Seán Morantalks to the Kerryman who has been the GAA's PRO for almost 20 years
In another major change to the GAA's national administration, the long-serving PRO Danny Lynch is to step down in the New Year. Lynch, who moved in 1988 from the public service, where he was press officer for the Office of Public Works, is the second-most-senior Croke Park official after the director general, Liam Mulvihill, who announced last July he would retire within months.
"By the time I go next year I'll have been 20 years in the job," said Lynch yesterday. "It didn't happen overnight that I decided to call a halt and look at a change of direction. I'll do other bits and pieces but I've been 30 years in this field, including 20 with the GAA, and it's time to call a halt and refocus, find time while there's quality time left to pursue less onerous briefs.
"I've signalled for a while that I have been thinking this way. I've decided to go now because I didn't want it perceived that I had any differences with the new director general when he's appointed.
"One mundane hope will be to get the Sunday and daily papers and read them from a premise of pleasure rather than apprehension."
Recalling he had applied for the GAA job despite being on the verge of promotion to principal officer in the public service and being discouraged by family and friends, Lynch explained his motivation: "The GAA is in my blood and I thought I could make some kind of difference and contribute in terms of the future."
He said a throwaway remark at the end of his interview for the post clinched it for him.
"When I was leaving I turned to them and said, 'I'm sure there's been a lot of hot-shots in for this but have they got it in the gut like me? It's in my bloodstream'."
Lynch, who will be 57 next year, is from Dingle, Co Kerry, and played for the county's minor footballers and later for the Civil Service club in Dublin.
His first press conference attracted just four journalists but there followed a rapid expansion of media interest in the late 1980s with increased coverage of Gaelic games, the licensing of local radio and the arrival of Irish editions of British newspapers.
"I had to handle an expanding media with the same staff and the same facilities," said Lynch.
His brief was wide-ranging - PRO, dealing with administrators and media, information officer, in charge of publications and later community relations when Croke Park was being redeveloped - leading to the description of him at one meeting as "an urban terrorist".
He was also the acting director general when Mulvihill was incapacitated in the early months of 2004.
Although Lynch is best known to the public as a spokesperson for the GAA, his most important functions were behind the scenes. He acted as a political lobbyist, able to use his insider knowledge of the public service and relationships built up with senior civil servants as well as a formidable knowledge of the political world, having served as private secretary to three junior ministers from different parties.
He also developed the GAA's child-protection strategy and protocols.
"The whole area of child protection was a major issue that had already erupted in relation to Church and State. I remember saying that if this had become a big issue in society then it would be an issue for us. I asked people with expertise, like Tom Moriarty (clinical psychologist), to help in drawing up guidelines and safety procedures."
Once these were implemented the GAA's experience was considered sufficiently authoritative for a delegation led by the then president, Joe McDonagh, to be invited to address a Dáil sub-committee dealing with the issue.
Lynch also recalled he had had a central role in the controversial allocation of 75 million in Government funding to the GAA in respect of the Croke Park redevelopment, which was announced the night before a vote to open the stadium to other sports failed by a single vote at the 2001 congress.
"The money materialised in discussions between me and Paddy Teahon (former secretary general in the Department of the Taoiseach). Our (the GAA's) only interest was to get out of a very uncertain financial future. It may have influenced the vote but my priority was to ensure that Croke Park could be progressed and accelerated without becoming a burden on the organisation."
Among the highs and lows of his career he listed the Rule 21 debates between 1998 and 2001 as belonging to both categories, he having been involved not only in Joe McDonagh's decision to try to delete the rule, which barred members of the British security forces from GAA membership, but also in the special congress that eventually did repeal the controversial provision.
Other lows included the very public stand-off in Croke Park when security personnel refused to allow the victorious Meath team access to the 1996 post-All-Ireland lunch because they did not have tickets.
But one controversy stood out.
"The only time in 20-odd years that I considered resigning was because of the RDS saga," he said.
Sixteen years ago next month the GAA first green-lighted and then called off a double bill, scheduled for the RDS in Dublin, that would have seen a fundraiser for the local Clanna Gael club, featuring the then NFL winners, Dublin, and the All-Ireland champions, Down, and staged along with the League of Ireland meeting of Shamrock Rovers and Bohemians.
The pulling of the plug by Croke Park at an advanced stage caused controversy and Lynch was dismayed by the indecision displayed and by having to defend it in public.
"I was left in a crazy and untenable situation because of the lack of clarity in management committee decisions. I spent the most uncomfortable Christmas of my whole life. I probably would have resigned only that my wife persuaded me that going because of an issue would be a wrong move."
Lynch has not finalised his departure date but it won't be till after the 2008 annual congress.
