Limerick Hurler Cian Lynch joined All Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Sponsor Littlewoods Ireland to launch their new ‘Style Meets Substance’ campaign. Returning for the fourth year running as a top-tier sponsor, Littlewoods Ireland’s ‘Style Meets Substance’ campaign is a celebration of hurling people, their individuality, their love for the game and the joy of Championship.
By Cian O'Connell
"I’m grateful that I have faith," the splendid Limerick midfielder Cian Lynch admits.
It has been a demanding spell for people throughout the world with different ways of coping with challenges being adopted.
"Faith can come in different ways for different people, but it’s just looking at it as a light at the end of the tunnel and it can focus the mind and that too," Lynch adds.
So during the lockdown months when everything was clouded in uncertainty, Lynch followed a routine.
"Yeah, you’d just get up in the morning and go for a little walk and listen to a bit of mass there, the local priest used to say it online," Lynch reflects.
"It was kind of a grounding for me personally and it would set me up for the day. It’d take away any worries you might have too. You can get so engrossed or so consumed by everything that’s going on, social media or whatever."
Lynch recently commenced a post primary teaching course in NUIG.
Cian Lynch in Limerick SHC action for Patrickswell last month.
"It was always something I wanted to go down, to get involved with kids or young adults and teaching is the way to do it," Lynch remarks.
"I’ve always had a passion for religion and geography and especially religion - faith is something we can all hold onto now and grasp with two hands.
"During the lockdown, when mass was stopped, it was something I kind of looked to saying a few prayers just to keep the positive vibes and positivity going and that’s important for any young person."
An upcoming teaching practice in Castletroy College is on the agenda with lectures currently all online.
"It’s all remote in college with calls like this, which is hard enough I suppose, you’re not meeting your fellow students, not getting your night out, do you know, the normal things that would help you get to know your fellow students and the subjects too even," Lynch states.
"But that’s the current climate and please God over the next few months, we’ll get to tip in there for a lecture or whatever."
Between March and July without competitive sport was a trying spell, but it also afforded Lynch an appreciation too.
Cian Lynch remains an influential performer for Limerick.
"Yeah, obviously it is mentally draining," Lynch acknowledges. "There was three or four months of nothing but then it was great, it was a massive boost to get back with your clubs.
"To get back with your local mates, get up to the field and I know for ourselves we weren't as successful as we would have liked but you were just grateful to be able to get up and have a laugh with a few of the lads on the hurling pitch.
"So to get back into the Limerick set-up was even better again. A bit of continuation and hope. I suppose that's what people are holding onto now at the moment, the light at the end of the tunnel. The government and GAA are doing everything in their power to keep that light lighting, I suppose."
Optimism accompanied Lynch on the journey. "I'm grateful and I said it a while ago about perspective," Lynch adds.
"For us, it's only when something is gone that you realise how much you actually miss it. It's stuff like that, just going to training, whether it's hail, rain or snow, you're just delighted to be able to get out and meet your friends.
"Just to get out of the house, get out of a rut you might have been in. I was playing Call of Duty for quite a few months, stuck in the Gulag! So it was great to be able to get out, to play."
Next on the agenda for Lynch is a Munster Championship and Allianz Hurling League Final against Clare.
