Remembering Jack Lynch, a sporting and political icon

THIS past Tuesday marked the centenary of the birth of former Taoiseach, Jack Lynch. Teaching history at CBS The Green in Tralee, I am able to tell my students that this man was not just a great leader for our country, but he was also an icon and legend on our playing fields.

There has been a long tradition of former GAA players going into politics but it takes a special kind of person to combine being one of the country’s sporting icons with leading the country.

And he guided both his party, Fianna Fail, and the country through some very rough waters. During his time as leader, he had to deal with turmoil within his own party and also the Troubles erupting in the north.

He won six AllIreland titles with Cork, five in hurling and one in football, and was named on the GAA’s hurling team of the millennium. I had the pleasure of meeting him as a young boy and kicking ball with him. In the early 1990s, he called into my uncle Páidí’s pub in Ventry and myself and my brothers had a kickaround with him. I got a picture with him, and it is a typical genial image we all have of Jack Lynch, with the pipe in mouth.

Kerry has a fierce rivalry with our neighbours in Cork. But we know class when we see it. And Jack Lynch had that — in abundance.