Balla proud to honour achievements of Declan Lynn

Austin Garvin

A Balla native who has reached the rank of Major in the British Army, and has been awarded an MBE in the operational lists published in February 2015, was suitably honoured by his own people in an emotional ceremony held in Balla Community Centre on Friday night last.
Major Declan J Lynn is a native of Station Road, Balla and is son of the late SeΡn and Eileen Lynn.
Sorcha Fletcher, a member of Balla No Name Club, read a well-researched citation at the event listing Major Lynn’s achievements from his birth in 1977 to the present day.
The citation noted that Declan was plagued with hearing difficulties which inhibited his early education. Eventually the cause of the problem was identified and rectified with surgery.
Finding himself some way behind his peers, he luckily found himself a kind and influential primary school headmaster in Padraig Cunnane. Padraig had a profound effect on his life as he retaught him to read.
Declan took a year out of formal education to support his family after the death of his mother.
He returned to education in 1996 and read a degree in Business Studies at Letterkenny Institute of Technology, graduating in 2000.
After travelling extensively, he returned to Ireland to take care of his late father when he became ill, and was his primary carer until his death in 2004.

British Army training
Afterwards he undertook the British Army’s rigorous officer selection process. Having passed, he entered training at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst in 2005, and was commissioned in December of that year.
After undertaking specific training, he was posted to Hohne, Germany. From here he was deployed twice to Southern Iraq.
During these tours he delivered basic skills training together with courses soldiers required for promotion. On return to the UK, Declan was appointed to Army Training Regiment, Bassington, as a platoon commander where his job was to run a training team to deliver training to new recruits. He was promoted to Captain later that year.
He was assigned as the Education Officer to 2nd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment for their tour of Helmand Province. In addition to his educational responsibilities, Capt Lynn also acted as a mentor to an Afghan colleague, and as a media officer, hosting and escorting members of the press around the area of operations.
On his return from operation, Capt Lynn was appointed Officer in Charge of 1st Army Education Centre in Preston, North England. He was later appointed to the Headquarters Staff of RMAS where he served co-ordinating various recruitment schemes, the  arrivals of new entrants and the discharge of cadets who had been injured in training, not made the required standard, or who had decided that the Army was not for them.

Afghanistan return
In May 2013, Capt Lynn deployed again to Afghanistan, this time to Qarga, a small basin town in Kabul. This was the site of the Afghan National Army Officer Academy. Capt Lynn was one of a small team tasked with designing the training syllabus for this new institution.
For his efforts he was promoted to the rank of Major in July 2014 and was subsequently made an MBE in the operational list published in February, 2015.
Major Lynn has continued his studies and has completed a Masters in Educational Practice and Innovation at the University of Southampton and has graduated in July, 2015.
Major Lynn is a keen cyclist, scuba diver, landscape photographer and runner.
He will take part in the 2016 London Marathon where he is running to raise money for a charity called Afghan Aid which aims to educate and train Afghan villagers in self-sufficiency skills and practices.

Values
Major Lynn expressed sincere thanks to the community for the honour bestowed on him.
He spoke of the values passed onto him by his mother and father, and thanked the community for being so good to them after his mother’s death, and his father’s illness.
“You were the protectors of us all,” he said. He thanked the No Name Club for their input and the welcome afforded him.
Major Lynn noted the intervention of his teacher Padraig Cunnane in his life. “You got me to where I am today,” he stated. He said it was important to get things right in life and to do the small things properly.
He concluded by saying, “The best way to grow as a person is to surround you with people better than yourself,”
Other speakers included; Cllr Lisa Chambers, Leas Cathaoirleach, Mayo Council Council; Michelle Mulherin, TD; Cllrs Henry Kenny and Cyril Bourke, Padraig Cunnane, and Brendan Conwell.