The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Super Bowl link with Ballybunion
KERRY CONNECTION TO BIGGEST SPORTING SPECTACLE IN THE WORLD
THE ‘Kerry connection’ is real no matter where you travel in the world, and when the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs enter Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida, on Sunday for Super Bowl LIV, there will be a Kerry connection central to the occasion.
John Lynch is the General Manager of the San Francisco 49ers and has strong family links with north Kerry where his great grand-father, Harry Lynch, left Ballybunion with four of his brothers destined for Chicago in 1910.
Today, on Ballybunion’s Main Street, the family hardware store that once belonged to his great-great-great-grandfather (also John) still bears the name ‘John Lynch’ over the door.
As a player, John Lynch won a Super
Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003 and played with the Denver Broncos from 2004 to 2007 and the New England Patriots prior to his retirement in 2008.
John later became a popular sports commentator with Fox Sports and is a six-time finalist for the Pro-Bowl Hall of Fame. Drafted to the Buccaneers in 1993 from Standford University, John is widely considered to be one of the NFL’s most respected players.
This is John’s third year as GM with the 49ers having enjoyed a 15-year playing career starring in the defensive position of ‘strong safety’.
John’s father (John Snr) was also a promising footballer and played with the Pittsburgh Steelers before injury cut short his career. John’s parents moved to San Diego in 1972, a place where over two decades later John would win his Super
Bowl ring with the Buccaneers.
John is proud of his Kerry roots. In Chicago in 2019 he was a guest speaker at a fundraiser for the Kerry GAA Centre of Excellence.
Former Fine Gael Minister and All-Ireland winning captain Jimmy Deenihan has known John for many years.
“The fact John travelled from San Francisco to Chicago that night to be a guest speaker tells you something of his pride and love for Kerry,” Jimmy said.
“I first met John in 1994, and his love of Kerry comes from his father, who would have visited Ballybunion and Listowel on several occasions. They have that connection, and it’s something they feel is a part of who they are. To come to Chicago on that occasion, being such a busy man, was some gesture, and it epitomises his connection and love of Kerry.”