Frank Lynch, who died on February 29th, aged 57, was president of the Irish League of Credit Unions, a movement with which he had been associated since 1969. There are currently 536 credit unions in the country, with 2.2 million members. He was 27 when he first joined a credit union, in his home town of Blarney. Three years later, he moved to Nenagh, Co Tipperary and became involved with the credit union there. In 1979 he became a member of the board of directors of the Nenagh Credit Union. When he joined the board of the league at national level in 1991, he had more than two decades of involvement behind him. He became president in 1998. Those who knew Frank Lynch well recall his sense of humour, his liveliness and his sociability.
He had no difficulty entertaining a room full of people. Indeed, at a recent weekend credit union training course in Belfast, he sang for the audience when the band went for its break. His rendition of The Banks of My Own Lovely Lee brought tears to the eyes of many people there.
That event provided an insight into the amount of work he did for the credit union movement. He had travelled long distances to open two previous training weekends but had had to leave after his opening speech. This time he insisted on staying for the whole weekend. The training course had been immediately preceded by a trip to Derry to meet John Hume, and then to Dublin to meet members of the Government. Frank Lynch had a sense of urgency, about the need to keep the Irish League of Credit Unions moving forward. If it did not do so and modernise, it might as well give up, he said shortly after he became president. He was determined to get the whole credit union movement linked by a computer system. This, together with negotiations with the Government about the tax treatment of credit unions, formed the main themes of his presidency.
He insisted that taxation of credit union savings should be treated differently from ordinary savings. He argued also that the credit union movement should not have to pay corporation tax, as the movement is social and voluntary in nature. Credit union volunteers were very much at ease with him. That, perhaps, is no coincidence: he had 22 years of work at local level behind him before he joined the national board.
He was born on October 7th, 1942, to John and Nellie (nee O'Leary) Lynch of Blarney, Co Cork. He was the second eldest of a large family. His father, who was well-known in local GAA circles, worked for Mahony's Blarney Woollen Mills and Frank Lynch was to follow in his footsteps. Indeed the house in which he was born was one provided by the mill for its workers.
He went to the national school in Blarney and then to work at the woollen mills. From there he went to Nenagh, Co Tipperary, to work for John Hanly and Co as a weaving technician. He is remembered there as a tremendous worker who had a great relationship with colleagues. Increasingly, his weekends were devoted to the credit union movement, thus beginning his lifetime involvement. He took early retirement from Hanly's about a year ago, returning to live in Cork.
He was on his way to Derry for the funeral of Frank O'Kane, a former president of the Irish League of Credit Unions, when he died in a road accident near Granard, Co Longford. Frank Lynch is survived by his wife Mary, daughters Stephanie and Martina, son John, brothers and sisters.
Frank Lynch: born 1942; died February, 2000