LATEST: Meet the Kildare firefighter balancing 'dream job' and life as a young dad

Meet Jay Lynch from Naas, Co Kildare, who is on call pretty much 24/7, helping to save lives as a firefighter in his local community.

Jay (32) has been working for the fire brigade department in Naas for the last four years, and spent five years working for the Newbridge fire department back in 2017.

With nine years working as a fireman altogether, he says it never gets easier and no two day on the job are ever the same.

Not only this, Jay is also juggling being a father to three young children with his youngest being only six weeks old.

He could be at the park playing with his children when he gets a call to go and attend a fire scene, road accident or save the life of a person suffering with cardiac arrest; he never knows what he could be dealing with or when.

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Recently, in December 2025, Jay went the extra mile and decided to volunteer for Naas Community First Responders. Giving up his free time to help people in his local community when they need it the most, Jay is dedicated to saving lives.

"It's basically what I've always wanted to do since I was a child, I love helping people, and so I always kind of had that ambition as a child to join the Fire Brigade," he told us.

"I did an apprenticeship, I used to work as an electrician for Microsoft, and then I changed over in 2017 and joined Kildare Fire Service."

Jay has found his years in the fire service "brilliant" and said "no two days are ever the same. You just never know when your pager goes off.

"So when our pagers are activated for a call, someone rings 999, then we respond to the station from either work or home, and then we respond out to the incidents.

"It could be a medical emergency, it could be water rescue, it could be a road accident, it could be a house fire, you just don't know."

Jay works on a week on week off system, and said when he is working a particular week, he has to be available 24 hours a day.

"So I work Wednesday night to Wednesday night the following week, and we have two crews that change over, so we do a week at a time each, and for that week you're on 24-7."

Jay said this can be challenging at time but said: "Naas is not too bad because it's a busy station, it's one of the busiest in the country actually, so we're just touching 700 calls a year in Naas, but for the likes of other stations, the quieter ones around the county, I'd say it can be hard enough for lads waiting around for calls."

For Jay, this can be especially challenging because he has three children; a four-year-old, a one-and-a-half year-old and a newborn baby who is just six weeks old.

"It definitely wasn't an issue when I had no kids because you could kind of come and go, but obviously kids bring  responsibilities and it's definitely a lot harder to juggle it all, especially when you're on call.

"If you're in the middle of doing something with the kids and then you get a call to respond, you just have to drop everything and go, whether you're in the park with them or you're out shopping or at a birthday party or something, doesn't matter, even if it's one of your own, it's just the pager goes and you're on call, you have to go.

"You have ten minutes to get to the station, so it's definitely challenging with kids."

Jay said the job is particularly stressful when there's family involved or present during a medical emergency, like someone suffering with cardiac arrest.

"It's definitely difficult to walk in and see a family member screaming for the person that's on an arrest, or if there's young kids there as well in the house, there's a lot of emotions going on when you're trying to do your job.

"So you kind of have to be very wary of what you're saying and what you're doing because there's family present. So it can definitely be challenging and difficult.

"I've definitely seen a lot now at this stage, but it never gets any easier in that kind of way. It's still very sad because at the end of the day, if someone is lost, whether it's a husband or wife, family, friend, you know, in these scenarios, it's the same with road accidents as well."

The young Kildare dad said that in order to help people who work in these types of situations, there is support to help them avoid bringing the stresses of the job home. It is called CISM (Critical Influence Stress Management).

"There's designated people you can go to and speak to if you're finding something difficult about a call," he said.

"So especially if you go to the likes of a rescue or a difficult incident where somebody might be trapped and you and your team work together to get that person out of that scenario, or their loved one; it's a good feeling.

"Or saving a property, the house is on fire and there's an adjoining property too, we'll do our best to contain the fire to that one property and save what we can on that other property. So it's definitely, definitely a rewarding job and I love it."

Jay described a particular rewarding moment when he helped save a person's life during a medical emergency.

"We would have cardiac arrests and we fight to get a patient back; they've stopped breathing and the chain of survival obviously kicked in, someone has started CPR and then we've come in, we've taken over or assisted, if it's the CFO group, we've assisted with them and we've basically done the chain of command or the chain of survival until the paramedics arrived. We've given that person every hope to revive and sometimes we do, we do get them, which are called ROSCs.

"You're basically bringing somebody back from the dead."

Back in December of 2025, Jay joined Naas Community First Responders as a volunteer in his spare time.

This decision came when he was introduced to the volunteers who came down to put a defibrillator up in his residential area.

"They were obviously the experts to talk to about it, and they said they are always taking on new members and sure I do it anyways for a living, so I said, I'd love to do it when I'm off work.

"So when I'm not working, I'll volunteer and respond to calls as needed. It's great, they are a great group of people there with a wealth of experience; from paramedics to first responders, members that have been there since the very start."

If you are interested in becoming a first responder, you can find out information on applying here.