In the decades since his death near the end of the Irish Civil War, General Liam Lynch has become one of the most celebrated revolutionaries of early 20th century Ireland.
Born outside the village of Anglesboro, in rural east Limerick, Lynch was the second-youngest of seven in a farming family. Working in hardware stores in Mitchelstown and later Fermoy in north Cork, it was there Lynch became active in the Gaelic League.
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Radicalised by the events of the 1916 Easter Rising, Lynch joined the Fermoy company of the Irish Volunteers as first lieutenant. Respected for his organisational skills and commitment to the republican cause, Lynch worked his way up the ranks to become the Commandant (O/C) of the Cork No. 2 Brigade of the Irish Republican Army, his area of command encompassing much of north Cork.
As the War of Independence began, Lynch oversaw some of the most important actions against British forces, inspiring those under his command with his leadership and physical bravery. By mid-1921, Lynch was O/C of the IRA’s First Southern Division, which encompassed much of the south-east, including Kerry.
In December 1921, he was adamantly opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, regarding it as a betrayal of the Irish Republic. Lynch became the Chief-of-Staff of the anti-Treaty section of the IRA just before the outbreak of the Irish Civil War.
Mortally wounded by Free State forces on 10th April, 1923 whilst in pursuit across the Knockmealdown mountains, Lynch’s death effectively halted IRA resistance – the Civil War itself ending over a month later.
Throughout the south-west, where Lynch had been most active in the fight for Irish freedom, are an array of memorials and annual commemorations to him – a testament to the esteem in which he was held in by comrades, friends and family – and which endures into the present day.
The most noticeable of such memorials is the 60th foot Liam Lynch Memorial Tower in the Knockmealdown mountains, unveiled on the 7th April 1935. The tower was built on the spot where Lynch was mortally wounded and remains the largest single monument to anyone killed in the Irish revolutionary period of 1916-23.
The tower itself had taken two years to build, and had been funded by donations from republican supporters, which appeals advertised in Irish republican newssheets in both Ireland and the United States.
On the day of its unveiling, thousands attended, which many republicans and supporters travelling from all over the country, many by train. The procession began from Newcastle village to the mountainside at 2.30pm, the ceremony beginning shortly before 5pm.
During the ceremony, in the midst of a torrential downpour, a surprise speaker stepped forward, Maurice ‘Moss’ Twomey – then the IRA chief of staff. Hailing from Clondulane outside Fermoy, Twomey himself had been close to Lynch during both the War of Independence and Civil War and served on his staff.
In a particularly striking example of how such commemorations can be important stages of political theatre, given he was on-the-run from the government headed by Éamon de Valera, Twomey appeared before the crowd in defiance of the Irish authorities.
It was a great propaganda coup for republicans.
After unveiling the slab in Irish on the tower itself, Twomey addressed those present the ‘memorial, which is dedicated to General Liam Lynch, will also stand as a tribute to the memory of all the gallant soldiers whom he led, and who, like him, gave their lives for the same truths and the same ideals.
He was truly one of the people, typical of that great mass of the plain Irish people who are always ready to serve the cause of Irish Independence without thought of reward or honour.’
For Twomey then, and for many in the decades since, Liam Lynch remained a potent symbol of Irish republicanism and resistance.
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It was in a private letter to his brother Tom, written on 1st November 1917, Lynch wrote the most famous phrase associated with him, ‘We have declared for an Irish republic and will not live under any other law.’ Such devotion to the cause of Irish independence in word and deed does much to explain the considerable appeal that Liam Lynch still holds for many in the last century.
Gerard Shannon is a historian from Skerries, Co. Dublin and author of ‘Liam Lynch: To Declare a Republic’.
He was the main speaker at the Liam Lynch National Commemoration Association’s annual ceremony at the Liam Lynch Memorial Tower on Sunday, 13 July.
