Joe Stynes

Joseph Andrew Stynes (15 January 1903 – 29 January 1991) was an Irish Republican and a sportsman, excelling in particular at Gaelic football and soccer.

Stynes was born in Newbridge, County Kildare and attended Newbridge College, where he first played Gaelic football and hurling. He moved to Dublin after World War I to find work. He was sworn into the IRA in 1920 by Seán Lemass, joining "C" Company, 2nd battalion, Dublin brigade. He was stewarding in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday 1920, while carrying concealed guns for the IRA. When British security forces raided the ground, he dumped the guns and escaped over a wall.

Stynes played Gaelic football for the McCracken's club on the Northside, then transferred to the elite O'Tooles club in February 1922. He was an 'outstanding' forward with 'rare qualities'. He took the anti-Treaty side during the Irish Civil War, but managed to play several games for the Dublin senior football team while "on the run" from the Irish Free State authorities. However, he missed Dublin's win in the 1922 All-Ireland final (played 7 October 1923) as by then he was interned in the Curragh Camp.Major General Tom Ennis of the National Army, a former teammate of Stynes who took the pro-Treaty side, secured Stynes' availability for subsequent Dublin matches, and he got a winner's medal for the 1923 final (played 28 September 1924), in which he scored the final two points. He missed the 1924 final (played 26 April 1925) after being suspended by the GAA for breaching its ban on playing "foreign" games by playing soccer, a game he had learnt while in the Curragh.

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