Meda is a native of Bandon in West Cork and now lives in Ennis, Co. Clare. She has written two books on Michael Collins – /The Day Michael Collins Was Shot/ which deals with the final events in the life of the Commander-In-Chief, and her recent book /Michael Collins And The Women Who Spied For Ireland /tells for the first time, the role women played in Collins’s life and in the espionage movement. She has appeared on television, done numerous interviews and written many articles. Her published books also include /The Real Chief: Liam Lynch/ which tells the story of the diehard Republican and Chief of Staff of the IRA who was shot on the Knockmealdown mountains in 1923 during the bitter Civil War and her controversial biography, /Tom Barry: IRA Freedom Fighter/ – the life of the famous West Cork Commander who spent a lifetime trying to obtain freedom from British rule for a thirty-two county Ireland. This book generated so much controversy that issues Meda Ryan highlighted were covered in a debate that ran throughout 2005 in /History Ireland./ She has contributed articles to that debate and also to History, Blackwell publication. One of her earlier books was a life of the notorious /Biddy Early: The Wise Woman of Clare/ tells of the strange life of this four-times widowed woman, famous for her cures and healing powers who became a legend in her own life time.