GENERAL LIAM LYNCH
A true leader
September 2020 brought the chance discovery in Fermoy town centre of writings on the interior wall of a renovated premises, which included the name of Liam Lynch. Having completed an apprenticeship in Mitchelstown, 17 year old Lynch worked in Barry’s Hardware on Patrick Street for a period from 1915 to 1917. The list of names details the ‘Present Staff’ of 1917.
An intriguing find and an apt time to relive the life of the Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army, Liam Lynch, who is buried in Kilcrumper old cemetery. Here, we take this journey from a detailed column carried in The Avondhu from May 1985, courtesy of a submission from Peggy Quinlan, who herself recalled being held up as a child by Liam Lynch’s sister, Margaret, to enable her to see his remains laid out in the coffin..
A TRUE LEADER
‘The Lynch family homestead was situated at the foot of the Galtee mountains in the townland of Barnagurraha, Anglesboro, near Mitchelstown. It was here that Liam Lynch was born in November 1893. He had four brothers and one sister. Liam’s father, Jeremiah, died while Liam was still a boy, leaving the rearing of the family and the running of the farm to his mother.
The young Liam received his education at the local national school in Anglesboro. He was a bright and intelligent pupil. On finishing his schooling he decided to try to make his future in the hardware business. Around 1909 he came to Mitchelstown where his cousins, Patrick O’Neill and Sons conducted business as hardware merchants in Baldwin Street. There he began to serve an apprenticeship to his chosen trade.
When the Irish Volunteers were formed in 1914 Liam soon became a member. On completion of his apprenticeship in Mitchelstown, he went to work in the hardware business of James Barry and Sons in Fermoy. He remained at that post until he went into full-time service with the Irish Republican Army.
The failure of the 1916 rebellion led to a reorganisation of the volunteer movement throughout the country. That reorganisation saw Liam Lynch become Second Lieutenant of the Fermoy Company. Liam Lynch encouraged the development of other companies in north Cork. As a result of this, a battalion was formed in the area and Liam Lynch was appointed adjutant.
It may be useful at this point to look at Liam Lynch, the man, before going on to describe his subsequent career. My late father, Maurice Whyte, was a friend and contemporary of Liam Lynch. He remembered him as being a shy, retiring person on the surface. To those who knew him intimately, however, his intellectual and soldierly qualities were readily apparent. He was at his best in dealing with individuals or small groups, and this particularly suited him as a leader in a guerrilla warfare campaign. He advanced rapidly through the ranks of the volunteer organisation due to the high estimation in which he was held by his colleagues.
In January 1919, the command-structure of the volunteer movement in Cork was reorganised. A new Cork No. 2 Brigade was formed, covering all the northern part of the country, and Liam Lynch was appointed Brigade Commandant.
The first capture of a government post since 1916 took place in April 1919. Liam Lynch undertook a reconnaissance mission to inspect the RIC station at Araglen and its garrison; he then secured permission from GHQ to mount a raid. On Sunday, April 20, an IRA party led by Lynch’s friend, Commandant Michael Fitzgerald, O/C Fermoy Battalion, entered the barrack. All the constables bar one were attending Mass and he offered resistance although he was unarmed. He was easily overpowered. The raid yielded six carbines, a Webley revolver, 400 rounds of rifle ammunition and twenty rounds of small ammunition. This was a very valuable addition to the battalion’s meagre store of arms.
In September, 1919, Liam Lynch led an attack on a party of sixteen English soldiers on the streets of Fermoy. One soldier was killed and several wounded. All were disarmed. This was the first army fatality at the hands of the volunteers since 1916 and as a result, Liam Lynch became a wanted man. He himself was slightly wounded in the incident.
In June 1920, Liam Lynch decided to take General Lucas, of the English garrison at Fermoy, prisoner. The intention was to use him as a hostage for the release of Commandant Fitzgerald who was then in custody and was subsequently to die after a prolonged hunger-strike. The ploy was unsuccessful, however, as Lucas escaped after a couple of weeks of captivity.
In August Liam Lynch was actually captured. He was held in custody and even went on hunger-strike for a few days. He was not recognised, however and, after giving a false name and address, he was released even though he was a most wanted man!
Around this time the volunteers introduced a new element to the military campaign in the south - the flying column. The flying column was a tightly-knit group of volunteers not based in any one district but ranging over a wide area, conducting guerrilla warfare with the enemy, and deriving sustenance and support from the sympathetic local population. Liam Lynch quickly embraced this new development and was soon leading a column himself – with spectacular results. In September 1920 Lynch and his column attacked the military barracks in Mallow. The barracks were garrisoned by a detachment of the 17th Lancers regiment, one of the most respected units in the British Army. Lynch and his men succeeded in capturing the barracks without sustaining any casualties. Two machineguns, 24 rifles and a large quantity of ammunition were captured.
WANTED MAN
By virtue of these and other exploits Lynch earned a huge reputation as a guerrilla leader in Munster. The government were therefore determined to capture him. On March 10, 1921, Lynch was based at Nadd, a small village near Kanturk. Information concerning his movements was supplied to the authorities and troops were immediately despatched to the area. Two armoured cars and 42 trucks of military were involved in the operation, drawn from Cork, Ballincollig, Mallow, Buttevant and other garrisons. The Buttevant contingent were delayed in transit and, because of this, the attempt to seal the area fell through. Lynch managed to make a remarkable escape through the only gap in the British Army cordon.
On July 11, 1921, a truce was proclaimed and hostilities with the British ceased. The following months were taken up with intensive negotiations between the British government and the Irish representatives. Eventually, a treaty was agreed and it was ratified by the Dáil in January 1922 with a small majority.
The treaty recognised Irish partition. For this reason it split the volunteer movement and Irish society as a whole. The legacy of that division is still reflected in the party political system today. A large section of the volunteers decided to resist the treaty by force: they were subsequently to be known as the Irregulars. Faced with military opposition of this kind the new Free State government had no option but to set about suppressing the revolt. The result was the outbreak of Civil War. Liam Lynch was heartbroken by the signing of the treaty. For him it was nothing short of a sell-out of Ireland’s claim to complete independence. He therefore decided to join those who were intent on resisting the treaty.
Liam Lynch was one of the chief leaders of the Irregulars. He was in command of the anti-treaty forces in the south. The Civil War was a short but bitter conflict and casualties were heavy on both sides. Perhaps the biggest sufferers of all were the civilian population trying to live their lives as normal in the middle of a violent guerilla war.
LAST STAND
The Free State forces gradually got the upper hand. They had superior numbers, they had better equipment and they had greater financial resources. Before his death Liam Lynch realised that resistance was growing futile as the hope of any kind of military victory receded.
It was in one of the final skirmishes of that terrible war, that Liam Lynch was mortally wounded. He then held the rank of general in the Irregulars. On the night of April 9-10, 1923, he and some other important antitreaty leaders were in conference in a remote part of the Knockmealdown mountains. The place was situated between the village of Newcastle and the Cistercian monastery of Mount Melleray. Its isolation and remoteness made it an ideal location for the holding of such a meeting. Among those present were Austin Stack, Dan Breen and de Valera himself.
At 5am on the morning of April 10 they assembled at Bill Houlihan’s - the house nearest the mountains. They sat and drank tea while they awaited reports from scouts at Croagh schoolhouse who had sighted a party of Free State troops approaching from the Clogheen direction. Liam Lynch and his men were not alarmed as these raids were an everyday occurrence and they were well capable of dealing with them. What they did not know was that this was not just a local raid but a highly organised sweep of the whole area involving large numbers of troops.
Major-General Prout was commanding officer of the Free State forces in the area. He had learned that for sometime past a number of prominent Irregular leaders were located somewhere in the mountains between Tipperary and Waterford. A sweep of the area was therefore decided on. Troops from Tipperary and Waterford moved in early on Tuesday, April 10. Sixty men from the Clogheen column under Capt. Tom Taylor and Lt Laurence Clancy arrived at Goatenbridge at 5am. This was the group which had been spotted by the scouts.
Capt Taylor’s instructions were to drive southeast from Newcastle at dawn with his troops in a well-extended formation, across the mountains to Ballymacarbry. There he would link up with another column. Taylor’s party marched to Newcastle, extending as it moved up the mountains and it broke into two parts. The section led by Lt Clancy observed Lynch’s party and opened fire.
All the officers in Lynch’s group carried revolvers or automatic pistols, but none had rifles. Their return fire was, therefore, quite ineffective at long range, serving only to disconcert the Free State troops.
Liam Lynch and his party continued to move up the mountains. They sought cover in a shallow streambed, then almost dry. This afforded them some measure of protection for about 250 yards. At the head of it they had to retreat over a bare, coverless shoulder of mountain. They were now in full view of Lt Clancy’s party and at a range of only 400 yards. Heavy fire was opened on them in this exposed position. Fragments of rock and bullets rained around them as they struggled upwards.
When they had covered about 200 yards from the stream-bed with Liam Lynch and Sean Hyde in the rear, there was a lull in the fighting. For about twenty seconds the still clear air of the morning was soundless. Then a single shot rang out. Liam Lynch fell. ‘My God! I am hit,’ he cried out.
‘GET ME A PRIEST & DOCTOR - I AM DYING’
The Free State troops now observed a man being carried along by his comrades. However, as Clancy’s men approached they abandoned their burden and fled. When Clancy reached the point he found Liam Lynch lying on his back. He was deadly pale and wearing glasses. A soldier covering the now helpless prisoner with a rifle called out excitedly that they had captured de Valera.
Clancy knew that the soldier was mistaken and on being asked who he was the wounded prisoner replied “I am Liam Lynch, Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army: get me a priest and doctor - I am dying’.
Clancy put a field dressing on the exit wound. A stretcher was improvised by tying a soldier’s greatcoat to two rifles and they began the difficult task of carrying him down the steep and rugged mountain side. Only by being kept in a half-sitting position could he endure the intense pain. He had to be rested frequently; still he grew weaker and paler every minute. At the foot of the mountain a jennet and cart filled with hay was procured. Liam Lynch was placed in this to carry him over the rough bye-road. Clancy disarmed a soldier and sent him for a priest and doctor. However, on reaching the Newcastle road he discovered that the young soldier had not done so, being terrified of being shot by the Irregulars.
In a short time Fr Patrick Hallinan of Newcastle came along. He knew nothing of what had happened and when hearing that a man was badly wounded, he said ‘Thank God I came this way as I was going nowhere in particular’. He then attended to Liam Lynch on the roadside. It was about 11.30am approximately, two-and-ahalf hours after he had been shot.
At 1.30pm Liam Lynch was carried into a public-house in Newcastle and placed on a mattress with some blankets over him. While there he was attended by Fr. John Walsh, parish priest of Newcastle, and by Dr John Power. Lt Clancy telephoned his headquarters in Clonmel; he reported the capture of Liam Lynch and requested a doctor and an ambulance. It was 3.15pm when Dr Dalton, an army doctor and a Red Cross ambulance arrived. Liam Lynch was taken to Clonmel Hospital. He died there at 8.45 that evening, Tuesday, April 10, 1923.
In Newcastle, prior to his removal, he said to Lt Clancy: ‘When I die, tell my people I want to be buried with Fitzgerald of Fermoy’ - meaning Commandant Michael Fitzgerald, his friend and comrade who died on hunger strike in Cork Gaol in December 1920. So little enmity did he hear those who shot him that he gave one of his fountain-pens to Lt Clancy in appreciation of the humane treatment he received from him and said: ‘God bless you and the boys who carried me down the hill’.
Following the inquest on Wednesday evening, the remains stayed in St Joseph’s Church, attached to Clonmel Hospital, until the following Friday. On Wednesday night and all day on Thursday crowds visited the church to view the body which was clothed in the green uniform of the Irish Volunteers. Throughout the night and the following day a guard of honour consisting of the local Cumann na mBan watched by his coffin. The body of the dead leader was wrapped in the tricolour and it lay in the coffin and it presented a touching spectacle. The long ascetic features bore a peaceful look which was intensified by the marble-like pallor of the countenance. The deceased was only thirty years old, but appeared older in death.
THOUSANDS PAY
RESPECTS
On the coffin was the following inscription in Irish: ‘Liam Lynch, Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army; killed in action while fighting for Ireland, April, 1923’.
The funeral was to take place at 4pm on Thursday. At that hour crowds had assembled within the hospital grounds, but some members of the Lynch family had not arrived and it was decided that the funeral should be postponed for one day.
On Thursday evening, Brother MP Lynch, Liam Lynch’s brother, arrived from Omagh at Tipperary Station. He had been arrested along with Mary MacSwiney, Mrs Kit O’Callaghan TD, widow of the murdered Lord Mayor of Limerick, Count Plunkett, Madame Markiewicz and others when soldiers boarded the train. Br Lynch was later allowed to continue his journey. He betrayed great emotion as he looked at the pale features of his dead brother.
Several members of the Free State Army were kneeling among the people in the body of the church. They had come to pay a tribute of respect to their late opponent. Beside the coffin was Liam Lynch’s mother, who bore the death of her son with apparent resignation. On Friday morning a requiem Mass was celebrated by Fr O’Flynn and it was well attended.
The remains were borne through the streets of Clonmel on the Friday to be transferred to a hearse at the edge of the town. Thousands of people lined the route of the procession even in heavy rain. It was 4pm when the funeral left Clonmel for Mitchelstown. The coffin was draped in the tricolour and on it rested Liam Lynch’s volunteer cap and his Sam Browne belt. On either side of the coffin marched six members of Cumann na mBan, followed by several others. As the procession passed out of the hospital grounds, it was joined by a huge crowd of young men and women.
Immediately outside, a guard of honour of Free State troops stood to attention and presented arms as the coffin was carried past. Further up the road, a column of the national army had lined up with their officers and gave the salute as the funeral passed. All business in Clonmel was suspended as a mark of respect.
As the huge procession moved through the principal streets, along the route the civic guards turned out in large numbers to pay their respects. At the outskirts of the town the cortege halted and a motor hearse received the remains. The final scene was a striking one. Crowds lined both sides of the road in a terrible downpour while the hearse moved off towards Mitchelstown. Twenty members of the civic guard who had lined themselves along the footpath, stood at the salute. The hearse passed slowly through two files of about forty members of Cumann na mBan. It was followed by hundreds of vehicles, including many motor cars. The amount of floral tributes was so great that special transport had to bring them to Mitchelstown and later to Fermoy.
The chief mourners were Liam Lynch’s mother, his brothers Fr Thomas Lynch, Brother MP Lynch, Sean Lynch and Seamus Lynch, and his sister, Margaret Lynch Mullins. Bridie Keyes from Mitchelstown, Liam Lynch’s fiancee, was also present.
The funeral travelled to Mitchelstown through Cahir, Clogheen and Ballyporeen, with remarkable evidence of mourning being afforded everywhere. When the remains arrived in Mitchelstown they were placed in the mortuary of the parish church. A panel in the lid of the coffin was opened and fitted with glass and there was a further lying-instate, with the little church being visited by thousands. I myself well remember being held up as a child by Liam Lynch’s sister, Margaret to enable me to see the remains.
On Saturday morning, requiem Mass was celebrated and the crowd was so large that it overflowed into the chapel yard. Then from early on Sunday thousands of people, including many VIP’s, converged on the town. The funeral left Mitchelstown for Fermoy at 2pm. Preceded by several members of Cumann na mBan, who carried wreaths, the coffin was borne through the streets of Mitchelstown by comrades of Liam Lynch. Rain fell in torrents, yet thousands of people turned out to line the streets. At the outskirts of the town the coffin was placed in the hearse and was conveyed to the cemetery.
Among the many wreaths was one from Eamonn de Valera. It bore the following inscription: ‘When Emmet’s epitaph can be written, Ireland will write your’s too Liam. Eamonn de Valera, April, 1923.’
The funeral route was through Glanworth village to Fermoy town, then up Barrack Hill to Kilcrumper cemetery. It was close to 7pm by the time the cortege reached Kilcrumper. Long before that, thousands of people had gathered at the graveside. The funeral stretched the whole way from Mitchelstown to the cemetery.
The burial ceremony took place in heavy rain. Many dignitaries attended and the corporations of Cork, Limerick and Waterford, as well as several urban councils, were represented. A most poignant figure was Bridie Keyes from Mitchelstown, the dead leader’s fiancee.
When the remains were placed in the grave, all heads were bare in spite of the rain. The officiating priests recited the Rosary in Irish and all the assembly joined in. It was an impressive and emotional scene as night came slowly down from the lofty mountains and the wind sighed a last mournful requiem through the trees.
The funeral oration was given by Professor Stockley, TD. He paid a glowing tribute to the memory of the dead leader. A firing party then stepped forward and fired three volleys over the grave. The last post was then sounded.
One of the very last people to leave the graveside was a civic guard. Though he had been an opponent of the Irregulars, he was weeping bitterly. Somebody asked him if he had known Liam Lynch very well. He replied: “Yes I did: the late gentleman saved my life during the War of Independence”.