He was born in Corrinshego, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. He attended St Colman’s College, Newry. He began acting in Irish language-medium plays at school during the early years of the conflict in Northern Ireland. He has starred in such films as Cal (1984) with Helen Mirren, In the Name of the Father (1993), with Daniel Day-Lewis, The Railway Station Man (1992), with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, Nothing Personal and Some Mother’s Son (1996), also with Mirren, as well as the Irish-themed film Evelyn (2002).

He starred as a supporting actor in Derek Jarman’s Edward II (1991), as Lord Craven in Holland’s film of The Secret Garden (1993), as Tadhg in The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), and as ‘Gerry’ in Sliding Doors (1998) and more recently in a range of TV dramas including The Fall

John co-wrote the screenplay for Best (2000) a film about the life of the footballer George Best in which he played the leading role.

John’s first novel, Torn Water, a lyrical tender story of innocence and loss was published in November 2005 by the Fourth Estate, a literary imprint of Harper Collins. His second, Falling Out of Heaven, a story of consuming addiction and the betrayal of trust, was published on 13 May 2010 by the same publisher.

John has also written a radio play for BBC radio entitled The Light That Doesn’t Die.

He is the eldest of five children of an Irish father and an Italian mother. His younger sister Susan is also an actress.

Praise for Torn Water

“You get the beat of a writer’s heart all the way through the book”

Jennifer Johnston, Irish Times

“Lynch brings alive the grimy realities of a land and family in the grip of the Troubles, while also conjuring the lilting dreamscapes of a young boy’s mind”

Observer

“A tale of great delicacy and originality, in which the fierce intensity of adolescence and, even more, the paranoia and yearning of childhood are evoked with precision, grace and overwhelming conviction”

Independent on Sunday

“Torn Water” has the tight tone and feel of the period it depicts and captures well the uncertainties of someone leaving the capsule of childhood behind and taking their first footsteps out into the vast unknown where there are no certainties and no ghosts or angels to guide you”

Irish Sunday Independent

Rights Sold

Torn Water: HarperCollins (UK & Commonwealth) Le Castor Astral Editeur (France)

Falling Out of Heaven: HarperCollins (UK & Commonwealth)