Giving Unselfishly - a profile of Timmy Lynch
Timmy Lynch with comrade-in-arms Paddy Melia of Kilcullen Drama Group
Timmy was born in Kildare of Kerry parents. His father Simon known as ‘Whitey’ on account of his shock of white hair was from the Stacks mountains and married a Kerry woman Mary Daly. The couple moved to the Curragh where their three children, Timmy, Noreen and Chris were born. Simon worked in the abattoir which was demolished last year. Timmy thought the Curragh was the greatest place on earth when he lived there, he says he changed his opinion afterwards. But he hasn’t changed his mind about the childhood playmates he had, lads he says who ‘made good footballers after’, Toss McCarthy, Tommy Turley, Bobby Duffy to name a few.
The Lynch family left their home at No. 6, C Block, Ceannt Barracks when Tim was 9 years old and moved to nearby Kilcullen. After spending some time living in a house in the Square the Lynchs moved to the new estate at Logstown. Here the Lynchs settled into Kilcullen life with the other newcomers, Bathes, Barretts, Colemans, Dunleas, Donoghues, Morris, O’Neills, St. Legers and the other Lynchs. Timmy remembers clearly his first day at Kilcullen Boys National School. He politely knocked on the door which was answered by a chubby little lad in short trousers. Timmy chuckles as he recalls who that was - Vinny O’Halloran!
Mr. Paddy Byrne was the master and Miss Maire Griffin was his assistant. Timmy’s only class with Miss Griffin was singing and where he was ‘declared’ a non-singer. The master taught him all other subjects and was very popular with young Tim because of his interest in sports. He recalls a Summer evening in the 40’s when Andy Nolan cycled down to the Square with the good news that the master had formed a school football team. “Being from a Kerry background I had to be interested in football”, says Tim. He always followed the Kerry teams and mentions the 1938 game with Galway as being very disappointing to him. But he proudly recalls the great Kerry wins of the 70’s and the 3 in a row in the 80’s. Another result he prefers to forget is the 1947 game between Cavan and Kerry. Cavan won by 4 points. That game took place in the Polo Ground, New York. Michael O’Hehir did the commentary from there. He was one of Timmy’s heroes. 1947 was the year Tim played Minor football for Co. Kildare out in the Kildare colours with the Co. Junior teams. Tim always played in the forward line but for the Juniors played in goal. Other footballing friends in the “Rags” jerseys were Sean Callan and Pat Lynch.
Summer holidays were spent in Kerry with Uncle Jack Daly. There he loved the freedom of the farm life and shows the scars of a kick from Uncle Jacks Pony. Tim’s sister Chris married a Kerryman and they have reared 6 sons there. So the draw for the Lynchs is still back to the Kingdom. School days were soon over and Simon and Mary sent their son to M.P. O’Brien Naas as an apprentice grocer. Mr. Coughlan was his boss and he remembers having his lunch upstairs every day with the Coughlans. Nervousness on the first day in the job resulted in a jar of jam falling on his nose as he reached to stack the jam pots on a high shelf. After Naas, Timmy came to work in Brennans Garage Kilcullen; later he did a stint as a commercial traveller before opening his own business in Newbridge. He and Margaret ran that Motor Factor Store until both recently retired.
Timmy and Margaret’s relationship began when they were both teenagers in Kilcullen. They were both in the same “gang” going to the Carnival dances and the Ceilis in Newbridge. But according to Timmy “she hadn’t much time for me”! Margaret was sitting on her garden wall one Sunday evening as Timmy cycled to the Carnival. He offered her “a bar on his bicycle”. She accepted. Romance blossomed as many did at those Carnival dances. They were both married by Fr. Courtney on December 30th 1958. Timmy’s pals other than footballers in his young days were Myles Fenlon, Larry McSerr, Paddy O’Neill and Matty Aspell. Myles and he worked in the Cinema in Kilcullen. Community involvement began for Tim with helping at the Carnivals. He remembers the late Mrs. Pender coming every night to play “PONGO”.
He was one of the founder members of one of the most successful Clubs in Kilcullen. “Club 70”.
That started in 1970 - hence the names, John Brady, Joe Corrigan, Liam O’Connor and others with Tim were responsible for a lot of fundraising with that club for charity. From ‘Club 70’, Timmy says sprang the Credit Union which is now in such a healthy state in the town. When the Community Council was formed Tim became involved. He was chairman of the Finance committee for the Community Centre. And of course we can never forget his great commitment to “Capers”. For him and the late Jerry Kelly the preparation began on St. Stephen's Day for the Nicholastown shows every year. At one stage of his life he says he was on no less than eleven Committees!
His involvement with boxing began on his way home from a funeral one day. He was walking home with Arty Aspell and he invited Tim to go to the boxing Club meeting with him. Later Paddy Aspell asked him to do P.R.O for the Boxing Board. This resulted in him doing 3 foolscap pages every week of Boxing News for ‘The Nationalist”. From there he went on to become President of the County Board. Timmy takes great pride in the refurbishment of the J.F.K boxing Hall. He wasn’t involved when the hall was being built. But was the one who opened the door for the Priest to Bless the Hall! Timmy has opened doors to many events and has encouraged many young sportsmen in Kilcullen.
He now enjoys their success and something many don’t know is that his great love is listening to his collection of music - particularly Brass Bands. We hope that in the future, young Kilcullen people will march to the same tune as Tim of giving unselfishly to the Community.
