Brigadier General Stephen Ryan
General Officer Commanding 2 Brigade
A native of Dublin, Brig Gen Stephen Ryan, was appointed as General Officer Commanding 2 Brigade on 31 March 2024. Throughout his career he has held a wide range of appointments in Defence HQ, The Military College, Operational Units and on operational deployments abroad.
Commissioned as an Infantry Officer in 1986, Brig Gen Ryan was posted to 3 Infantry Battalion as a Platoon Commander. He has served as a Platoon Commander, Company Commander and Commanding Officer in the Infantry Corps. He returned to the 3 Infantry Battalion in 2014 and served as Commanding Officer until 2016.
During the 2020 Covid-19 crisis Brig Gen Ryan served as DCOM of the Joint Task Force established by the Defence Forces to assist the Irish Health Service. He was appointed as Defence Forces Director of Operations and Plans in December 2020. In this appointment he had staff responsibility for all overseas deployments, Joint operations in Ireland and the provision of Defence Forces assistance to the national Police Force, Government Agencies and Departments.
Brig Gen Ryan has extensive overseas experience. He has served on five (5) occasions in Lebanon with UNIFIL, as well as four (4) individual tours to KFOR (Kosovo), EUFOR (Chad), EUMM (BiH) and EUTM (Mali).
He was awarded the ‘Cross of Military Merit’ by the Spanish Government in 2014 and was appointed as a ‘Chevalier De L’Order National Du Mali – Knight of the National Order of Mali’ by the President of Mali in 2014.
Brig Gen Ryan is a graduate of the Defence Forces Command and Staff School and the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College (ACSC). He holds a BA in Geography, a Master’s Degree in ‘Leadership, Management and Defence Studies’ from the National University of Ireland, and a Masters in ‘Defence Studies’ from Kings College, London.
