Eighty-eight-year-old Irishman Paddy Lynch has lived a full and happy life.

Dressed in green for St Patrick’s Day celebrated here on Thursday, he stood out as one of the colourful characters I have had the pleasure of meeting.

Originally from Dublin, Lynch, who is referred to as the greatest showman or Irish shamrock, has been living in the Cook Islands for 15 years.

He left his small hometown of Meath at the young age of 19 to avoid the war.

Opposed to the idea of fighting, he made his way to England so he could travel to Canada. However, his plans changed, while waiting in line for his ticket on the steamboat.

“He was waiting in line when he met a priest, who became a turning point in his life,” shares Paddy’s son, Paul Lynch.

“The priest said there was somewhere even further than Canada he could go to get away from the war, and that was called New Zealand.

“So, he (Paddy) was like, ‘that’s good enough for me!’”

Two years later in 1955, Paddy landed in Wellington. There he began working and playing sports including rugby and Irish football. He also attended the local dance hall on Friday nights where he met his future wife Luina Napa, a New Zealand Cook Islander.

Noticing her beauty and exotic features, Paddy was first across the dance floor to invite her out on a date.

Three days later he decided to ask for her hand in marriage.

“These three girls came in and she was one of them,” shares Paul. “She had a great figure and long black hair, so dad said to one of his mates, ‘Crikey, I like that dark one with the black hair’.”

“Two years later they were married, with their first child born exactly nine months to the day.”

Paddy and Luina eventually married on March 2, 1957, in a church on Parnell Rise, in Auckland.

In attendance were Luina’s parents and family, but being a new migrant to New Zealand, Paddy had no family in the country, so he only had an Irish friend as his best man.

What followed next was their six children, three who now live in the Cook Islands, and three in Melbourne.

“She was a brilliant woman,” Paddy says of his late wife Luina who passed away last year.

“She thought I was very charming and good-looking when we met. But she didn’t accept my proposal straight away because she couldn’t understand my Irish accent, or what I was saying.”

In 1972, after several years of living in New Zealand, Paddy and Luina decided to move their family to Melbourne in Australia. There he worked as a horse trainer while his wife worked as a court reporter.

He had already spent much of his life around horses, and before arriving in Australia had worked as a jockey in New Zealand, and then as a horse trainer and breeder.

His daughter Kay shares that a highlight of his career was his success in getting a horse called Kate’s Mill to eat when no one else could, adding that he also got her into Australia's most famous annual thoroughbred horse race – the Melbourne Cup

.“Dad thought she was a lovely little mare,” shares Kay. “He always had a good eye when it came to horses.”

“When we were young, people would ask him for his advice. He would tell someone which horse to buy, making them money.

“He became so well-known through his horses and appearances that each year at the Melbourne Cup people ended up calling him ‘The Little Battler’, or ‘Leprechaun’.”

His son Paul shares during the Melbourne Cup, Paddy would often dress like a leprechaun, which is an omen of good luck.

Photographers and racegoers would often gravitate towards him, adding that on one occasion he was even invited to meet Queen Elizabeth.

“You could wind him up and off he would go through the crowds,” Kay says. “He was like a wind-up energiser bunny, always on the move.

“He was also a very lucky guy, with people looking for some of his luck to rub off on them.”

In 2007, Paddy and Luina decided to move to Rarotonga. He fell in love with the Cook Islands immediately.

During his time here he joined the Hash Harriers to keep fit, revealing that there was nowhere else in the world he would rather be.

He shares that as a child he always wanted to live where the sun shines, adding that he has lived a full and happy life here in the Cook Islands.

“I love Rarotonga,” he says in his strong Irish accent.

“When I came here for the first time, I said, this is the place I’d like to die.

“But, as I’ve said before, don’t bury me under a coconut tree, in case one drops down and wakes me up again.”