A significant addition has been made to the Kerry Library Archives with the donation of a framed photograph of renowned Kerry native and Irish revolutionary, Fionán Lynch.

The photograph was presented by Lynch's grandnephew, Professor Tim Lynch, to County Librarian Tommy O'Connor.

The photograph, which features a bilingual account of Lynch's life, will be permanently displayed at Caherciveen Library.

Fionán Lynch, born in Caherciveen in 1899, was educated at Saint Brendan's College in Killarney, Rockwell College and Blackrock College.

He qualified as a teacher in Swansea, South Wales where he formed a branch of the Gaelic League and taught the Irish language there. On his return to Dublin in 1909 he trained as a primary school teacher and joined the Keating Branch of the Gaelic League. He was recruited into the Irish Republican Brotherhood, joined the Irish Volunteers and became captain of F company Battalion of the Dublin Brigade. He was actively involved in the Easter Rising and was subsequently imprisoned a number of times.

In a varied career he was a Sinn Féin TD for South Kerry in 1918 and for Kerry-Limerick West in 1921. Fionán was involved in the Treaty negotiations and later became Minister for Education in the provisional government. Post Civil War he served in the national army and was later elected a Cumann na nGaedheal T.D
He was Minister for Fisheries from 1922-28 and Minister for Lands and Fisheries 1928 -1932. In 1931 he qualified as a barrister and served as Leas Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil until 1939. He retired from politics in 1944 to concentrate on his legal practice and was subsequently appointed Circuit Court judge in the northwest district, retiring from the bench in 1959. Lynch died suddenly at his home in Dublin on 3 June 1966.