Joe Stynes

Joseph Andrew Stynes (15 January 1903 – 29 January 1991) was an Irish Republican and played Gaelic football and soccer.

In Dublin Stynes was born in Newbridge, County Kildare, and attended Newbridge College, where he first played Gaelic football and hurling. He participated in the burning of the Custom House in 1921.

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 senior Dublin county football team while "on the run" from the Irish Free State authorities. An attempt to tunnel into Mountjoy Prison from an adjoining house ended when the house was raided while Stynes was absent. 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, 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,

While suspended from the GAA, he played soccer for Bohemians, where he scored 13 times in 28 appearances during the 1925–26 season. In the Leinster Senior Cup final of 1926, he played well, but retired injured, as Bohs beat Shelbourne 2–1. He also played semi-professionally for Shelbourne at a time when work was hard to find, partly because of his unpopular political views. where he worked as an accountant with Cartier jewellers. He regularly returned to visit Ireland, and represented America in football internationals against Ireland at the Tailteann Games in Dublin in both 1928 and 1932. During his 1928 trip, he turned out once more for Dublin in their Leinster Final defeat to Kildare. He also represented New York touring sides against Mayo in 1932 In December 1932, he won a Dublin junior club title with Sean McDermotts. He won New York state championships with Kildare in 1938 and with Kilkenny as late as 1947.

In 1938, Stynes signed on behalf of the American GAA an Irish-American petition for the release of Frank Ryan, the IRA leader imprisoned by Franco's Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War for fighting in the International Brigades. In 1939, he was indicted and charged with attempting to bribe US Customs officials while operating as an agent for the Irish Sweepstakes. He was politically active in Clan na Gael, and after 1948 was leader of the few branches that had remained loyal to the rump of the IRA. In 1949, Stynes supported a decision, which split the Clan, to use its funds for a monument in Dublin to Seán Russell rather than retaining them for a future IRA campaign. After the decline of Clan na Gael, and the outbreak of the Northern Troubles, he was sympathetic to NORAID. Most younger and American-born Irish republicans remained with NORAID and Sinn Féin.

Joe Stynes's brother Peter played Gaelic football for Dublin in the 1925 and 1926 Leinster championships, and got a 1926 League runners-up medal. Peter won Dublin club titles with O'Toole's in 1925, 1926, and 1928. Peter was the father of Jim Stynes, Australian rules footballer, and his brother Brian, who won an All-Ireland with Dublin in 1995.