From pub music to the Pantomime! Find out why Richard loves Limerick

Q1. Hi Richard, congratulations on your sixth consecutive year starring in the Pantomime at the University of Limerick! How has the experience been so far?

Well I've learned a lot in the last six years! I went to acting school in New York for over 2 years, but I'd never seen a Panto and I'd never been to a Panto, so when I started doing it, it was very stylised, it's a very specialised craft. I love it, it plays to sell-out crowds and I love performing alongside my good friends Leanne Moore and Myles Breen (pictured below), who taught me everything I know about Panto. Overall, I'd say we developed together and became a family. You do miss Christmas, and it is a gruelling six weeks of work, and you are wrecked afterwards, but the pay off is huge as I said. 

Q2. Your family were the very first publicans in Limerick to provide music. How much of an influence has music played throughout your life?

Well when I was younger I didn't appreciate it as much as I do now; we were eight brothers and sisters living above the pub where my parents worked all the time, 365 days a year. My father kept the pub open on Good Friday and Christmas day, and they were often the two busiest days of the year! So as a child I didn't fully understand or value it, but as I got older I realised how incredible it was to be raised with music.

My mother played the piano from the age of thirteen, and that's how she supported her family. My father was a singer and people used to come from miles around to come to sing in the pub and it was a really beautiful thing looking back at it now.

My parents owned the pub for 42 years, but they sold it 20 years ago; unfortunately my mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. After they sold the pub they moved into a house two doors down from the pub, which is where I live now! In fact, all the brothers and sisters live right beside each-other on the same street, like a big cult!

Q3. You lived in New York for almost 15 years until you returned permanently in 2008. You then went on to organise Limerick's very first week-long Pride celebration that same year- did you notice a difference in attitude to LGBT culture?

I was home from New York at the time because my mother had had a heart attack that summer [of 2007]. I ended up staying for many months after my mother fell ill, during which time I attended Limerick's first Pride parade the same year. By 2008, I decided to move back permanently to mind my parents full-time as their carer. When my father passed he had dementia, and my mother had had Parkinson's disease for over twenty years. 

Attending the first Pride parade during that time really had an effect on me, because I had grown up in Limerick when no-one was out of the closet, besides Paddy Doyle. He was the only gay person I knew of at the time. So when I came back I wanted to throw my energy into everything, so I decided in 2008 to turn it into a week-long festival, which I called "ILoveLimerick.com" which was the birth of "I Love Limerick". I wanted it to be integrated and involve all Limerick communities, not just the LGBT community. I wanted to ensure other people had the chance to experience LGBT culture. 

I think Ireland as a whole has become more accepting of LGBT people. I think being gay is really overrated; I mean if I was to say to you for instance, one word to describe me is "gay", [instead of writer, musician etc] , it sounds sort of exhausting! We don't need to define ourselves with our sexuality. I went to New York when I was 21, everyone had already defined me as "gay", everywhere I went I was "gay", people spoke about me and people pointed at me; I was used to people paying attention to me for this. Then when I got to New York, no-one paid any attention to me, because everyone was gay! So I had to look inside myself and say to myself "ok, what else defines me?" 

So of course I am supportive of LGBT culture, but we can't let our sexuality be our only characteristic, just like a transgender person shouldn't need their gender be their sole defining point. I think you should be defined by what you are offering to society and the world. 

Q4. Living in New York, versus living in Limerick - how do they compare to each-other? 

New York is an incredible city; I went through so much there, I watched the World Trade Centre fall down from my kitchen window. I was a club kid in the 1990's; I went through the whole club culture and drug culture and all of the above! I spent the entire 1990's dancing, which I think for me was something I had to do, because [up until then] I didn't love or accept myself, and I found acceptance in clubs. A lot of gay kids found acceptance in clubs and that is often where they actually came out, and created their new families. I was very blessed with the friends I had.

I started on my career path in my late 20's; I went to acting school, and had incredible experiences. Limerick is a very different place, it's obviously a lot smaller, but in fact the map of New York arose from the map of Limerick; Limerick was the first city to pioneer the use of the grid-block layout in the world. While they were building New York, which was called New Amsterdam at the time, they found the blueprint for the streets wasn't working, so they began using the Limerick blueprint. So the current map of New York above 1st street is taken from the map of Limerick. 

For me, there's always been a connection between both cities, what I define as that connection is the people. What I love about Limerick the most is the people, which is the same for New York. It's the energy, the spirit, and the banter! But I wouldn't live in New York again - you'd need to be rich or young to live there, and I'm neither!

Q5. Lastly, what is on the cards for you in 2018? 

Well I have written a lot of songs, and I would love to write more. I have also written three horror movie stories, I would love to make a horror film, whether it happens this year I don't know, because I Love Limerick's tenth anniversary is this September. Once I get I Love Limerick to ten years I may make a big change. 

But really what I want from 2018 is health and happiness for my family and loved ones. Without those, you don't have any foundation to build from.

That was Richard Lynch on life in Limerick, his roots and plans for the future.

Keep up to date with Limerick's news & events on Richard's website www.ilovelimerick.ie