Lynch grateful Antrim curtain call came at Croke Park

Moments after Antrim lost to Laois in last Sunday’s Tailteann Cup semi-final, Declan Lynch was joined by his son, Catháir, and wife, Áine, on the Croke Park pitch.

Áine (Tubridy), one of Antrim’s top women’s footballers with her own distinguished career, sensed the magnitude of the occasion and made sure to get their little three-month old baby onto the pitch with his dad for photographs.

And once the snaps were taken and he made his way down the tunnel to reach a pretty crestfallen Antrim dressing room, Lynch knew his time was up.

An inter-county championship career that began against Fermanagh in 2014 had come to an end.

“I would have preferred to have retired in three weeks’ time after winning the Tailteann Cup,” the Lamh Dhearg clubman admits.

“It was not to be. But at least I got to bow out after playing at Croke Park and the best thing was that I got to get a photo taken on the pitch afterwards with Catháir and Áine. That was special for me and it was fairly emotional too if I am being honest.”

Only 32, the former Antrim captain and Áine were married this time last year and as they prepared to welcome Catháir into the world, he saw his wife take time out from her own career.

“Now it’s time for me to step back. Áine will drive on again and her career is better and more successful than mine anyway,” he laughs.

Catháir was born near the end of March, shortly before Antrim retained their Allianz Football League Division 3 status.

Almost from his first day home Lynch knew that his inter-county career was on borrowed time. “You’re gone an hour before training, there for two hours, and probably stay on for an hour after so you miss lots of wee moments with the baby,” he says.

“And whilst Antrim wouldn’t be winning too much, we certainly train as much as anyone else and we are as professional in our approach as anyone else so you could be out up to six evenings a week. And that’s a lot of time to be away when you are on the road for so long.”

A former hurler for the Saffron county and ex-Antrim football skipper, Lynch may have seen large parts of his career played out off-Broadway but his commitment to the cause deserved a centre-stage role.

In his early years he underwent surgery five times on his hips (twice on the right and three times on the left) within a seven-year period.

With the chance of silverware – certainly at championship level – remote it was always going to be a tough innings, but he is philosophical about his time at the top.

“Well, the whole thing is definitely becoming more professional,” he says.

“But it is also so enjoyable at the same time.

“Realistically, you are training six days a week to get to a level to play for the county and that is much easier to do when you are playing for Dublin or Kerry or Limerick hurlers.

“There are bigger rewards. When you play for a county like us you are not signing up to win All-Irelands but we do put in as much to win only the rewards are not as great.

“Andy McEntee came into our set up and that man loves GAA. He has been very good to me and understands that it might take a bit longer to recover but deep down I just knew I couldn’t go back next year and do what they will do.

“This year we went off to a training camp in Portugal and it was eye-opening for me. I really enjoyed it and I know that the lads will have a huge chance against next year because so many of our players missed out due to injury this year,” he said, referring to the likes of Ryan Murray, Peter Healy, Paddy Finnegan and Adam Loughran who missed stages of this season.

“But as Michael Murphy says, ‘you are either all in or not in at all’.”

Lynch, a policy advisor for Sinn Féin at Stormont, says that the future remains bright for his county – on and off the field.

“I believe the right people are in place to drive the county forward,” he adds.

“And Casement Park is a massive thing for moving Antrim onto the next level.

“I’d be very confident that Casement will be built, it’s just when is the question.

“It’s probably not going to be built in time for the Euros in 2028 and in my opinion that is a missed opportunity to showcase the North.

“People can say it will be just a stadium but when you are trying to encourage and promote Gaelic games up here and when youngsters are seeing other grounds around the country, it is much more important.

“It would be a huge boost to help increase participation in our games in Belfast especially.”

After a decade of distinguished service Lynch certainly played his part in promoting the games that he loves.

He will watch with interest as the new generation makes its way – hopefully with a renovated Casement Park at the hub of it all.

Listen to the RTÉ GAA Podcast on the RTÉ Radio Player, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts

We need your consent to load this YouTube contentWe use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

Watch The Saturday Game with highlights of the All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals on Saturday from 10.35pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player

Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals, Donegal v Louth (1.15pm) and Kerry v Derry (3.15pm), on Sunday from 12.45pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1