Lynch, Andrew (1596?–1681), catholic bishop of Kilfenora, was born a member of a merchant family in Galway city. He was educated first in Galway and then in Paris, where he studied philosophy and theology and eventually received a doctorate in civil law. By 1632 he was vicar apostolic of Killala, a post he held until 1645, and he also became dean of Tuam. He was appointed bishop of Kilfenora on 1 March 1647 (O.S.) and was consecrated as such at Kilkenny on 23 April 1648.
As bishop, Lynch presided over the restoration of St Fachtnan's cathedral, which had only recently been recovered into catholic hands. He also emerged as one of the strongest opponents in the Irish hierarchy of the papal nuncio to Ireland, Giovanni Rinuccini (qv), and refused to support the excommunication by the nuncio in May 1648 of those who adhered to the truce signed between the supreme council of the Catholic Confederation and the protestant forces in Munster. On 17 June 1648 he attended a meeting in Galway with Francis Kirwan (qv), bishop of Killala, and John Bourke (qv), archbishop of Tuam, where they ordered all catholics in Connacht to obey James Butler (qv), marquess of Ormond and royalist governor of Ireland. In September, as bitter controversies raged in Galway between partisans of Rinuccini and of Ormond, the nuncio imposed an interdict on the city. However, on 8 September Lynch, Kirwan and Burke forced their way into the chapel of the Discalced Carmelites and celebrated mass in defiance of Rinuccini. They did the same two days later at St Nicholas's church. Rinuccini was so incensed by Lynch that he would later push for the bishop's summons to Rome to face charges.
During the controversies that raged among Irish catholics over the next four years, Lynch remained aligned with the Ormondist clergy, who were led by Burke. After the fall of Galway city to the Cromwellians in 1652, he fled to San Malo in France. About 1656 he became assistant bishop of Rouen, where he would be based for most of the next twenty years. From Rouen he lobbied the French government, then allied with the English republic, to press Oliver Cromwell (qv) to desist from persecuting Irish catholics. Cromwell replied disingenuously that there was no persecution in Ireland. During the 1650s Lynch also had humiliatingly to petition for absolution from Rinuccini's censures, which was granted.
In the summer of 1666, on the invitation of Ormond, then lord lieutenant of Ireland, and the Franciscan friar Peter Walsh (qv), he returned to Ireland. The reason for this invitation was that Ormond, through his client Walsh, was trying to force the Irish catholic clergy to accept ‘the remonstrance’, a declaration of loyalty to the king. The remonstrance had been condemned by Rome as infringing on the pope's powers and was opposed by the majority of the Irish clergy. Ormond presumably hoped that Lynch could use his influence to persuade the Irish clergy to sign the remonstrance. Lynch spent the early summer of 1666 negotiating with the clergy and Ormond. Eventually he received a verbal assurance of safe conduct from Ormond for a meeting of the catholic clergy in Dublin to discuss the remonstrance. It is difficult to see what Lynch expected to achieve at this meeting. On the one hand the catholic clergy were clearly set against accepting the remonstrance, while on the other Ormond had warned Lynch that the clergy had no business assembling unless they did just that.
The assembly met in Dublin on 11 June and elected Lynch as procurator. Under Lynch's direction, the assembly rejected the remonstrance, but tried to appease Ormond by agreeing to a more qualified declaration of loyalty. Unimpressed, Ormond dissolved the assembly on 25 June, and then ordered the arrest of Lynch and other leading catholic clergy. Lynch managed to evade capture, possibly with the connivance of the government, and made his way to France, reaching Paris by early November. Meanwhile, many in Rome felt that he had gone too far in the concessions he was prepared to make to Ormond, and the nuncio in Paris formally reprimanded Lynch. He apologised and stressed that the resolutions that had been adopted in Dublin under his presidency were conditional on the approval of the Holy See. Subsequently, he returned to Rouen to resume his duties as assistant bishop. By 1677 he was back in Ireland and in that year was ordaining priests in Co. Galway. However, old age and infirmity meant that he could not exercise his duties as bishop and by November 1678 he was bedridden in the house of Viscount Clare's mother. The government originally intended to exile him again, but appear to have decided to let him stay, because of his advanced age. He died in the early summer of 1681.