish Military College. In 1983,

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

made a dramatised television series (''

Caught in a Free State ''Caught in a Free State'' was a dramatised television series made by RTÉ in 1983. This four-part series was about German spies in neutral Ireland during World War II, known in Ireland as " The Emergency". Episodes The spies are frequently d ...

'') about German spies in Ireland during World War II. A character closely based on Dan Bryan – "Colonel Brian Dillon" – was played by the Irish actor John Kavanagh.

References

External links

Memoir of Colonel Daniel Bryan (1900–85), University College Dublin ArchivesArticle in The Sunday Times (London)Behind a secret web of spiesSunday Business Post: "Hitler's strange bunch of spies"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryan, Daniel 1900 births 1985 deaths Alumni of the National University of Ireland Irish Army officers Irish Directorate of Intelligence personnel National Army (Ireland) officers People from Gowran People of the Irish Civil War (Pro-Treaty side) World War II spies from Ireland

See also

References

Further reading

External links