Bernard Flynn calls Jim Stynes Ireland's 'greatest emigrant'

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Aussie Rules legend Jim Stynes

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Bernard Flynn calls Jim Stynes Ireland's 'greatest emigrant'
DARA KELLY

Irish football legend Bernard Flynn says the late Jim Stynes was Ireland’s “greatest emigrant”. The Australian Rules football legend and charity king died form brain cancer last week.

"Irish people just have no idea the impact Jim made in Australia," Flynn told the Independent's Damien Lawlor. "A lot of Aussie sports superstars are arrogant and cocky, and ordinary people can't relate to them, but Jim was the opposite of all that. Sure, he enjoyed his profile and used it well for charity work but he despised the old bullshit that went with fame."

Flynn flew to Australia on December 30th. He had been in Melbourne for four days before Stynes, who was sick he couldn't leave the house, decided to step outside to get some air. Flynn recalls how they walked past the sea and stopped so Stynes could go in for a dip.

"I think he got a bit of freedom that day," said Flynn. "But I got an awful land when I saw him with his top off; his whole back and front had been opened to pieces and then closed up again. There were cuts all over his body. He had 19 tumours out of 21 removed and they just couldn't get the other two out. What his body went through none of us will ever comprehend. The man should have been dead two years ago but willpower kept him going.

"The next thing, two elderly couples came over. They couldn't but see the marks on his body and they just shook his hand and started to cry. Jim didn't know them from Adam but he had a few tears himself."

Flynn stayed in Australia until January 7th.

"It was like that famous documentary we saw on TV last year; he was draining all the vitamins from the vegetables and doing all he could to beat the cancer with all sorts of formulas and potions. He was obsessed with beating cancer.

"But what I took from the whole trip was how interested he still was in others. He could barely move around the house and yet he managed to drive an hour and a half to meet Tommy Walsh, who had arrived from Kerry to St Kilda. He spent a couple of hours talking, advising him and showing him things. I would say that was a very special moment for Tommy."

Flynn, who had known Stynes since the 1987 International Rules Series and spent Christmases with him, said:  "I learned pretty quickly that if Jim didn't like you that was the end of it, really, but we became real friends. Outside of my family he was the guy I would turn to, I suppose. He was great fun, extremely loyal. He loved a few jars in the off-season but wasn't a drinker at all. If he went on a session he'd be in bits for a week afterwards. He picked his pals very closely and in the last few years he kept a low profile and did his own thing -- he didn't like the adulation and materialism of the sports world.

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