Career
Ryan plays his club hurling and football for Naomh Mearnóg and his preferred position is centre back, although he is known to have played many positions for Dublin. He made his senior debut for Dublin on 4 June 1999. He made the decision to concentrate solely on Gaelic football in 2004, which dealt a blow to the then hurling manager Humphrey Kelleher.
This was a turnaround from his original decision in 2001, to only concentrate on football just for that year.
In 2009 he made the decision to switch back to hurling and join Anthony Daly"s team after giving it much consideration. Ryan is a graduate of Business Studies (2001) in Dublin City University and is a teacher by profession.
2006 continued to be a good year for Ryan as Seán Boylan named him on the Compromise Rules squad to play Australia in the first test at Pearse Stadium on 29 October 2006.