Created: May 31, 2023
Road through the Knockmealdown mountains, where Lynch was mortally wounded. (Source: Getty images).
My sincere thanks to Dr. Helene O’Keefe of UCC for giving me a chance to write an article on Lynch’s final days for the Irish Civil War section of the RTÉ History website. I was particularly pleased to see a wonderful array of photographs and primary documents from the NLI that Helene selected to feature alongside the text in the article.
One particular highlight relates to National Army lieutenant Laurence Clancy, who lead the search party that found the mortally wounded Lynch on the Knockmealdown mountains. Clancy sent to Florence O’Donoghue, Lynch’s former comrade and first comrade, the full typescript account of his encounter with Lynch and their moving conversation several hours before Lynch’s death.
Great to see too the covering letter Clancy wrote to O’Donoghue in 1953, that I had to sadly drop for space in the book. In the letter, well worth reading in full, Clancy writes: ‘I read and knew about Lynch and his exploits against the Tans before that fatal day when we met on the Knockmealdowns … the great Lynch whose memory, I pray, will always shine in the golden memories of the children yet unborn, and, for generations of Irishmen yet to come, who, please God, will be equally true and unselfish in the cause of Dark Rossaleen, as was poor Liam Lynch.’
The article can be viewed here and I strongly recommend looking at the primary documents also featured in the article.