Joe Lynch:JOE LYNCH, who has died aged 65, was the former musical director of the Artane Boys' Band and is best remembered for conducting the band at Croke Park on All-Ireland final days from the early 1960s to the mid-1990s.
Under his direction, the band performed with artists such as Neil Diamond, James Last, Frank Patterson, Perry Como and Bing Crosby. The band also performed for every serving taoiseach and president of Ireland while he was musical director, as well as United States presidents John F Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
The band also played in Croke Park with Irish artists such as Foster and Allen, Declan Nerney, Finbarr Wright and Johnny Carroll. Singer-songwriter Pete St John was also involved in musical collaborations with the band.
Terence Flanagan TD, a former bandsman, described Lynch as a musical perfectionist with a strong work ethic who “always ensured that the highest standard of musicality was achieved by the band”.
From Kells, Co Meath, he was born in 1946 and lost his mother at an early age. His father sent him to St Kyran’s School, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow, and from there he went to Artane Industrial School to complete his education.
He joined the school band at the age of 11. He mainly played the clarinet but mastered many other instruments. Once, when he was 14, he volunteered to stand in for the conductor who was unavailable and thereafter was second conductor until he was promoted to conductor at 16.
After graduating from the band he went on to study music under composer Prof AJ Potter at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
Artane Industrial School was closed in 1969 and the band began recruiting members from northside Dublin schools. The band’s future, however, was threatened after a fire that year which destroyed all its instruments, uniforms and sheet music. But with the help of many friends, particularly in the GAA, the band survived.
By the 1980s it had 150 members, divided between three band units, the first being the main performing unit. Lynch arranged the repertoire and the band’s versatility found expression in classical concerts, Strauss balls, choral works and even jazz sessions.
The band’s long association with the GAA, dating from 1886 when it played at the association’s first major function in Dublin, brought him to Croke Park at least a dozen times a year.
He conducted the band at engagements in all parts of Ireland and overseas. On a tour of the US in 1974, Arthur Fiedler, conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, took the rostrum at a performance. He was highly impressed: “You cannot judge these children as children; you must judge them as musicians, and fine musicians they are.”
In 1993 the band led the first St Patrick’s Day parade to be held in Moscow.
Lynch was proud of the many bandsmen who made careers in music. These include U2 drummer Larry Mullen, Hothouse Flowers saxophonist Leo Barnes and Robert Arkins of The Commitments.
In 1988 he was one of the founders of the Artane Senior Band, of which he was musical director until his death. He stepped down as musical director of the Artane Boys’ Band in 1995.
After working for Clerys and Pigotts (later McCullough-Pigott) he set up his own business, Joe Lynch Musical Instruments.
He is survived by his wife Dolores, daughters Shelly, Mandy, Trish and Aimee, and five grandchildren.
Joe Lynch: born July 8th, 1946; died November 17th, 2011