*Colum Flynn in Cusack Park in October after watching his beloved Éire Óg win the Clare SHC. Photograph: Joe Buckley
A GENTLEMAN who left people feeling better in mind and body after each encounter, Colum Flynn was exactly the type of man you wanted in your corner.
Whether it be the boxing ring or life in general, it helps to have someone loyal in your corner and Colum Flynn was certainly that to those that knew and loved him.
Huge crowds are expected to turn out in the county town this Thursday and Friday to pay their respects to a much-loved man who has left a strong legacy behind him.
Colum died unexpectedly on Friday after a short illness with his funeral mass to take place in Ennis Cathedral this Friday morning. Conversations about Colum over the past week have focused on how much he loved his wife Kay and how superb a father he was to Padraig, Ciara, Sorcha, Aoife, Katie and Eilish.
Regarded as a sporting legend within Co Clare, Colum was heavily involved in boxing and hurling, helping generations of sportspeople to reach their potential over six decades.
Serving as the team physio and masseur with the Ger Loughnane managed Clare were crowned All-Ireland senior hurling champions in 1995 was previously described by Colum as the greatest moment of his sporting life. He remained involved in 1997 when they replicated the success and was part of the senior set-up until 2006.
He had also been a selector under Fr Harry Bohan when Clare won back to back National League titles in 1977 and 1978.
Across the border in Galway, Colum was involved with the Cyril Farrell managed Galway senior hurlers when they tasted All-Ireland success, lifting the Liam MacCarthy in 1987 and 1988.
Within the sport of boxing, there have been few more influential figures in Clare than Flynn. He attended the first meeting of Ennis Boxing Club in 1961 held in the CYMS Hall and started coaching young boxers in the club in 1963 after securing a transfer to the GPO in Ennis, having been based in Claremorris prior to this.
He trained hundreds of boxers including the club’s first national champion, Ollie Markham who won the national senior middleweight crown in 1976, the Kilmurry McMahon native regarded as Clare’s greatest boxer went on to represent his country and was undefeated when trained by Flynn. That 1976 was also the first national title win for Ennis Boxing Club, it was the feat in the ring that Colum the most pride. The success of Kilmaley native Michael Queally in winning honours at youths and senior at heavyweight also stood out for the Ennis man when reflecting on a lifetime in sport.
Healing hands of Colum helped to get hundreds of sporting athletes back to full fitness with individuals travelling from all over Ireland to benefit from his expertise.
His contribution to the county was honoured in 2013 with a civic reception by Clare County Council following a proposal by then Mayor, Cllr Pat Daly (FF), Tony Mulqueen (FG) and James Breen (IND).
This wasn’t Flynn’s first experience of a civic reception as in 1976, Ennis Boxing Club received the highest honour from the local authority following Ollie Markham’s breakthrough win.
Speaking to The Clare Echo at his Ennis home on Wednesday morning, Ollie admitted it was still hard to process that Colum was no longer with us. “He will be missed by a lot of people because everybody that knew Colum became a friend of his, he did an awful lot for boxing and people all over the country. I find it hard to believe that he is not there because we either met or spoke every week over the last sixty years, he was a friend and an advisor, he helped so many people, even outside of sport, people with problems, if a person wanted a job he would give them a good reference, he was loved and respected by so many, he helped out hurlers all over the county and country, they used to come from all over to visit him because he was gifted with his hands”.
Colum and Ollie first met in 1966, they would go on to become great friends over sixty years. “In his halcyon days, Ollie was undoubtedly the most superb athlete I ever handled,” Colum stated in 2011. Speaking this week, Ollie noted there is nobody better than Colum that could have been in his corner, “You couldn’t have a better person in your corner because Colum would know you mentally and physically, he would know what you were capable of, he would know your ability in the ring”.
While Colum would have asked his boxers to give every last ounce they had in their preparation and when fighting in the ring, he gave it back to them in abundance with his energy and commitment to getting them right. “I had a fight one Friday evening down in Clonmel, he was training in Cusack Park with the Clare hurlers until 8pm, we left Ennis at 8pm and at 10:30pm I togged out in the car for the last mile going in, it was the last fight, he drove me in his Volkswagen Beetle, it showed the amount of work and effort he put in for everybody. He trained the Clare team and brought me to Clonmel on the same Friday night,” Markham recalled.
He continued, “We used to train together too, back in the 1960s when I came to Ennis we used to spar one another even though he was better than me, I was younger but he brought me on. He would travel the length and breadth of the country to get you a fight because he knew a good fight would make you better, he was well respected all over the country. He travelled the width and breadth of the country to get those fights when he’d often be needed at home but Kay was great because she let him off to go to these places. He was a very good trainer, I remember getting an injury once and he was able to fix me, he was a great man for sorting injuries. He was definitely ahead of his time, he trained two senior champions, Michael Queally from Kilmaley and myself”.
As a person, Colum was “a gentleman,” Ollie reflected. “He treated everybody the same, the under privileged, he was a charitable man. I remember in the early 1980s, a boxing man died in Galway and Colum sent on some money to her to help her get through. He put other people before himself, he had a great personality towards people and he helped everybody. People used to come to him from all over the country when they were injured. Back in 1965, there was a boxing club in Kilmurry McMahon, Bill Forde used to be the trainer and Colum used to come out and give us lessons. At the peak of 1966, we had four boxing clubs in Clare, Kilfenora, Ennis, Shannon and Ruan, Colum used to help out all the clubs”.
At the time of Ennis Boxing Club’s 50th anniversary celebrations, Colum recalled how Ollie had to be persuaded from lining out with Coolmeen in a championship final on the Sunday before his first international bout where he overcame the Italian Giovanni Bertini.
Reflecting on the time, Ollie said it was a case of Colum recognising the opportunity and significance of being Ennis Boxing Club’s first international. “Colum said you can’t play the football final because you are boxing for Ireland and you’re the first Clare boxer to get the full international, he said to skip it but the guy who I used to mark, I’d hold him scoreless, the day I didn’t play he scored 0-4 and Lissycasey beat us. The local lads would say ‘ah Ollie you’ll be alright we will put you in full forward and nothing will happen you’ even though I won the international they were delighted for me but football was still the main thing with footballers. I would have been the first international he emphasised that. The lads from Coolmeen would come in to where I was staying in Ennis to bring me out to play the match, that Sunday Colum came up to where I was staying because he knew he’d have a job to stop me going, he said we can’t lose this chance because it was Ennis Boxing Club’s first international to box for Ireland”.
Three-time All-Ireland winning senior hurling manager, Cyril Farrell recalled getting to know Colum through hurling. “I first came across with Limerick in 1980 when we played them in All-Ireland, I got to know him well, he joined Galway squad and he was an integral part, he was as important as anyone, he wasn’t a great masseur, he was great for getting them confident, he had a feel good factor about him and any doubts a player had when coming back from injury soon disappeared thanks to Colum”.
Cyril said of Flynn’s input to their All-Ireland success, “His value was immense, he got them all ready to play, all them players in later life would all be using him privately, he never lost touch, himself and Kay came on trips. The set-ups were smaller then to what we have now, it was the few selectors, the physio and doctor, the tight knit unit was all part of the team, they were travelling on the bus, camps and holidays, he’d be in for everything”.
Friendship was maintained throughout the decades, Cyril told The Clare Echo. “He was a great friend to me, all the group was very tight, we had Colum, his wife Kay, Timmy O’Connor and his own wife Kay from Limerick who very close through hurling, Timmy worked in the Post Office with Colum. We always went to the Galway Races together, I’d meet Colum a few times a year for a coffee and a chat, he loved hurling, Clare hurling, Éire Óg and Galway hurling”.
“He has left a legacy wherever he has been, a big man in stature but a gentleman, you’d feel better after talking to him. It is another great person passing, life comes and goes but he went very sudden, it is hard for us to believe he is gone because he was a very strong man and a great athlete, he will be missed in every way, for his work and his comradeship,” Farrell added.
Cllr Daly regarded Colum as “one of the greatest sporting characters that the county of Clare ever produced particularly when it came to boxing and hurling”. He noted his involvement in All-Ireland success for both Clare and Galway. “Colum was the man as far as Ennis boxing club was concerned, training young boxers over many decades in the old CYMS Hall in the Chapel Lane in Ennis. He had great success, winning many national titles for the club as the trainer to Ollie Markham and Michael Queally, to mention just a few. He was also an international boxing referee and kept boxing in Ennis and Clare to a very high level up to this day. He was a keen golfer and one of the finest bone setters in the country”.
According to Cllr Daly, “He was one in a million. In 2013 I became Mayor of Clare and as that year progressed, I wanted to honour two great Ennis people that made huge contributions to the sporting world in this county, it was easy pick them, Colum Flynn and Noel Pyne, two huge Townies that contributed greatly, both to Éire Óg and Clare hurling, one to boxing and one to golf, playing fifty years in a row in the South of Ireland. Colum was a legend and after all his great achievements, there’s no doubt but that he deserved that civic reception. I offer sincere sympathies to Kay and the entire Flynn family”.
Colum is dearly missed by his loving wife Kay, son Padraig, daughters Ciara, Sorcha, Aoife, Katie and Eilish, brother Donal, sisters Mary & Eileen, son-in-law Seán, daughter-in-law Tracy, much loved grandchildren Colm, Anna and Sam, aunt Eithne, nieces, nephews, relatives, neighbours and his wide circle of friends.
