Biography

Shane Eamonn Mark Stephen Lynch was born 3rd July 1976 in Donaghmede, Dublin. Parents; Noeleen and Brendan had always said they would call their first boy, Shane, after the cowboy film of the same name. (It was one of the first movies the couple saw together.) As it turned out, Shane was the only boy among five girls; two older sisters, Tara and Alison and three younger; twins, Keavy and Edele and the youngest, Naomi.

All Shane’s sisters bar one appeared in pop groups of varying success during the 90’s; Tara was in ‘Fab!’ Naomi was in ‘Buffalo G’ and Keavy and Edele were in ‘B*Witched.’

Shane’s school years were a struggle and he has admitted to blagging his way through. Even at the age of six when he first started, he noticed he was different from the rest of the children in his class, they could read and write; he couldn’t and he didn’t know why but in his own words he had made up his mind that no one was ever going to find out. Speaking of his school days, Shane explains; ‘No one knew much about dyslexia then, it wasn’t recognised in the way it is now. I was always getting letters and numbers round the wrong way and leaving letters out of words. But rather than tell anybody I was struggling with reading and writing, I just did my best to avoid it. I did what I thought was writing and what I hoped made sense. If I was asked to read my work out loud, I’d just make up a story right there and then. I wasn’t reading what I’d written. That’s how I got by and how I managed to blag the whole thing.’

As the academic side of his school life wasn’t his strongest point, he put all is efforts into being the best he could at all sports he participated in. Irish football, high jump, long jump, sprint (all main athletic events,) basketball and swimming; he seemed to win gold medals in everything, even when all the Irish schools would come together to compete against each other, it was Shane who won all the trophies.

BMXing became a huge passion of Shane’s, winning the Irish Championship at his first attempt. Despite not really knowing quite what he was doing and being at a disadvantage in terms of his equipment compared to the other riders, he won easily; tearing up the competition. He continued with BMXing, winning prize money that he would spend on improving his bike, which obviously helped his riding.

From BMXing, his interests grew to motorbikes and although he was too young to ride them at the time; he and a mate would take a couple of off-road scramblers they’d acquired down to the beach and ride them there. His interests weren’t just down to riding them; he spent a lot of time tinkering with them; stripping them down and putting them back together, learning everything there was to know about the machines.

At the age of fourteen, Shane was asked to leave school by his headmaster; patience had worn thin with Shane’s perceived ‘lack of productivity.’ It wasn’t far away from exam time and it was eventually agreed that he could take them before he left.

After leaving school; Shane went to work as a mechanic at his dad’s own garage. Cars had always been a huge part of his life, right down to the times he would play with toy versions in the family’s conservatory – which was nicknamed his porch. His dad had always raced cars as well as fixed them and Shane would go along and watch him at stock car events, so it only seemed natural that he would follow in his footsteps. Shane loved working in the garage but in 1993 his life took an unexpected turn....

After working for his dad for three years and while recovering from an eye injury sustained at work, a boy he knew from school and his BMXing days came to visit him. Mark Walton had a proposition for him; he had seen a video of ‘Take That’ and asked Shane if he wanted to be in a band like it. For Shane it was a surprise to be asked; he didn’t even know if he could sing and the only dancing he'd done was secretly in his bedroom. Cars were all he knew and up until that point had been all he wanted to know, but somehow being in a band appealed to him and he agreed to the idea.

Mark set up a meeting with a manager he thought could turn his dream to reality; Louis Walsh loved the idea of an Irish boyband and in his attempts to make it happen; Shane and Mark appeared on the radio and in newspapers to publicise the auditions. When the day of the auditions arrived; Shane saw all the eventual members of the band sing, dance and basically do their thing. The line-up was announced and along with Shane and Mark; the other lads to be picked were Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Keith Duffy and Richie Rock.

Richie was asked to leave the band after showing a lack of commitment and ironically; Mark – the lad whose dream it was in the first place – left of his own accord; deciding life as a would-be popstar was too much for him. Mikey Graham joined and the band known as Boyzone moved from touring in the back of a transit van around pubs, to the Smash Hits tour, to their own arena tour and beyond.