Lynch was consequently acquitted, but was forced to leave Ireland, and in 1675–6 he lived at Madrid. Poverty obliged him to apply to the Propaganda for permission to exercise episcopal functions in Spain, and he was appointed honorary chaplain to the Spanish king, Charles II. He returned to Tuam in 1685, but in 1691 settled at Paris. Honorary chaplain to James II, he resided chiefly at the Irish College, but paid frequent visits to his diocese. In 1710, being then described as about ninety, he applied for the appointment of his nephew Dominic Lynch as coadjutor, but Dominic died before any step was taken, and no coadjutor was nominated till the year of Lynch's death. He died at the Irish College in Paris, 29 Oct. 1713, leaving to the society a bequest for Galway students for the priesthood. He was buried at St. Paul's, Paris, and a marble bust was erected there, but the church has been demolished. The Lynch family of Barna, near Galway, have a portrait of him.
[Burke's Cath. Archbishops of Tuam, Dublin, 1882; Brady's Episc. Succession in England, &c., Rome, 1876–7 (both inaccurate as to date of death); Gaz. de France, 4 Nov. 1713 (which gives his age as ‘nearly 105;’ Moran's Spicilegium Ossoriense, Dublin, 1874–85; Bellesheim's Catholische Kirche in Ireland, Mainz, 1890.]
LYNCH, JOHN (1599?–1673?), Irish historian, was born in Galway, probably in 1599, and belonged to an ancient family. According to tradition his father was Alexander Lynch, a famous schoolmaster of Galway (O'Flaherty, Description of West Connaught, ed. Hardiman, p. 420 n.) He was educated by the jesuits, and became a secular priest about 1622. He celebrated mass ‘in secret places and private houses’ before the opening of the catholic churches in 1642. Like many of his predecessors in Galway he kept a school, and acquired a high reputation for classical learning. He was appointed archdeacon of Tuam, and lived, secluded from the turmoil of civil strife, in the old castle of Ruaidhri O'Conchobair, last king of Ireland. On the surrender of Galway to the parliamentarian army in 1652 he fled to France. The particulars of his life in exile are unknown, but as some of his works were printed at St. Malo, it may be inferred that he took refuge on the borders of Brittany, where the States allotted public support to the Irish exiles. On the authority of Bishop Burke and Bishop Nicolson, most modern writers erroneously state that Lynch was bishop of Killala. Dr. Burke certainly calls him vicar-apostolic of Killala, but it appears that John Baptist de Burgo was in possession of that office at the only time at which Lynch could have held it (Brady, Episcopal Succession, ii. 177). Lynch died in France, probably at St. Malo, before 1674.
He is the author of:
- A translation into Latin of Keating's ‘History of Ireland,’ manuscript.
- ‘Cambrensis Eversus, sive potius Historica Fides in Rebus Hibernicis Giraldo Cambrensi abrogata; in quo plerasque justi historici dotes desiderari, plerosque nævos inesse, ostendit Gratianus Lucius, Hibernus, qui etiam aliquot res memorabiles Hibernicas veteris et novæ memoriæ passim e re nata huic operi inseruit. Impress. An. mdclxii’ [St. Malo?], fol. Dedicated to Charles II. Translated from the Latin, with notes and observations by Theophilus O'Flanagan, Dublin, 1795, 8vo. Lynch defends the cessation of 1643, the peace of 1646 and 1648, condemns the nuncio, and approves the general policy of Ormonde, on the ground that his measures were indispensable for the observance of loyalty to the British crown, and for the safety of the Irish catholics. Kelly says, ‘“Cambrensis Eversus” has been generally esteemed one of the most valuable works on the history of Ireland. Viewed merely as a refutation of Giraldus de Barry, it is on some points unsuccessful; but its comprehensive plan, embracing a great variety of well-digested and accurate information on every period of Irish history, imparts to it a value entirely independent of the controversial character inscribed on its title-page.’ A fine edition of this work, with an English translation and notes, by the Rev. Matthew Kelly of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, was printed for the Celtic Society, 3 vols. Dublin, 1848–52, 8vo.
- ‘Epistle to M. Boileau, Historian of the University of Paris, on the subject of Scottish Antiquities,’ 1664. Printed in Roderic O'Flaherty's ‘Ogygia vindicated,’ Dublin, 1775, 8vo.
- ‘Alithinologia, sive veridica Reponsio [sic] ad Invectivam, Mendaciis, falaciis, calumniis, & imposturis fœtam in plurimos Antistites, Proceres, & omnis ordinis Hibernos a R. P. R[ichardo] F[erral] C[appucino] Congregationi de Propaganda Fide, Anno Domini 1659, exhibitam. Eudoxio Alithinologo authore. Impress. An. mdclxiv’ [St. Omer?]
- ‘Supplementum Alithinologiæ, quod partes invectivæ in Hibernos cusæ in Alithinologia non oppugnatas evertit’ [St. Omer?] 1667, 4to. This and the preceding treatise attacked Richard Ferral, an Irish Capuchin friar, who had in 1658 presented a disloyal piece in manuscript to the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide as a direction for them in the government of church affairs in Ireland, tending to renew the divisions between the ‘meer
