The Real Chief - Liam Lynch (19 page)

The available Executive members assembled on 23 March 1923 at James Cullinane's, Bliantas. In view of the important matters to be discussed, De Valera, was also present.
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Anxious to stop the war De Valera stated at the meeting that Irish sovereignty and the abolition of the oath were prerequisites. Following a discus­sion on the general situation, Tom Barry proposed that the Exe­cutive recognise that continued resistance would not further the cause of independence.

The meeting had to move into the Nire Valley on 25 March because of reports of raiding forces in the area. Here the session continued at John Wall's, Glenanore until 26 March. (This meet­­­ing took three days.)
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No minutes are available, but cap­tured documents of the proceedings were published in the
Irish Inde­pendent
of 9 April 1923. From this long conference three view­points emerged. The following is a summary:

(1) Lynch's decision was to continue to fight, despite losses or dis­aster, until opponents agreed to the conditions of negotiation. It was his belief that they were still capable of offering resistance to the im­position of the treaty and that it was their duty to do so. That point of view received little support.

(2) The belief was held that a continuation of the armed struggle was no longer the best means of advancing the cause of the Re­public, and that it would be possible through negotiations with the Free State government to agree to certain principles which would leave the Irish people uncommitted to the Treaty, and Re­publicans free to advance their cause without restriction. In prin­ciple, this meant that it would be possible for the Republicans to participate in the political and parliamentary life of the nation without taking the oath of allegiance to a foreign monarch.

(3) The view was held that the Free State authorities were un­willing to negotiate despite the maximum military effort which had been made, and had failed. Therefore, the war should be end­ed, thus saving further sacrifice of lives in the cause of the Re­pub­lic. This view advocated the dumping of arms as the most accep­table way of ending the resistance.

These main points were discussed in view of:

1: The heavy losses by death and capture of officers and men.

2: The executions which had again been resumed in March following their suspension in February.

3: Lack of arms and ammunition to continue with further resistance.

It was estimated that, at this time, internment camps held ap­proxi­mately 13,000 prisoners. There seemed to be no way that they could retaliate against the execution of men other than through anarchy and Lynch would not agree to this policy.

Though Michael Cremin had been negotiating the impor­tation of arms from the continent, there was no indication that this would be successful. Lynch was more hopeful than the situ­ation warranted that arms would be forthcoming from Germany. In December 1922 as chief-of-staff of the IRA, he had written to Joe McGarrity in the United States expressing the hope that ‘you have by now met Comdt Gen. Seán Moylan who has been sent by Army Council as Executive Representative to Clan' for the purpose of collecting funds and negotiating the purchase of heavy weapons to be got through Germany and dispatched to Ire­land.
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In a letter that Lynch had sent to Seán Moylan on 6 Feb­ruary 1923 it appears as if he was confident of obtaining at least ‘one piece of artillery now ... which could be moved round amongst our strong force and this would completely demoralise enemy and end the war ... A big cargo is not required; even a few, with sufficient shells, would finish up the business here ...'
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Dur­ing this period Lynch appeared to live under the false hope that things would go his way – that arms would come, that all would be right for the Republicans and, therefore, for Ireland.

A proposition at the March Executive meeting, formulated and proposed by Tom Barry and seconded by Tom Crofts sug­gested:

That in the opinion of the Executive further armed resistance and operations against F. S. government will not further the cause of independence of the country.

As this motion (which De Valera was not allowed to vote on, but was allowed to speak in its favour)
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was defeated by one vote, five against six (Lynch voting against the motion),
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it appeared im­possible to reconcile the divergent views held by members of the Executive. Because of this, and also the hope that mountain artil­­lery would soon become available, a decision was taken to ad­journ the meeting until 10 April. Meanwhile, De Valera was to endeavour to bring certain negotiations which had been pro­gressing through intermediaries to finer points so that they could be presented at the next Executive meeting, which would re-as­semble at Araglin.

After the meeting, Lynch walked down the road with De Valera. He reflected aloud ‘I wonder what Tom Clarke would think of this decision.'
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De Valera stopped. ‘Tom Clarke is dead,' he said. ‘He has not our responsibilities. Nobody will ever know what he would do, for this situation did not arise for him. But it has risen for us and we must face it with our intelligence and conscious of our re­spon­sibility.'
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Southern members, Barry, Crofts, and McSwiney returned to the Ballyvourney area while Lynch, Aiken and Hyde moved northwards towards Callan. While billeted in Kilcash on Good Friday 30 March, Lynch received news that Matt Ryan, a mem­ber of his staff, had been killed the previous day. It was again a moment of soul-searching for Liam. When Kathleen Barry spoke to him, he said that there were three courses open to him: ‘to fight on; to surrender; a third option – he would not mention as he did not like to contemplate – the dumping of arms.' But he told her that the adjourned Executive meeting would clarify the position. Even then, he had an optimistic faith in the ability of the west­ern divisions to continue the fight. Lynch told Todd An­drews before they parted a few days earlier, that ‘he hoped he would be able to carry the Executive with him in his determination to fight on ... he had hopes of making a comeback in the west' and had suggested that after the Executive meeting he would send Andrews to the west ‘to take charge there'.

Lynch, at this stage, wished to visit Kirwans of Graigavalla where he had billeted while on the run after action in Fermoy in September 1919. He wanted to be with Bridie Keyes. It was the last time she would see him alive. It was a very memorable visit; the Republic's cause was foremost in most of the conversations; as Liam's boots were pretty worn, Jerry Kirwan took it upon him­self to repair them. (These are now in the National Museum, Dub­lin.)

Liam bid Bridie and the rest a last farewell. Afterwards they would all recall this visit as he left them and headed for Jim O'Brien's of Ballylanigan, which was approximately four miles south-west of Callan. A number of local people had helped O'Brien to build a most unusual hide-out which housed most of the im­portant Republican leaders during the Civil War – men like Tom Barry, Liam Deasy, De Valera and of course Lynch himself. It was christened ‘Katmandu'.

‘Katmandu' was a room about ten by five concealed at the end of a cow shed on the farm of the brothers Michael and John Phelan. The building had corrugated-iron walls and a roof partly covered with corrugated iron and partly thatched. Access to the hide-out was through this cow shed. The opening to it was cleverly constructed and could only be opened by anyone who knew the secret. The bunk-style bed-board would hold up to fourteen men, and in a corner stood a hinged-table where many important historical documents were signed. (On one occasion, twelve men including Liam held their breaths inside while a search went on outside.)

It was now Easter 1923. Liam had his meals at Gardiner's but he worked and slept at ‘Katmandu'.
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Despite the very serious posi­tion of the Republican forces, as outlined at the last Execu­tive meeting, Liam was determined to continue the struggle in the field and to use his policy of armed resistance until, he be­lieved, his opponents would be forced to negotiate.

Accompanied by Frank Aiken and Seán Hyde he left ‘Kat­mandu' on 4 April 1923 on the first leg of the journey towards Araglin. In a pony and trap Jim O'Brien brought them to Nine-Mile House and they continued southwards to the Suir which they crossed west of Carrick, joined the old route and went through the Gap into the Nire Valley where they rested at Wall's of Knockaree and were joined next day by Bill Quirke, Seán O'Meara and Seán Hyde.

By Sunday midnight on 8 April, they had come into the sixth battalion area of the Third Tipperary brigade near Goatenbridge. That night, while Liam was billeted at Prendergast's, Owen McCarthy, a dispatch rider, brought a report from Araglin that over the next few days they could expect a round up in the locality. Liam felt that it was now wiser not to continue towards Araglin, so he sent the dispatch rider with these instructions to the rest of the Executive.

Lynch and his companions, fearful that death could be around any turn, moved again that night towards the banks of the Tar River; he stayed with Frank Aiken and Seán Hyde at Michael Condons; James Condon and Bill Houlihan housed the others.
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Before dawn on Tuesday 10 April, reports came from the scouts at Croke schoolhouse of the sighting of Free State troops – moving in two files along the grass margins on either side of the road, approaching from the Clogheen direction. Lynch and his group having been alerted, had assembled by 5 a.m. at Bill Houli­hans, which was the house nearest the mountains. Raids of this nature were an everyday occurrence; they felt they had left no tell-tale marks so they were willing to sit it out and were not un­duly ruffled.

At about 8 a.m. a scout rushed in saying that another column of Free State troops was approaching over the mountain to their left. Their line of escape was being threatened. Leaving Bill Houli­­hans they dashed up a glen towards the mountain. Lynch and five officers, armed with revolvers and automatics, and an un­armed local volunteer, struggled through the gorse. At the head of the glen they waited momentarily for the two scouts who were armed, one with a Thompson and the other a rifle. Maurice Twomey, one of the officers records:

We were only a few minutes at the head of the glen, with no sign of the scouts coming when the Staters' appeared over a rise and our first shots were exchanged. We dashed on again, up the mountain, a shallow river-bed affording us cover for about 250 yards. When we reached the end of the river-bed we had to retreat up a bare coverless shoulder of mountain. This was the ‘Staters' chance. About fifty of them had a clear view of us at between 300 and 400 yards range and they rattled away with their rifles as fast as they could work the bolts. Our return fire, with revolvers, was of course ineffective at that range; but as we staggered on up the mountain we fired an odd shot to disconcert their aim.
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Liam and his comrades continued to move up the rise of Crow­hill. As they retreated over a bare shoulder of the Knockmeal­down mountain they were aware of their exposed position but had no option. Then the Free State troops opened fire again. Frag­­ments of rock and soil thrown up by the bullets rained on them as they struggled upwards. The men, all officers, walked or scramb­led in single formation but kept going hoping to get to the other side of the mountain out of view of the Free State troops. ‘Liam and Seán Hyde were to the rear. The “Staters” had fired over a thousand shots at us without effect, when a lull came in the fir­ing.'
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After some seconds' silence, in the still clear air of the morn­ing a single shot rang out. Liam fell. ‘My God! I'm hit lads,' he said.
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Immediately Bill Quirke and Frank Aiken, who were in front of Liam, heard the call and rushed back. They picked him up, and with Seán Hyde who had been in the rear, carried him some distance. Hyde and Quirke took his arms and Frank Aiken lifted his legs and continued, but it was evident that he was in intense pain and he begged them to leave him. But they continued to carry him; and kept saying the act of contrition. Heavy fire from the Lewis gun knocked splinters off the large rock behind which they had taken temporary shelter. After a lull, when they again prepared to resume their journey, Liam asked them to leave him. Because of their reluctance he finally ordered them to put him down and go on. ‘I'm finished,' he said, ‘I'm dying. Perhaps they'll bandage me when they come up.' His companions realised it was the end. Hyde and Quirke pillowed a coat behind his head and reluctantly left him. Frank Aiken took his papers and his automatic, said another act of contrition as his life was slowly ebbing, put a coat over him then bade a final quick farewell to his friend as their enemy approached.
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Major General John T. Prout, Waterford commanding Free State officer with headquarters at Clonmel, had heard that certain Republican leaders were in the area, consequently he or­dered a search of part of the South Tipperary and Waterford area to commence at dawn on 10 April. Over 1,000 troops were en­gaged in the search. Sixty men from Clogheen under Captain Tom Taylor and Lieut Laurence Clancy, arrived at Goatenbridge at 5 a.m. This was the party which had been observed by the scouts. Taylor had instructed his troops to drive south-east from Newcastle at dawn in a well extended formation across the moun­­tain towards Ballymacarbery where they would link up with an­other column. Taylor's troops marched to Newcastle extended in formation up the mountain and then broke into two parts. It was the section under Lieut Clancy who saw Liam Lynch and his men and opened fire on them.

When Lieut Clancy reached Liam, the soldier who had been covering him with a rifle shouted excitedly, ‘We've captured De Valera.' Clancy knew at first glance that he was mistaken. When he looked down on the helpless prisoner he asked, ‘Are you the bloody chief-of-staff of the Irregulars?'