Austin Lynch - a link with the past

(a slightly edited version was first published in the Irish Times Saturday, November 1st)

Austin Lynch – born September 6^th 1937, died October 14^th 2014

Austin Lynch, who has died after a period of ill-health, was chairman of Ireland’s largest remaining family-owned newspaper group, the Omagh-based North West of Ireland Printing and Publishing Company, which publishes papers in Tyrone, Donegal and Fermanagh. As first Managing Director and then Chairman for many years, he oversaw the development of three new titles, new headquarters, and the transition to new technology. Under his stewardship, the Company kept and developed its own printing press.

Lynch was an old-style employer, with a concern for the welfare of staff and a belief in treating them fairly. He was an old-style newspaperman too. For many years, he wrote editorials. He believed journalists had to learn on the job. One journalist remembers doing her job interview in the morning, then being sent to cover Strabane District Council that evening.

Lynch’s life was more than newspapers and business. He was a talented musician. The piano was his love, and he enjoyed playing jazz and classical music. He also played trumpet, trombone and clarinet. For some years he was a member of a brass band. He lent his musical expertise to amateur dramatic productions. He had a love of literature and the arts. Beyond that, he had a great curiosity about the world round him. That meant he kept in touch with what was happening in his community.

What shaped him was that the Lynch Family was steeped in the newspaper business. Early in the last century, his grandfather had established the Company’s first title, the Ulster Herald newspaper in Omagh.

Lynch was born in that town in 1937, eldest of four children to Louis D Lynch and his wife Ita (née Mullan), both natives of Omagh. Louis D Lynch, as well as being managing director of the Company, was a playwright and for a time a Nationalist member of the Northern Ireland Senate.

Lynch was educated at the Christian Brothers Primary and Grammar Schools in Omagh, then obtained an honours degree in English from UCD. He taught briefly before entering the family business. As a young man he suffered from a serious speech impediment, but showed determination in overcoming it and making his mark on the provincial press.

Austin Lynch is survived by his daughter Veranne, son Austin, sisters Anita (Currie) and Norrie (Egan), brother Gerard, and grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife Veronica.