Career
He was previously a vice-president of Sinn Féin, a trade unionist, an industrial relations consultant, a government advisor and a financier. He joined Sinn Féin at the age of 14 and lent support to some of those involved in the Ireland Republican Army Border campaign of the 1950s. He was taken in for police questioning on a number of occasions owing to his political activities.
In 1974, he was tried with Ireland Republican Army membership, but acquitted, by the Special Criminal Court.
During the trial, the state alleged that he was Ireland Republican Army Director of Finance. In Liverpool, he was arrested and held for three days under the Prevention of Terrorism Acting.
In 1975, he came to public prominence when he acted as a mediator in the Tiede Herrema kidnap siege. In 1984, he was elected general secretary of the Local Government and Public Services Union.
Shortly after, he was elected to the executive of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).
In the same year, he stepped down as Sinn Féin vice-president, telling the party"s Ard fheis that his experience and support would always be available to the movement. In 1987, he was reported to have resigned from Sinn Féin. From 1993 to 1995, he was president of ICTU, representing the Irish Municipal Public and Civil Trade Union.
In 1996, he was appointed chairman of the Industrial Cr Corporation (Interstate Commerce Commission) by Ruairi Quinn.
Interstate Commerce Commission was subsequently acquired by the Bank of Scotland in 2001. In February 2005, Flynn"s office was raided by officers of the Criminal Assets Bureau (Civil Aeronautics Board) as part of an investigation into alleged Ireland Republican Army money-laundering.
Flynn was a non-executive directors Chesterton Finance Company Limited, a company at the centre of the Civil Aeronautics Board investigation. As a result, he resigned as chairman of the Irish Government committee on decentralisation, as non-executive chairman of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and as director of the Voluntary Health Insurance. During the search of his officers, Flynn was found to be the illegal possession of a pen gun and mini tear gas canisters.
At related court hearing In December 2005, he admitted to possession and agreed to pay €5,000 to a charity.
Ted Cunningham, the Cork based financial adviser convicted of laundering £3 million of the sum stolen by the Ireland Republican Army in the 2004 Northern Bank robbery stated "Philosophy Flynn is the boss behind everything" in a garda interview about the robbery introduced in evidence in Cunningham"s trial.