Large crowds expected for General Liam Lynch centenary commemoration

COMMEMORATIVE PARADE

A commemorative pipe band parade to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of General Liam Lynch will take place in Fermoy on Easter Sunday, 9th April.

The parade will begin at the Commandant Michael Fitzgerald Monument on Courthouse Road, and proceed through the town to the Republican Plot in Kilcrumper Cemetery.

Twelve pipe bands are scheduled to take part in the parade, along with the Fermoy Concert Band and re-enactment groups, with three of the bands travelling from the United States and one from Argentina.

The parade is part of a week-long of activities beginning with a commemorative concert in

Fermoy on April 1st, two exhibitions, the publication of a souvenir booklet, and the launch of an O’Neill’s commemorative jersey.

On the day of the commemoration, the main oration will be given by Kerry historian Tim Horgan of the National Graves Association, with Deputy Mayor of Cork Cllr Deirdre O’Brien speaking on behalf of the Liam Lynch National Commemoration Committee and Cork County Council.

It is expected that several thousand people will attend the commemorative event, and people are advised to travel early as there will be traffic restrictions and delays through the town.

WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE

General Liam Lynch was one of the most successful leaders in the War for Independence, where he commanded the 2nd Cork Brigade, and later the 1st Southern Division of the IRA.

When a split occurred over the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Liam Lynch was voted as IRA Chief of Staff and led a nine month campaign against the Free State Army, until his eventual death on the Knock-mealdown Mountains on the 10th April, 1923.

During the War for Independence, Liam led the first attack against the British Army since 1916, when he along with hunger-striker Commandant Michael Fitzgerald and several leading officers of the Fermoy Battalion, ambushed seventeen British soldiers on their way to Sunday service in the Wesleyan Church (where Fitzgerald’s monument now stands).

Approximately twenty-five Irish Volunteers overpowered the British military forces on the September 7th, 1919, resulting in the death of one soldier, and the wounding of Liam Lynch, who was shot in the struggle.

The Volunteers had just six revolvers between them, with most Volunteers just carrying short clubs, which resulted in handto-hand fighting before the British troops surrendered.

In the aftermath, several leading members of the Fermoy Battalion were arrested, including Fitzgerald, who later went on hunger-strike and died in Cork Gaol on the October 25th, 1920, in a hunger-strike that also saw the deaths of Mayor of Cork Traolach MacSuibhne and Joseph Murphy, a Cork City Volunteer.

MALLOW RAID & NADD AMBUSH

Liam Lynch oversaw the development of the Flying Column in North Cork, with local columns operating in each of the seven battalion areas of his brigade. Along with Ernie O’Malley, a training officer in the IRA at the time, Lynch successfully took Mallow Army Barracks in a morning attack, which secured a huge number of rifles, revolvers and a large quantity of ammunition for his Brigade.

In the aftermath of the Mallow raid, several buildings in the town were destroyed by the British Army, and a number of Volunteers arrested, with many of their homes being burnt in the following month.

During a round-up centred around Nadd in mid-Cork, Liam successfully evaded over a thousand British soldiers, moving his column westward, although four Volunteers were executed by the English after their arrest.

ANGLO-IRISH TREATY

When the Treaty was signed in 1921 and ratified by the Dáil in January 1922, Liam led an estimated 80% of the Volunteers in an IRA convention which broke from the State with the objective to uphold the Irish Republic declared in 1919.

He worked with the leadership of the new emerging Free State Army to arm the nationalist population in the six-counties and directed a campaign against Crown Forces there, which resulted in the Battle of Pettigo in late May 1922.

In the aftermath of the June elections and the attack on the Four Courts by the Free State Army, Lynch led a guerrilla war against the new State for over nine months, which saw that deaths of hundreds of IRA Volunteers and Free State soldiers, many who had commanded the army in the war against English occupation in the two preceding years.

DEATH ON KNOCKMEALDOWN MOUNTAINS

With a growing number of Free State executions, a meeting was called for a meeting of the IRA executive in April 1923, to discuss the possibility of calling a cessation of activities which Lynch strongly opposed.

Staying at the foot of the Knockmealdown Mountains the night before the planned meeting in Araglin, the Free State Army in a coordinated search that comprised of over a thousand soldiers started combing the area, forcing the Volunteers to make an escape up over the mountain slope.

A group of Free State soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Laurence Clancy, whose two brothers had been killed fighting the Black & Tans, engaged with Lynch’s small column of soldiers, which resulted in Lynch receiving a severe injury, which led to his capture and death later that evening when moved to Clonmel town.

With the death of Lynch, the IRA elected a new Chief of Staff Frank Aiken, who called for a dumping of arms in May 1923, which ultimately ended the Irish Civil War and a copper fastening of partition.

FERMOY COMMEMORATION

The commemorative parade in Fermoy will honour the 1,800 Volunteers, Cumann na mBan and Fianna Éireann members killed between 1916 – 1923, many whose anniversaries were never marked due to the Covid lockdowns.

The three Irish-American pipe bands taking part in the parade are the County Cork Pipe Band, New York, which were set up in the 1930’s by members of the IRA who had fought with Liam Lynch, including the Wickham

brothers who had played with the Cork Volunteer Pipe Band. Additionally, the New Hampshire Police Pipes and Drums, NH are travelling, along with the Sword of Light (named after the Gaelic League’s newspaper), New York, who had in recent years travelled to Ireland to mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising.

One Irish-Argentinian band, the Eamon Bulfin Legacy Pipe Band, are also travelling to the event, having been forced to cancel a trip in 2020 to mark the 100th anniversary of the killing of Cork Lord Mayor, Tomás MacCurtáin.