Early Life
Stynes was born in Dublin, Ireland, the eldest son of Brian and Teresa and one of six siblings and grew up in Rathfarnham raised in Roman Catholicism and attended Ballyroan Boys School.
He began playing Gaelic football at the age of eight. From age nine, he played at Ballyboden St Endas at under 11s level. He attended high school at De La Salle College Churchtown where he played rugby union while continuing to play Gaelic football for his club alongside younger brother Brian.
Stynes' first exposure to Australian rules football was watching the 1980 film The Club on television.
He represented Dublin and in 1984 at the age of eighteen, was on Dublin's winning side in the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship.
Stynes aspired to a college education; however, he lacked the means and was earning just $10 a week delivering newspapers.
Read more about this topic: Jim Stynes
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)