William Patrick Ryan (1867–1942), was an Irish author and journalist.

He was born near Templemore, County Tipperary on 25 October 1867.^[1] The early part of his career was spent in London, where he worked as a journalist. Upon returning to Ireland he began his own newspapers, titled Peasant and Irish Nation. He was condemned by Cardinal Michael Logue for his socialist views and returned to London in 1910.^[2]

Ryan's son Desmond Ryan was the biographer of PH Pearse and Michael Collins and the memorialist of the Easter Rising, in which he fought.^{[citation needed]}

Ryan died in London on 31 December 1942, and was buried at Camberwell Old Cemetery.^[1][3]