In 1968, when he was seven years old, he moved with his family to the townland of Corrinshego, where his father was from, in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Corrinshego, where he spent the rest of his childhood and teenage years, is on the western outskirts of Newry.[1][5][4] Lynch later attended St. Colman's College in Newry. He began acting in Irish language plays at school during the early years of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. His sister Susan Lynch and his nephew Thomas Finnegan are also actors.[3]
Lynch played the lead in the Australian feature Angel Baby,[7] winning the Australian Film Institute award for best leading actor and the Australian Film Critics award for best actor of 1995.[8] He was nominated for a Satellite Film Award for the film Moll Flanders in 1996.[7] He worked with acclaimed Belgian director Marion Hänsel on her adaptation of Booker Prize-nominated author Damon Galgut's novel, The Quarry (also known as La Faille; 1998),[5] which won Best Film at the Montreal World Film Festival. Lynch played the part of football legend George Best in the 2000 film Best.[7] He won Best Actor for his role in Best at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival in 2000.[7] He wrote and co-produced the film.[5]
Lynch is also a novelist. His first novel, Torn Water, was published in November 2005 by 4th Estate, a literary imprint of HarperCollins, and his second, Falling Out of Heaven, was published on 13 May 2010 by the same publisher.[5]
Personal life
Lynch married film-maker Mary McGuckian in 1997, having met her on the set of Words Upon the Window Pane a few years earlier.[4] They separated in 2008 and later divorced. As of 2023, he resides in Nice with his wife, Christine.[1][3][10]
