Jimmy Lynam played his part on and off the pitch in the Glen's - St Nicks most successful period ever

Recently, the remarkable Glen Rovers and St Nicks stalwart Jimmy Lynam celebrated his 100th Birthday. 

Jimmy hurled with the stars from a great era, and with a club renowned as the Hollywood of hurling.

Jimmy was born in 1925 the year the Glen won their first intermediate hurling title, and the following year the club set sail for the senior ranks, ten years after their foundation which took place in the boxing club which was located in spring lane in 1916. 

From an early age the young Lynam displayed all the attributes of a gaelic games dual star and rose up through the ranks to excel in both hurling and gaelic football. 

Lynam was also a quintessential club man who gave sterling service as an administrator with both St Nicks and Glen Rovers.

During a glittering playing career Jimmy became a senior county championship dual medallist winning seven senior hurling championship medals with the Glen and in 1954 he won a county senior football championship medal with St Nicks, a team which also included Christy Ring. 

This was the year the double came to Blackpool for the third time and Ring won his eighth All-Ireland medal. 

From 12 years of age Lynam displayed great hurling potential and won a Harty Cup medal with the North Mon, four years later.

The young northsider was always fleet of foot who constantly displayed talent with style. 

This attracted the attention of the Cork senior hurling selectors and Lynam won two All-Ireland medals in 1952 when Cork defeated Dublin in the final and 1953 when the Rebels romped home with victory over Galway. 

As a player, Jimmy went on to enjoy many more great years with the Glen. 

In the latter days of his playing career Jimmy displayed a great interest in getting involved with club committees and he began to give great service to both the Glen and St Nicks clubs.

In 1953, he was a member of the club's building committee and that year the famed Glen Hall was officially opened. 

Lynam worked closely with JC Barry and Jack Lynch to bring this project to fruition. 

In the 1960's, he was very active as a club officer and as an administrator. 

This was a great decade for the Glen and St Nicks particularly the period from 1964 to 1967. 

These were great years for the club's both on and off the field and Lynam was at the heart of all activities.

In 1964, the Glen defeated the Barrs in the county hurling final with Christy Ring as captain. 

In 1965, St Nicks won the football county with a victory over the Barrs in the final. 

The same year the Glen won their eighth county intermediate championship title, a record which still stands to this day. 

In 1966, St Nicks won the football title again and beat the Barrs in the final. 

That year the Glen hurlers won the first ever Munster Club Championship defeating Mount Sion in a very delayed final.

The same year Finbarr O'Neil, the Glen goalkeeper won the national poc-fada, and to celebrate their golden jubilee the Glen travelled to the United States and had three victories in New York, Boston, and Chicago. 

In 1967, the Glen won the senior county title again and for the fourth year in a row defeated an opposition provided by their great rivals the Barrs. That success gave the Blackpool club's two hurling titles and two football titles within the four successive years. 

1967 saw St Nicks win the first Munster Club football championship when they defeated John Mitchels from Tralee in a final which was played in Killarney on a Wednesday night in June.

This was a great victory for Nicks, who won by a point on a score of 2-3 to 0-8 for Mitchel’s. 

During those years Jimmy Lynam was secretary of St Nick’s and he organised busses for Blackpool supporters to go to all the away Munster Club championship matches. 

In the early seventies, Lynam was on the Glen grounds committee and he played a part in having a club house and grounds developed up in Spring Lane on a parcel of land donated to the club by Sir Basil Goulding on behalf of the Goulding Fertilizer company. 

Jimmy went on to give many more years of service to the Blackpool based clubs. 

In 2016, the Glen were Cork senior hurling champions for the second year in a row.

It was also the club's centenary year. 

The highlight of that year was the centenary dinner where over 600 guests attended at the Rochestown Park Hotel. 

Jimmy Lynam was the guest of honour, and to a prolonged standing ovation he led a parade up the main isle to the banquet table hold the cherished old county senior hurling cup which the Glen won on 19 occasions between 1934 and 1962 when Francie O'Regan was the last Glen captain to bring the old cup to Blackpool. 

That night the Glen celebrated in style at the Rochestown Park Hotel and the hero was the peerless Jimmy Lynam, a true Blackpool Legend.