Liam Lynch, chief of staff of the IRA, was shot on the slopes of the Knockmealdowns on this day in 1923. Captured by Free State forces, he was taken to hospital in Clonmel where he died from his wounds at 8.45pm that evening.
A meeting of the IRA army executive was called for 10 April 1923 after divisions had opened up between those who wanted to continue fighting and those who thought it was hopeless. Lynch strongly favoured fighting on. The day before the meeting, a group including Liam Lynch and Frank Aiken (who was to succeed Lynch as chief of staff) found themselves at Houlihan’s farmhouse in the Knockmealdown mountains. They were having breakfast the next morning when a sentry spotted soldiers heading directly for them.
They fled and were pursued. The Republicans had progressed about 1km from the Houlihan farmhouse when a single shot rang out; Lynch fell forward while crying, “My God! I’m hit, lads!” Two members of his party, Bill Quirke and Sean Hyde, began dragging their stricken leader uphill. Several times, Lynch begged his companions to leave him until they saw the futility of what they were attempting and made their escape across the mountain. It seems clear that he was shot by the pursuing Free State soldiers, although historian Meda Ryan has considered the theory that he may have been shot by one of his own in order to remove the major stumbling block to surrender.
Despite Lynch’s well-known animosity towards those who accepted the treaty, the soldiers made every effort to save the badly wounded Lynch. Laboriously, they carried their former comrade on the long, slow journey down the mountainside. He was then taken to Nugent’s Pub in Newcastle, where he was laid on a sofa and given medical treatment. Soon after, he was transferred to hospital in Clonmel where he died later that evening. His death marked the effective end of hostilities in the Civil War as Frank Aiken ordered the suspension of activities on 27 April.
He is buried in Kilcrumper cemetery outside Fermoy. In 1935 a massive memorial, consisting of a round tower 18 metres high, guarded by four bronze wolfhounds, was erected on Crohan Hill near Goatenbridge. A commemoration is held there in his honour every year.
Sources:
https://www.dib.ie/biography/lynch-william-fanaghan-liam-a4949
John G O’Dwyer, Four bronze wolfhounds guard monument commemorating events of a century ago, Irish Examiner, 10/04/2023.
