The Real Chief - Liam Lynch (5 page)

In mid-1920 the British army of occupation in Ireland exceeded in strength the first British expeditionary forces sent to France to fight the Germans in 1914. At this time in Ireland the British army were experiencing difficulty in combating guerrilla warfare.

Liam Lynch set about organising a two weeks' training course for the volunteers of No. 2 brigade. He outlined to his staff and members of the brigade column his intention of creating an active service unit in each battalion so that a column of eighteen to thirty men could, with the available arms, be capable of com­bined action for larger operations. At the conclusion of the train­­­­ing course, battalion officers with the column would return to their own commands.

Lynch next planned the capture of the barracks at Mallow, which was housed by the Seventeenth Lancers. At the time two volunteers, Richard Willis and John Bolster, were employed on the maintenance staff, so they kept an eye on their routine move­­ments. The garrison consisted of non-commissioned officers and men, and an officer who normally left the barracks each morning to exercise the horses. From the reports by Willis and Bolster, Lynch and his staff were able to draw up sketch maps of the bar­racks.

Owen Harold, who had been billeted in a house facing the barracks helped by giving details of the troops' movements. As the barracks was situated in a narrow street it was difficult for the volunteers to carry out the attack, but they assembled under cover of darkness in the nearby town hall the night before the attack was to take place. On 28 September 1920 Bolster and Wil­lis ar­rived for work at the usual time, bringing Patrick Mc­Carthy with them as a contractor's overseer. McCarthy was to hold up the guardroom when the attacking party arrived at the gate. Mc­Carthy, Willis and Bolster were armed with revolvers.

The routine garrison left at the usual time and the ‘con­trac­tor's overseer' went through the routine of measuring the doors and windows while he waited for his comrades outside to begin the operation. At around 9.30 a.m. Ernie O'Malley knocked on the door beside the main gate. When the sentry pushed back the slide over the peephole O'Malley pushed in an envelope saying, ‘this is for the barrack warden'. The sentry had to open the door in order to take the envelope but O'Malley said that he would personally like to give it to the barrack warden. The sentry hesi­tated at this unusual request giving O'Malley the opportunity of moving closer to him; he grabbed the sentry's rifle and wrestled it out of his hands. Paddy O'Brien and another volunteer, imme­diately behind O'Malley, pushed the door open. Liam Lynch and a small party were on their heels. They made for the guardroom, which was situated about thirty yards from the entrance gate and midway in the block of buildings. On the pretext of examining some defects, McCarthy, Willis and Bolster had been waiting be­side the guardroom. They rushed into the room and held up the guard. Inside the main entrance there was an open shed where the senior NCO, Sergeant Gibbs, was super­vising the showing of a horse. When he saw the first man of the raiding party he rushed towards the guardroom. One of the volun­teers ordered him to halt. He ignored the order and a shot was fired over his head, but still he did not stop. A bullet hit him leaving him mortally wound­ed at the door. The rest of the people in the guardroom were then marched out on to the square and held there until the remainder of the garrison was collected. First aid was given, under super­vision, to the wounded sergeant; the remainder was locked into one of the stables. While this was happening Lynch had given the pre-arranged signal to the three waiting cars which were driven into the yard; all the arms, am­mu­nition and useful equipment was piled into them. (The arms consisted of two Hotchkiss light machine-guns, 27 rifles, a re­volver, very light pistols, 4,000 rounds of ammunition and a quantity of bayonets and lances.) They set the stores on fire and intended to burn the entire building, but shortly after the volunteers left, the fire was put out.

When they left the barracks each man carried a rifle and two bandoleers of ammunition. The operation was carried out with speed. The drivers of the three cars, Leo O'Callaghan, Seán and Paddy Healy, took the road to Glashbee where the Ahadillane company took over local protection of the material for the night. All the members of the raiding party moved back to base without any casualties, and the captured arms were later distributed among the men. Lynch had instructed his men before the attack that shots should be fired only when absolutely necessary. Though he regretted the casualty, he was jubilant at the results of the highly successful first action of the flying column. It was the first occasion in Ire­land in which an enemy military post was captured and stripped of its arms and equipment in daylight. Willis and Bolster, who joined the column, were trained to operate and maintain the two captured machine-guns by volun­teer Matt Flood of Fermoy who had served as a machine-gunner in the British army.

After the raid, the civilian population of Mallow were haras­sed; looting and harassment was indiscriminately carried out. Several members of the British forces from Mallow, Buttevant and Fermoy set about burning and looting public and private pro­­perty in Mallow. The town hall and local creamery were burn­­ed; drunken troops roamed the streets, indiscriminately throwing petrol-filled bottles, smashing windows and causing general havoc in the town.

Eight months after this event on 23 May 1921 a number of men who had been arrested were court-martialled at Victoria bar­racks in Cork. Six men, none of whom took part in the raid, were charged with the murder of Sergeant Gibbs; five were sentenced to death and, of the five, one was not a volunteer. Liam Lynch made a public statement in connection with the affair:

As the officer in charge of the operation in question I desire to state publicly that none of these men had any part in it. Further­more, I wish to state that I alone am responsible for all that was done on that occasion. The raid on the barracks was carried out as a military operation on my orders by a body of Republican troops acting under my direction and I acted by virtue of my commission as an officer of the Irish Republican Army under the authority of my superior officer and the government of the Irish Republic, in accordance with the law of regular warfare.

Signed Liam Ó Loingsigh O/C Cork No. 2 Brigade
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Lynch in a further statement published in 16 July issue of
An tÓglach
, stated that Denis Buckley, Farran, Mourne Abbey, who had also been sentenced to death was not a member of the IRA and had nothing whatever to do with the attack. However, none of those court-martialled was actually put to death.

Following the capture of Mallow barracks the column that had billeted in Lombardstown moved to Ardglass in the Charle­ville battalion area on 30 September. An attack on Churchtown RIC barracks was called off when it was discovered that the post was aware of the plan. The flying column then moved to Free­mount where they contacted officers of the Drumcollogher bat­talion of West Limerick. Patrick O'Brien of Liscarroll was ap­pointed column commander.

Seán Moylan came to Lynch with a proposal for an attack on a military party which travelled at least once a week by lorry between Kanturk and Newmarket. The towns, four miles apart, had strong garrisons of military and police. Lynch, O'Malley and Moylan inspected the position and while doing so saw two lorries containing twenty-four British soldiers pass.

At approximately 3 a.m. on 6 October, the column moved across the fields to occupy the position at Ballygrochane. Shortly after 11 a.m. they heard the long-awaited sound of the lorry. As two lorries were expected, Lynch had planned to let the first one well into position before the four men made a road-block with a cart. When signalled into action these men pushed the cart out and ran for cover. The lorry stopped and as there was only one vehicle, the elaborate preparations were unnecessary. The fight was over in five minutes. The driver was killed and the re­maind­er of the party wounded. The column had no casualties. Lynch felt that this ambush was successful from two points of view. Apart from the amount of arms collected, it also gave ex­perience to large numbers of men. Lynch then set about mobi­lising large contingents of the Kanturk and Newmarket batta­lions and em­ployed them on protective duties.

Because of what had happened at Mallow, Lynch decided that the British forces would not find the civilian population of Kanturk without defence should reprisals be carried out. He marched his column to occupy Kanturk; a local company in the town had been watching activities and units were posted to cover the creamery and the main business areas of the town, but there were no reprisals that night. The column withdrew at dawn. The British forces made some surprise swoops later; Clancy and O'Con­nell who had been trapped and had tried to resist arrest were killed. Despite the risks involved Lynch at­tended their funerals in Kanturk. As an added protection from this period onwards Liam ‘ordered' that all men who feared that they might be ar­rested at any time should be permanently armed. The brigade column was demobilised at the end of October and from then on each battalion began to build up its own column of fif­teen to thirty men, they were to bear in mind the possibility of com­bin­ing forces, if at any time they were confronted with a large opera­tion.

The railway system, throughout this period, was invaluable to the IRA. It was a reliable method of maintaining contact be­tween brigade areas and between Fermoy brigade headquarters and GHQ. Generally it took only two days for a dispatch to tra­vel from the Fermoy area to GHQ. The employees involved with the volunteers were extremely well organised and efficient. From both Mallow and Fermoy a service of cyclist dispatch riders tra­velled between battalion headquarters and adjoining brigades; working in relays these dispatch riders operated day and night from company to company. The use of bicycles was prohibited except under permit from the British forces so very often horse-drawn transport was used. In the Fermoy area the British forces used a type of cavalry service and often searched those who were carrying dispatches, thus creating further problems for the volun­teers.

On 9 August 1920 the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act became law. This meant, from the British point of view, that they had now legalised terror in Ireland. Court-martials and military courts could now try persons for treason, felony and lesser of­fences, uncontrolled powers of arrest and internment were placed in the hands of military authorities and trials under the act could be held in secret. The turn which events were taking troubled Liam. In a letter to Fr Tom he expressed his concern for the fate of his imprisoned comrades. Michael Fitzgerald im­prisoned since September 1919 with a number of other untried prisoners in Cork gaol went on hunger-strike in August 1920.
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Liam and Michael Fitzgerald were extremely good friends. Liam was worried about him but felt it would be impossible for the British to procure any evidence connecting Fitzgerald with the Fermoy raid of Septem­ber 1919. However, Fitzgerald was a determined man and conti­nued with his hunger-strike for sixty-seven days. He died on 17 October 1920, and brought sadness to all his comrades. His body was taken to the mortuary at Fermoy church. The night before his burial Liam came in and had the coffin lid removed to look for the last time on the face of the man to whom he was most deeply attached – his best friend was gone. His funeral took place from SS Peter and Paul's church in Cork.

After the Mass, British soldiers wearing steel helmets and carrying fixed bayonets, invaded the church and walked over the seats to the altar rails. With a drawn revolver, an officer handed a notice to the priest stating that only a limited number of per­sons would be allowed to take part in the funeral. A machine-gun was mounted at the church gates and armoured cars toured the vicinity. Yet despite this, thousands took part in the funeral procession while armoured cars and tenders carrying heavily equip­ped forces accompanied the cortège to the city boundary.

Fermoy witnessed similar scenes the following day when Fitz­gerald was buried at Kilcrumper. Some hours after the grave had been closed many of his comrades assembled to pay their last tri­bute to a heroic soldier. Again Liam risked his life and re­turned to pay his respects to his friend. Amid the strains under which Liam worked during the following years he never forgot Michael Fitzgerald. Indeed, when his own hour came to die, his last re­quest was to be buried beside his old comrade at Kil­crumper.

In November 1920 a group of British intelligence men, known as the Cairo Gang posed as businessmen and lodged in various houses in Dublin. Through his intelligence operations, their acti­­vities became known to Michael Collins. In simultaneous pre-dawn raids on Sunday 21 November Michael Collins' squad kil­led eleven British intelligence officers. In retaliation the Black and Tans invaded the football match at Croke Park that after­noon and fired indiscriminately at the teams and at an estimated seven thousand spectators, killing twelve civilians including one of the Tipperary players and wounding sixty.

In Millstreet, County Cork, the RIC, the Macroom based Auxiliaries and the Black and Tans had subjected the citizens to a wild night of firing. Because of the way the RIC Auxiliary patrol was attacking civilians, some members of a small battalion column took up positions on the night of 22 November and, in the fight which ensued, two Black and Tans were wounded. The brigade suffered a serious blow, Captain Patrick McCarthy, who had joined the volunteers immediately after 1916, was kil­led.
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On the night of his death he was attended by Fr Joe Breene and later that night his body was removed to Eugene O'Sul­livan's house where it was guarded by his comrades. The next night, Liam took charge of the funeral procession to Lismire where he was buried with full military honours. Anticipating Bri­tish reprisals for the shooting of the Black and Tans, the IRA oc­cupied Millstreet in order to protect its inhabitants. However, the British did not leave their post, so before dawn he sent the column to billets outside the town.

At Kilmichael outside Macroom, on Sunday, 28 November 1920, thirty-six volunteers of the Third West Cork flying column, under the command of Tom Barry, successfully carried out the first major guerrilla ambush against the British forces in Ireland. During the ambush Barry's volunteers accepted in good faith a surrender call by the Auxiliaries. But the Auxiliaries resumed the fight and fatally wounded three of the volunteers. Barry and his men retaliated. Sixteen Auxiliaries (based in Macroom Castle) were killed in the ambush, another was seri­ously wounded and a further soldier was killed subsequently.
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Large quantities of arms, ammunition and documents were secured.

Following this, Lord French announced ‘Martial Law in the County of Cork, East and West Riding, the City of Cork, Tip­per­ary, North and South Riding, the City and County of Lime­rick.'

Further to this General Sir Nevil Macready, commander-in-chief of British forces in Ireland, proclaimed that persons caught with illegal arms or explosives were liable to sentence of death. Public meetings were forbidden and each householder was to affix a list of the occupants inside his/her front door. Indiscri­mi­nate shooting of people pursuing their ordinary peaceful acti­vi­ties was the order of the day as was the burning of shops, cream­eries and other stores.

A notice printed in all the daily newspapers and displayed in Macroom ‘ordered that all males passing through Macroom shall not appear in public with their hands in their pockets. Any male infringing this order is liable to be shot at sight'.

(Outside Mitchelstown in Lynch's area one evening in July 1920, a group of boys and girls were having a crossroads dance when a military lorry passed by and opened fire. Amidst a hale of bullets, the boys and girls ran for shelter. Two men, McDonnell and McGrath had been shot dead and the military immediately left. Subsequently, at an inquest, the soldiers swore that they were attacked and had fired in self-defence. The jury, despite Bri­tish intimidation, brought in a verdict of murder against the sol­diers.)

Liam Lynch continued to take every opportunity, which pre­sented itself in each of his seven battalion areas, to attack British forces. On 19 December a successful ambush was fought under the command of Thomas Barry at Glencurrane near Liam's birthplace. The columns captured eighteen rifles, five or six hun­dred rounds of ammunition and two dozen mills grenades. Of the eighteen men in the two lorries, two had been killed and three wounded. The Fermoy column, under the command of Patrick Egan, surprised a lorry of British troops near Castlelyons. The first volley that they fired hit the driver. The lorry crashed and its occupants scattered through the fields and were pursued by the IRA who forced nine British soldiers to surrender their arms.

At the beginning of 1920 Liam's brigade had had very few arms but by July quite a substantial amount of serviceable rifles, revolvers and grenades had been acquired. Most of the arms and equipment had been captured from the occupation forces, and Liam was completely aware that they had to depend on their own resources, so they would have to continue to capture more arms in order to maintain the struggle. At the beginning of 1920 only a few members of the brigade were on whole-time active service, but by the end of the year, seven columns, each varying in strength from fourteen to thirty men were in the field, all able to get reinforcements from their own battalions at short notice.

Another colleague of Liam's, Liam O'Connell, was shot in an attack on an armoured car in Dublin on 14 October 1920. When he was being buried at Glantane, near Mallow, Liam made one of his brief public statements:

We are here at the grave of one of our volunteers whose young life is given for the freedom of Ireland. We will revenge his great sacri­fice and will continue the fight until it is brought to a successful conclusion. Many more may follow Liam O'Connell before this country obtains its Independence.

The deaths of young officers like McCarthy, Clancy, O'Connell and Michael Fitzgerald were all severe blows to the brigade, yet the deaths of these young men somehow strengthened the hearts of their comrades; it heightened their morale and gave them the strength and determination to fight on. Liam mentioned this in a letter to his mother:

I am living only to bring the dreams of my dead comrades to reality and every moment of my life is now devoted to that end ... Thank God I am left alive to still help in shattering the damned British Empire.
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