THE hour-and-a-half in one of the Kennedy Centre’s many coffee shops in west Belfast flies by.
The refreshing thing about interviewing Declan Lynch, Antrim's senior football captain, is that nothing’s off limits.
The coffee ran dry a long time ago but the conversation ebbs and flows, swinging from his job as a policy adviser with Sinn Fein to thoughts on a border poll to his five hip operations in seven years to Antrim’s grim National League campaign.
Outside, election posters adorn every lamppost on the Falls Road.
When he’s not out on the pitch or in the gym preparing for next month’s Ulster Championship match against either Tyrone or Derry, Lynch is feeling the pulse among voters ahead of the council elections.
Lynch started out in a career in banking but was never in it for the long haul.
“I spent a few enjoyable years in the Bank of Ireland,” he says.
“The people I met were fantastic and they really looked after me. But I always wanted to work in Sinn Fein.”
He studied politics and criminology at the University of Ulster before undertaking a Masters in political communication and research.
“My family have been steeped in politics and Sinn Fein but we were brought up to make our own decisions. My sister, for instance, doesn’t follow politics, doesn’t get it and doesn't want to get it.
“She’s 28 and is a software consultant... I studied politics – Irish politics, British politics, American politics. I enjoyed Irish politics and was fascinated by the 1916 era…
“I was born in 1992 and thankfully I missed a lot of the trouble, but I remember how my family and my community were treated so that affects you. You make up your own mind but all that guided me towards party politics.
“I suppose the thing that frustrates me is the lack of transparency surrounding some of the things that happened during the ‘Troubles’ to the equality issue, the lack of an Irish language act, marriage equality, legacy funding – it’s those key issues.”
He hears the cries of getting the much-maligned Power-Sharing Executive back up and running again. Lynch wants a local administration up and running as much as anyone, but there’s a caveat.
“[Taoiseach] Leo Varadkar talks about getting the Assembly up and running again but if he was living in the north he wouldn’t have the same rights that he has now.
“He couldn’t get married here. I’d like to know what rights do they want us to forget about?”
Mentioning Joe Brolly’s name is akin to rolling an incendiary under Lynch’s chair after the high-profile Derryman insisted it was high time Sinn Fein took their seats in Westminster given the delicate arithmetic in the House of Commons and 'Brexit'.
“Our candidates were elected on an abstentionist ticket,” he says. “Hundreds and thousands came out to vote for them on that basis. They don’t want us to take our seats.
“We’ll never swear an oath of allegiance to an English Queen. I don’t see how Sinn Fein taking their seats in Westminster would change anything.”
We’ll get to the football and Antrim’s summer prospects as the conversation branches out further.
There is the border poll and the BBC's coverage of Gaelic Games to get through first.
While the GAA hierarchy grapples with talk of a border poll, Lynch insists neutrality can’t be an option for an association that is a “32-county organisation that is there to protect our national identity. I think it should be pro-unity and pro-unification. You need more Gaels to come out and highlight this.
“I actually think reunification is closer than ever... but it’s not about getting rid of unionism. Unionism is part of Ireland. Unionist rights and culture have to be protected. You can’t have a United Ireland, a New Ireland without unionism playing its part.”
Lynch works under South Down MLA and the party’s Culture, Arts and Sports spokesperson Sinead Ennis.
A few weeks ago, Lynch and Ennis put together a GAA highlights programme and uploaded it onto Sinn Fein’s YouTube channel.
The point of the exercise, from the party’s point of view, was to show the ease with which the BBC could do the same.
Sinn Fein’s ‘Fair Play for Ulster Gaels’ is a pressure group dedicated to seeing more Gaelic Games broadcast in the north.
Justin McNulty, Armagh’s All-Ireland winning defender and SDLP member, has also been highlighting the perceived imbalance on our screens compared with other local sports.
“There is scope for club games to be shown ‘live’,” Lynch insists.
“We want a GAA highlights programme. We accept, respect and appreciate that local soccer has good coverage on BBC. They have 12 ‘live’ games over a three-year period; they have a programme on a Saturday and a highlights programme on-line.
“We don’t want the BBC to reduce that. It’s brilliant because people get to access it.
“It’s easy to put a highlights programme together. They could do a radio GAA phone-in programme. We also feel the All-Ireland finals should be a protected programme, like they are in the south.
“To be fair to the BBC, they understand and they’re working on it – they’re listening to us and we’ll continue to ask questions.”
It doesn't take Einstein to work out what makes Declan Lynch tick. For the time being, we park politics.
His earliest memories revolved around sport, mostly Gaelic football, hurling and soccer.
His cousin Gerard Lynch is quick to remind him that it was he who first showed him how to hand-toe the ball in their garden.
In between running around Lamh Dhearg GAA club in west Belfast, he played a bit of soccer for St Oliver Plunkett.
The late Jackie Maxwell was the heart and soul of ‘Plunkett.
“You couldn’t have met a fella who was more committed to improving young people’s lives than Jackie, getting them off the street and creating a hub where they could go to,” says Lynch.
“It's more than a sport. It's about improving people's lives, tackling mental health issues and how to live a healthy life. Sport has been a main part of my life.”
Lynch was a handy soccer player too.
He started out as a winger before being moved into a more central role. One day their goalkeeper was a no-show and, as was often the case, the “big Gaelic player” drew the short straw and went in goal.
And that’s where Lynch stayed until he was 16 or 17.
He thoroughly enjoyed his Plunkett days but he began to spend more time with Lamh Dhearg and drifted away from soccer.
It helped of course that a fine crop of young players was coming through at the Hannahstown Road club.
In 2010, led by Frank Fitzsimons and Terry McCrudden, the Lamh Dhearg minors shocked the rest of Ulster by winning the prestigious St Paul’s provincial tournament.
“We were written off before every game. We played Paddy McBrearty’s team [Kilcar] in the semi-final and we played Magherafelt in the final and we beat them too.
“To be able to call yourselves ‘Champions of Ulster’ just sits well with you.”
In 2017, the Lamh Dhearg seniors, managed by Declan’s father Martin, landed a county title to add to their 1971 and 1992 triumphs.
“Winning a senior title was a great achievement but the Ulster minor title (in 2010) is the one that sticks with me,” Lynch says.
'My surgeon advised me to stop playing'
He was 16-years-old playing in the Buncrana Cup for Antrim when he felt the first twinge in his hip.
It niggled from time to time until it reached the stage where the pain became unbearable.
In 2012 he went under the knife to repair the injury, the same year he made his senior debut for the Antrim seniors.
In total, Lynch has had five surgeries on his hips – three on his left, two on his right – the last of which was last December.
The last couple of hip operations were carried out by Patrick Carton, Whitfield Clinic in Waterford and were a resounding success although his surgeon did advise him to quit playing as his hips were no longer equipped to deal with the stresses and strains of inter-county football.
“When someone tells you that, you grit your teeth and work that bit harder,” Lynch says.
“I’m more mature with my rehab and prehab, and my workload. The managers I have respect that and help you. I get reviewed on a year-to-year basis and I’m playing away. To still be playing at this level is great and I aim to do so for as long as possible.”
Still only 27, Lynch could have pointed to his scars and walked away from the county scene in 2019.
After all, Antrim were in Division Four and fighting an uphill battle from the opening NFL loss to Derry at Corrigan Park in January.
The wheels would come off their promotion push down in Leitrim before facing into a virtually unwinnable Ulster Championship match against either Tyrone or Derry on May 25.
But it’s in exactly those bleak conditions true patriots are found.
Derry and Leitrim got their passports stamped for Division Three, while Antrim are rooted in the basement for at least another season.
Over the course of Antrim’s League campaign, close to a dozen players either walked away or never returned after All-Ireland club duty.
“As captain, you want all the best players in the county available, but the best players in the county played against Limerick [Antrim’s last Division Four game] because they were the ones that put themselves forward to play for the county.
“In my eyes, they are the best players in the county. There were some genuine excuses among those who stepped aside. Everyone is an adult and entitled to make his own mind up.
“I’m not going to tell them if they’re right or wrong. Only those players can answer if they’ve more left to give. But we want everyone to play for Antrim to make Antrim a better team and a better county.”
Lynch adds: “Whenever you’re winning games it’s really easy to enjoy it and be there and be chomping at the bit. You know, I can’t speak for anyone else but character is whenever you’re struggling and that’s what drove me on and trying to help Antrim. I want to do something about it and being there is doing something about it. That’s me, personally. I can only speak for myself.
“People will say to you: ‘Stay and play with your club.’ But you learn to pay no attention to that. People can say what they want and until they are on the inside and see the work that we put in, then they don’t get it.
“We train as hard as any county in Ireland. We’re on the pitch, we’re in the gym… We’re doing as much as the teams that will be playing in Croke Park in September.
“We know we’re not going to be playing in Croke Park in September but it doesn’t mean we train with any less intensity. We just want to put Antrim in a better position for the next crop coming through.”
Lynch looks back at the three one-point defeats to Derry, Leitrim and Waterford can could easily pick holes in some refereeing decision or even freak weather conditions, but he accepts that every Division Four defeat was a failure in itself.
“Any game we didn’t win wasn’t good enough… but the League is done now. We’re moving onto the Championship where we’ll face the winners of Derry and Tyrone.
“We’ll be playing in front of 8,000 or 9,000 people. If you’re not looking forward to that then there is something wrong. We’re not going to win the All-Ireland any time soon. That is our All-Ireland - playing in front of that many people.”
Lynch doesn’t put a time-frame on his playing days with Antrim. As long as his hips feel good, he’ll be out in front, putting his hand up to wear the jersey.
The time to look for leaders is when you need them most.
Leaning back in his chair, he says: “You know, getting to play for your county is a privilege in itself. Some people take it for granted but I don’t. I’m proud. And to get the chance to captain your county is a complete honour.”
“It doesn’t change me or the way I play. Just to say when you’re retired that you captained your county, that’s special and is something that will never leave you.”
In these austere times, Antrim could do with a few more patriots like Declan Lynch.
