The Real Chief - Liam Lynch Read Free Page A

important capture of the war in Munster – almost the entire staff of the Cork No. 1 brigade and also some of the most active bat­talion commandants were taken in. All the prisoners, except Liam Lynch and Michael Leahy, gave correct names and ad­dresses. Liam gave his name as James Casey and his address as 25 Camden Street, Dublin, according to the prison records. Michael Leahy gave his name as Thomas Power. Terence MacSwiney pro­posed to his fellow prisoners that they would go on hunger-strike. None of the men, including Liam Lynch, though not enthusiastic about using a hunger-strike as a weapon, expressed any disagree­ment with this proposal.
    The prisoners were held at the Cork military detention bar­racks for one night and the next day they were removed to Cork jail. Here Liam met, for the last time, his old friend and comrade Michael Fitzgerald. His cousin, Tom Crawford was also in prison. Three days later on 15 August the British authorities released all of the prisoners (captured at City Hall) except Terence Mac­Swiney. He had a harrowing experience and died on 25 Octo­ber after seventy-five days on hunger-strike.
    Had the British authorities realised that they had Liam Lynch in their possession they certainly would not have released him. Two men of the same name were killed around this time. On the night of 4 August a man named James Lynch who was living in Hos­pital, Co. Limerick was questioned closely by three soldiers but no attempt was made to arrest him. The family knelt down to say the rosary but the soldiers, who had left, returned before the prayers were finished and beckoned to Lynch to go out as they wanted a word with him. He walked about 200 yards from his house when three volleys were fired and he fell dead.
    On the night of 22 September 1920 a John Lynch from Kil­mallock who was a county councillor and Gaelic League enthu­siast was staying in the Exchange Hotel, Dublin. Two officers in British uniform went to his room and about an hour and a half after they had left, a party of police arrived. Later the body of Coun­­cillor Lynch was found stretched across the bed. He had been shot at close range by a revolver carrying a silencer. The Bri­tish authorities discovered that the wrong man had been shot, and in an effort to hush up the murder it was officially an­noun­ced that no inquest would be permitted and a public funeral would not be allowed. Three separate reports differing in essential points were issued. It was alleged that Councillor Lynch had fired on the crown forces while being arrested and had to be shot in self-defence; but independent doctors stated that he had been shot at close range and that there was no sign of a struggle.
    On the night of 15 August when Liam Lynch was released from Cork jail he stayed in the Cork area in the home of Joe O’Connor. Despite the fact that he had been on hunger-strike for four days and was possibly a little weak he was extremely anxious to get back to his own battalion area. When he arrived, he dis­covered that Patrick Clancy, who had taken part in the Lucas raid, had been killed when the local flying column attacked a British military plane. Following his jail ordeal and news that the authorities hoped to eliminate an IRA member named Lynch, he became even more determined to recruit full-time members for the flying column.
    1 Sir Nevil Macready, Annals of an Active Life , Vol. 2, p.428.
    2 Letter to Tom – torn fragment. A letter to his mother, 1/8/1921 con­tains similar sentiments: ‘I would not wish to be born in any other generation but this. It is glorious to live at the present day ...’ (Lynch private family papers).
    3 An tÓglach , 1 May 1920.
    4 Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, TD for mid-Cork and com­mandant of Cork No. 1 Brigade. He became Lord Mayor of Cork after his friend and colleague, Tomás MacCurtain had been mur­dered.

8. Hostilities intensify –