Liam Lynch (Irish republican)
| Liam Lynch | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
9 November 1893 Barnagurraha, County Limerick, Ireland |
| Died | 10 April 1923 (aged 29) Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland |
| Allegiance |
 Ireland
|
| Service/branch | Irish Republican Army |
| Years of service | 1917–1923 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands held |
Officer Commanding, 2nd Cork Brigade, Irish Republican Army, 1919 – April 1921 Commander, First Southern Division, Irish Republican Army, April 1921 – March 1922 Chief of Staff, Irish Republican Army, March 1922 – April 1923 |
| Battles/wars |
Irish War of Independence Irish Civil War |
Liam Lynch (Irish: Liam Ó Loingsigh; 9 November 1893 – 10 April 1923) was an officer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the commanding general of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish Civil War.
Lynch was born in the townland of Barnagurraha, Limerick, near Mitchelstown, Cork, to Jeremiah and Mary Kelly Lynch. During his first 12 years of schooling he attended Anglesboro School.
In 1910, at the age of 17, he started an apprenticeship in O'Neill's hardware trade in Mitchelstown, where he joined the Gaelic League and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Later he worked at Barry's Timber Merchants in Fermoy. In the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising, he witnessed the shooting and arrest of David, Thomas and Richard Kent of Bawnard House by the Royal Irish Constabulary. Due to the Kent incident Liam Lynch decided to dedicate his life to the Irish Republic and freedom. In 1917 Lynch was elected First Lieutenant of the Irish Volunteer Company. The Irish Volunteer Company resided in Fermoy.
In Cork, Lynch re-organised the Irish Volunteers – the paramilitary organisation that became the Irish Republican Army – in 1919, becoming commandant of the Cork No. 2 Brigade of the IRA during the guerrilla Anglo-Irish War. Lynch helped capture a senior British officer, General Cuthbert Lucas, in June 1920, shooting a Colonel Danford in the incident. Lucas later escaped while being held by IRA men in County Clare. Lynch was captured, together with the other officers of the Cork No. 2 Brigade, in a British raid on Cork City Hall in August 1920. Terence McSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, was among those captured – he later died on hunger strike in protest at his detention. Lynch, however, gave a false name and was released three days later. In the meantime, the British had assassinated two other innocent men named Lynch, whom they had confused with him. Having "made himself a leader out of force of his own convictions...possessed by a sense of mission and by revolutionary ardour", Lynch believed independence could only be "hewed" by the army.
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