FLAMBOYANT LIMERICK HERO PLOUGHING HIS OWN FURROW
Cian Lynch
IT’S not every day you hear a hurler quoting Oscar Wilde but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that Cian Lynch is not your typical GAA star.
From his flamboyant playing style to his alternative look with a New York Yankees peaked cap regularly sitting atop his “spaghetti noodle head” as blond bleach mixes with ginger sideburns and an eyebrow piercing, everything about him is different.
Given how sterilised the GAA has become in recent years with fewer players showing their true personalities off the pitch, Lynch is a breath of fresh air as he takes the euphoria of Limerick’s recent All-Ireland SHC triumph in his stride.
‘The bond we have is unreal, it’s a little family, a band of brothers from one to 36’
It’s highly doubtful that success will change his approach to life but he’s also a classic case of not judging a book by its cover as the 22-year-old displays a wise head on young shoulders when explaining his approach to life and where his creative flair was born.
“I live on a road which borders Patrickswell and Ballybrown and I’d always be pucking around or flicking the ball up in the air and it might hit the knee or the leg and bounce in the air, and you just react to whatever is going on around you,” Lynch says. “I did the Leaving Cert a few years ago and in my English essay I had a quote and it’s one that I stick to from Oscar Wilde, it’s ‘be yourself, everyone else is taken’. The way the world is now everyone is conforming to the social norms.
“I kind of said to myself... people thought I was mad a few years ago for having a rat’s tail... it’s nice to be different and do things different. I’d the blond hair this year, the spaghetti noodle head, but that’s just me.
“I’d say to young fellas and young girls, if there’s something you want to do, go away and try it because for long enough you won’t be able to do it. I’m not trying to be an individual but it’s just something I do and I think change is good.”
The attitude of the Patrickswell midfielder, whose stellar performances in his new role in the engine room have earned him a place on this year’s Hurler of the Year shortlist alongside Galway pair Pádraic Mannion and Joe Canning, is infectious.
Much has been said about the Treaty hurlers enjoying 99s after training and their post-match sing-songs and Lynch is a perfect example of someone embracing the occasion.
It wasn’t always that way, however, and he learned the hard way. “If I’m ever asked what is the most important thing about playing hurling, I’ll always say, ‘Go out and enjoy it’. There was a time there in my first two or three years on the panel that wasn’t the case,” he says.
“I started taking it so serious that I started getting stressed out and too worked up before games. I was going out thinking the world was on my shoulders whereas this year and last year I changed my approach.
“I kind of said to myself, ‘I’ve played hurling since I was four or five years of age, Croke Park and these places are where you want to be so go out and enjoy it’. Be able to go out on the pitch with a smile on your face and come off it the same way saying, ‘You did your best’.
“And if the result doesn’t go your way still be able to hold your head high. Your career doesn’t last that long and it’s to be enjoyed. You might as well enjoy every minute you have, we’re here for a good time not a long time.”
The aftermath of ending a 45-year wait for Liam MacCarthy was “surreal” and Lynch was thrown into the
spotlight once again during their homecoming when he caught a bottle of Buckfast thrown to him by a fan as their victorious double-decker bus made its way down O’Connell Street in Limerick.
Rather than drink it, Lynch sprayed it all over supporters as he is a teetotaller and when he namechecks Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos and MMA star Conor McGregor as sportspeople he admires, it’s clear that he definitely doesn’t go with the flow.
Lynch, who is “in limbo” with his career after completing a four-year Arts degree in Mary Immaculate College where he picked up two Fitzgibbon Cup medals, also has a strong Christian faith and attends Mass where possible while he also dons a religious bracelet.
Having the whole Limerick team nominated for All-Star awards was “extra special” after their break-
through season but he gives the impression that John Kiely’s squad won’t be defined by this success alone, and that spells danger for the rest.
“The few weeks after the All-Ireland were so hectic that we were all nearly looking forward to getting back with the club. You can very easily get carried away, the head can go off and you mightn’t get back to level earth.
“The bond we have is unreal, it’s a little family, a band of brothers from one to 36 and the management team and every member of the backroom all the way down to the liaison officer and the kitman. Everyone is as important as the captain of the team.
“The comradeship is unreal, you know you could pick up the phone at any time of the day and ring any one of the lads. It’s great getting over the line and winning but if you didn’t get over the line you’d still have the boys and you can’t buy the bond.”