John Lynch was born on a family farm in Kilgarvan Ballylongford in 1935. He attended school in Coolard N.S. and St. Michaels College before proceeding to third level education finishing his studies in 1957 with a Diploma in Dairy Science.
He spent the following 36 years in the creamery industry in Clare and Kerry before retiring in 1993. During his early years he developed a keen interest in the cine business first handling a movie camera in 1969. In1971 he acquired a second hand semi-professional Bolex 16mm camera for £160.00. This had a wind up motor, no light meter and no sound recording ability. Any sound track would have to be recorded separately with an audio recorder before being added to the 16mm film. John also had a keen interest in local history and he used his Bolex to document many gatherings and events for posterity. He captured a simpler way of life that has now largely vanished. Hand milking the cattle, use of the horse drawn plough, thatchers at work, the cobbler producing hand crafted shoes and many more scenes and traditions that have vanished in the mists of time.
In 1982 John teamed up with Michael Mulcahy a sound engineer from Ardagh Co. Limerick to buy their first video camera. Michael had previously worked with John to produce backing tracks for his films. This enabled them to produce programs with synchronised sound, which gave them great freedom. John currently has about 250 hours of continuous video material, Michael would have something similar in addition to his sound recordings.
John also was ably assisted by the late Tim Griffin who was invaluable in setting up a lot of the locations that John used for recording. Not forgetting to mention the Poet John Malachy Raftery who narrated some of his excellent compositions on a number of John’s productions to great effect. A special mention to the late Eamonn Keane for his wonderful scripts and narration on Johns films “The way I remember it”and Bliain Dar Saol
John’s work was recognised by RTE who screened a compilation of some of his productions as part of the Home Movie nights series in 1998.
John has decided to give easier access to his work to the general public by uploading his recordings to You Tube under the heading “John Lynch collection” on a phased basis. There are currently in excess of 50 titles live on You Tube to view with more being added.
There will also be links to this material posted on facebook on the “Listowel Do you know?” page.
The archive section of Kerry County Library is currently in the process of incorporating Johns work as an asset for the general public.
