Mayo boxer was sparring partner for four world heavyweight champions

A big man, who now resides in the peaceful and rustic atmosphere in his old homestead at Cloonlara, near Ballyhaunis, could best be described as a man who diced with death, but came through unscathed after four years in five major battles in two theatres in the holocaust of World War II.

He is also a man who made a deep imprint on the boxing scene in America and who counted some of the greatest boxing personalities of the 1930s amongst his personal friends.

He is the genial Tom Glynn, now aged 67 years, and when one mentions the word ‘big’, as it applies to Tom Glynn, it does not only refer to his stature – he stands six feet four inches, and is built to proportion – for Tom has that inestimable bigness about him which is reflected in the care and consideration he shows for others.

The modest manner in which he described his war experiences without a trace of self-glorification or even a hint of boastfulness, exemplified the bigness of heart of Tom Glynn and his philosophical carefree attitude as he nears the seventies stamps him as a man who relishes in the enjoyment of life for whom the future holds no fears.

A member of a family of three sons and two daughters, Tom attended Bekan National School, and the principal teacher there at that time was the late Richard Tarpey. After leaving school, his fine physique and his willingness to learn how to become a boxer attracted the interest of the late Thomas Lyons, who was a publican in Bridge Street, Ballyhaunis, for many years, and who was himself a boxer in the United States before he returned to Ireland.

He introduced Tom Glynn to the game, and soon the willing pupil was learning the finer points of the boxing code from none other than the late Jim Coffey, from Tully, Carrowbehy, Castlerea, who was himself a contender for the World Heavyweight Boxing title in the pre-1920s period.

In 1929, Tom set off for America where he joined the Johnny Coonan Amateur Boxing Club in Chicago. Coonan was a former world bantam champion, and he continued to train Tom, who showed exceptional promise.

Tom was entered for the Golden Gloves Championship in 1930 or 1931 in White City Marigold Gardens and reached the semi-finals. It was in this championship that Tom sustained a broken hand, and injuries to his hands were to plaque him afterwards and cut short his boxing career. In subsequent bouts his hands were broken on four or five occasions.

While all this was going on, Tom Glynn was employed in the Chicago Steel Mills – ten hours a day, six days a week – for the princely sum of 27 dollars weekly.

He went to Boston then where he remained for three months, and then on to Fitchburgh where the McGovern brothers took him into Jack Doyle’s Training Camp where he resumed boxing once again.

Known as ‘Irish Tommy Glynn’, he had about 35 bouts as an amateur and lost only once. The one he lost was on St Patrick’s Night in the early 1930s when the arena was packed with a crowd of boisterous Irishmen and his conqueror on that night, he remembers, was a boxer called Tony Trimiskinski.

When he became a sparring partner for Jack Doyle, he turned professional and had eight bouts before a hand injury put paid to his boxing career. He was also sparring partner for Jimmy Braddock, Max Baer in New York, Max Schmeling in New York, Joe Louis at Pontin Lakes (all World Heavyweight boxing champions) and for many other prominent boxers of the period.

After he quit boxing, Tom returned to New York and in 1940 he joined the New York State Police Force. One year later, he was inducted into the United States Army and joined the famous 36th Texas Infantry Division. After three months of training in Camp Blandin in Florida, carried out in temperatures of over 100 degrees, they were then transferred to Camp Edwards, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, for amphibious training in below freezing temperatures and this lasted a further three months.

The first theatre of war in which Tom Glynn and the 36th Division were involved was in North Africa where they backed up the 34th and 3rd Divisions, who were involved in the Desert Campaign against Rommel at that time. They were pulled back to Algiers and they subsequently took part in the invasion of Salerno, Italy, on September 9th, 1943.

Tom remembers that on the third day of the attack they were practically driven back to the beaches, but the intervention of about 1,000 American bombers at a vital stage contributed in large measure to the success of the battle.

Tom Glynn has no hesitation in saying that the toughest and bloodiest battle of them all was the ‘Battle of Monte Cassino’ in Italy, which was the next battle in which Tom and his Division were engaged. Casualties were high and about one third of the Division was lost before replacements were brought up.

The invasion of Anzio with the 3rd Division was the next theatre of operations, and following success here, they marched to Rome where they were given an ecstatic welcome. Leading the entry into Rome was the German-born film star Marlene Dietrich, who was in the leading jeep.

After resting and re-fuelling at a small seaside town, they were again off to war, this time for the invasion of Southern France. They moved on through France and then into Germany without encountering much resistance.

Tom remembers how his unit captured the German Luftwaffe Commander Herman Goerin in a hideout near Berchtesgaden while they were proceeding on their way to Salzburg where they heard that the war had ended.

In all, Tom Glynn spent 336 days in actual combat in five theatres of war, and while he had many brushes with death and some remarkable escapes, he returned home to the United States from Le Harve, France, in 1945 completely unscathed.

On his return, Tom rejoined the New York State Police in which Force he remained until 1973 when he retired and returned to his native Irish heath.

Married to the former Miss Kathleen Lambert, who was born in the Ballymoe area of County Roscommon, they have a family of two sons, Kevin, who is an Ensign in the US Navy, and Tom, who works for the California Forestry Department.

By the time he was demobbed, Corporal Tom Glynn had been awarded several war decorations.

In the peaceful solitude of his native Cloonlara, he and his wife are content and happy. Tom has entered actively into the community life of the parish, and is chairman of the Bekan Parish Exiles Reunion Committee, and is Trustee of the Bekan Group Water Scheme. He is also Adjutant of the American Legion, Commodore John Barry Post No 3 in Claremorris.

His relaxed, easygoing and charming manner, his courtesy and friendliness, and his kindness and consideration made the writing of this article a labour of love for me, and I deemed it a deep privilege to listen to his enthralling story which has only been briefly recounted in this article.

In the final analysis, it goes without saying that Tom displayed great courage in the roped arena and in combat during the war. While he thanks Providence for his survival during those four years of bloodshed, death and devastation, he shrugs it all off by simply saying: “My number just didn’t come up.” Such is the stature of Tom Glynn.