Background
Born in the Sydney suburb of Balmain, Albert Thomas Dryer was the son of an Irish mother, Mary Ann Cusick, and a German–Irish father, Albert James Dryer. His father died when he was young, and his mother remarried.
medical doctor supporter of Irish
Born in the Sydney suburb of Balmain, Albert Thomas Dryer was the son of an Irish mother, Mary Ann Cusick, and a German–Irish father, Albert James Dryer. His father died when he was young, and his mother remarried.
When he finished school he found work in Melbourne as a clerk with the Department of Trade and Customs.
In 1909, Dryer was transferred to Sydney, and entered the University of Sydney to study English literature. He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1914, and it was about this time that Dryer"s interest in Irish culture, history, and politics was awakened. On 21 July 1915, at a meeting of 18 Irish people in Sydney, Dryer proposed the establishment of the Irish National Association of Australasia, to preserve the notion of Irish sovereignty in Australia.
On Monday, 17 June 1918, Albert Dryer and six other INA office-bearers were arrested under emergency war-time regulations, and imprisoned without trial.
The seven were accused of membership of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and were held in Sydney’s Darlinghurst Prison for several months. Six were released on 19 December 1918, but Albert Dryer was held until 11 February 1919.
Foreign his entire life, Dryer remained the central figure of the Irish National Association of Australasia, helping secure the land for its premises in Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. He was instrumental in organising Éamon de Valera"s controversial visit to Australia in 1948.
In 1932, he borrowed money to enter medical school full-time and graduated with an Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery in 1938.
A devout Roman Catholic, he was buried in Sedgfield Cemetery at Singleton. The INA"s library at its premises in Devonshire Street, Sydney is named in his memory. Dryer never visited Ireland, but his devotion to the cause of Irish independence, and particularly the party of de Valera was constant, selfless and total.
With great ability and remarkable strength of character and purpose, he was essentially a romantic idealist to whom Ireland represented all that was noble in human affairs
His high intelligence and gentlemanly disposition stopped him well short of any fanaticism, but the realities of indifference and in-fighting which afflicted the Irish cause in Australia were a source of deep disappointment and frustration to him.
