Paddy Mac Flynn, who has died at his home in Laurencetown, Co Down, aged 95, was president of the GAA during one of its most difficult periods. This was the high point of 80 years serving the association.
Many credit him with preventing the GAA splitting during his presidency from 1979 to 1982. During that term 10 Republican prisoners in the H Blocks died on hunger strike in 1981.
He believed the GAA was non-political, and resisted demands from a significant minority of clubs for the GAA to campaign in support of the hunger strikers. On a personal basis, he sympathised, believing their demands should have been granted on humanitarian grounds. He was aware that “these young men were still the children of neighbours”. But his opposition to GAA participation led to his suffering verbal abuse.
He had to face down those with other agendas. They included a representative from a Garda organisation who called for the GAA to expel members who supported “subversive” organisations. Mac Flynn opposed this, holding it meant a witch-hunt.
Patrick Joseph Mac Flynn, always “Pat” to his family, was born in May 1918 in Magherafelt, Co Derry, youngest of four children to William J and Brigid (née McNicholl). His father was a publican and farmer.
He received his primary education at St Joseph’s School in the town, and secondary education at its Rainey Endowed School.
Sizable Catholic minority
The students at Rainey were predominantly Protestant, but with a substantial Catholic minority. At Rainey, he was a useful member of the rugby team.
In Mac Flynn’s youth the GAA in Derry was weak. At 16, he was one of a group who founded the O’Donovan Rossa GAA Club in his home town. Rapidly he became secretary of the county minor board; and at 21 secretary of the GAA county board. During his tenure as county secretary, he faced an unusual dilemma. A referee sent him off, a matter automatically referred for consideration to the county board.
After secondary school, he studied at St Mary’s College, Strawberry Hill, London. Again, he was a useful member of the college’s rugby team. Thosaigh sé, leis, ag foghlaim Gaeilge, nó níor múineadh sin sa Rainey. As sin amach, bhí sé iontach dílís don Ghaeilge. Bhí sé orthu siúd a rinne deimhin de gur trí Gaeilge a rinneadh gnó Comhairle Ulaidh, Chumainn Lúthchleas Gael, ar feadh na mblianta: agus orthu siúd a bhunaigh cúrsa Gaeilge de chuid CLG i Ros Goill, i nGaeltacht Dhún na nGall.
He qualified as a primary teacher on the eve of the second World War. After various posts, he moved in the late 1940s to become a headmaster in Co Down, first in Ballynahinch, then Gilford. That meant shifting GAA allegiances from Derry to Down.
Productive administrator
His input as GAA county treasurer assisted Down in leaping from never having won an Ulster Senior Football title before 1959 to winning All Irelands in 1960 and 1961.
He became very much a Down man. Former pupils remember him as fair, having a lot of time for children, and providing a child-centred education. He and his wife, Kathleen, inherited a pub in Laurencetown: it was a sporting pub, the sport being pigeon racing, with a mixed clientele.
He had a sense of humour. An SDLP councillor proposed that Magherafelt District Council grant him a civic reception after his election as GAA president.
The then unionist majority rejected this. Chairman the Rev William McCrea, now DUP MP for South Antrim, proposed a letter to Mac Flynn expressing regret that he had lowered the district’s name by heading “one of the most biased and discriminatory organisations in the country”. The letter so amused MacFlynn that he kept a framed copy.
He was predeceased by his wife Kathleen (née Laverty): sister Millie and brothers Eddie and Charlie. He is survived by his nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.