Irish fish farming mourns Flynn
Irish aquaculture is mourning the death of one its most knowledgeable and determined advocates, Richie Flynn, who passed away in hospital last Friday.
Flynn worked the Irish Farmers’ Association for 27 years, joining in 1991 when he took up a role in its press office, and moving to the IFA’s aquaculture section in 1996, where he represented fish farmers around the coast for the last 22 years.
He was the first president of the EU Aquaculture Advisory Council, which was established in 2016.
Flynn was a former board member of the Marine Institute; he chaired the EU Advisory Committee on aquaculture from 2001 to 2011 and he was president of the European Shellfish Federation from 2012 to 2016.
Fearless work
Jan Feenstra, who worked closely with Flynn as chairman of the Irish Salmon Growers’ Association, said he would always remember him for his loyalty and his fearless work in promoting fish farming.
IFA president Joe Healy said everybody was very shocked at the news of Flynn’s passing.
“Richie was a well-respected colleague and somebody who was utterly dedicated to his work in IFA,” said Healy. “His commitment to farmers for his entire working life was steadfast. On behalf of everybody in IFA, I want to offer our condolences to his family, in particular his wife Trish and their two children Liam and Róisín, his mother Helen and his sister Sinéad.”
The IFA’s national office in the Irish Farm Centre and the Roscommon regional office that services Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon and Longford were closed yesterday, when Flynn’s funeral was held at St Patrick’s Church, Mohill, in Leitrim.
