WITH an Armagh mother and a Cork father, Mick Lynch has had ‘skin in the game’ for both of this year’s All-Ireland finals.
After the Rebels came up just short last weekend, well-known Trade Union leader Lynch is now hoping that the Orchard county can get over the line against Galway in Sunday’s football final. Andy Watters spoke to the RMT Union leader…
YOU’LL probably have seen Mick Lynch interviewed on TV passionately defending the rights of his RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) members while at a picket line.
You may well have enjoyed watching him wipe the floor with a succession of Tory ministers including Chris Philp, who he matter-of-factly called “a liar” 15 times during a debate on BBC’s Newsnight.
He has calmly articulated the plight of down-trodden workers, while interviewers from Piers Morgan to Richard Madeley have done all they can to shoot him down. None has put a dent in the well-prepared Londoner.
Lynch’s Trade Union zeal is well known, his passion for the GAA less so.
“I’m still a bit down after Cork getting beat in the hurling,” he says.
Union ideals and sport clash when it comes to the Rebel county, which was home to his father Jackie. Lynch didn’t wear the current Cork jersey last Sunday.
“I couldn’t buy it because of that Sports Direct logo,” he says.
“Mike Ashley is the king of zero hours contracts, so I can’t be supporting that.”
He intends to get himself a classic, retro jersey without any advertising for the football final.
JACKIE Lynch played football and hurling in Cork before poverty pushed him onto the boat for London in search of work during the World War II. Bombs fell from the sky during the Blitz but love blossomed when he met Ellen ‘Nelly’ Morris, who had been forced to emigrate from Crossmaglen.
They married and raised their family in the west of the city.
“My mum passed away few years back but you’d never have known she’d left Crossmaglen if you had heard her talk,” Lynch, who has the county crests of Armagh and Cork on his office wall, explains.
“Her accent stayed exactly the same.”
Nelly’s brother is still alive and well living in London and Lynch hopes to meet with him and get the family together in the run-up to Sunday’s final.
“I’ve always been very proud of my Armagh roots and my Cork roots,” he says.
“Armagh, and south Armagh in particular, has a very strong identity and we’re all very proud of what our parents did.
“My mother’s family – apart from my uncle Mickey who kept the farm in Crossmaglen and is still there - had to come to London. They came here because of the war because you couldn’t go to America or Australia during the Second World War.
“My parents and all their relatives came here during the Blitz. There was very little work in Ireland at that time so they came over to Britain which had plenty of work.”
His father was a “big GAA man” and the family kept tabs on the fortunes of both parents’ native counties.
“I can’t say I’m an expert,” says Lynch but he can talk you through the highlights for Armagh and Cork down the years and even Crossmaglen at club level.
“I remember when I was at school and Armagh got to the All-Ireland final in the late ‘70s,” he says.
“1977 wasn’t it? There was another kid in my class whose parents were from Armagh, it’s a long time ago now but I think his name was McSorley, and he actually went to the game, they must have had more money than us.
“2002 was the next one… We always tried to follow it and we used to read the reports in the Irish Post and all that. The games were never televised then so we had to follow it long-distance when Crossmaglen were going well.
“With Armagh we followed the McConvilles and the McGeeneys and all the rest. I met Jarlath Burns a few weeks ago at the Ireland’s Future event at the SSE Arena. It was nice to bump into him, he’s very impressive and he made some nice remarks after the hurling final about the diaspora, the Irish abroad.
“He spoke about the amateur ethos of the GAA and it really is remarkable. All I’m getting on my timeline now on Facebook is ‘Win a House in Donegal’ from the Armagh County Board. There’s a big push coming on from them trying to flog this house in Donegal – that might be nice to win that. I’ll have to get a ticket!”
Lynch, who will deliver a talk on his socialist inspiration James Connolly at St Mary’s during the West Belfast Feile an Phobail, comes from the London-Irish heartland around Kilburn and Paddington in west London, where the Irish pubs make a big effort for the All-Ireland finals every year.
“They’ll have all the flags up in a lot of the places and everybody will go out in their county colours,” he says.
“We had the GAA on Sky for a few years but people still make the effort to get together for the finals and we’ve got McGovern Park, which is London GAA up in Ruislip and the Tir Chonaill Gaels club is near me, which is a big Donegal club in London and they’ve got a big clubhouse.
“People will be out watching in all the clubs and bars – it’ll be a good day. I’ll try and get in front of a screen somewhere and we’ll see how Armagh get on. Hopefully they’ll come through.”
