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Liam Lynch the (would be) negotiator, 1922

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  • Liam Lynch the (would be) negotiator, 1922

    Article on Liam Lynch and his attempts to avert civil war in Ireland (second part in a series).

    The Chains of Trust: Liam Lynch and the Slide into Civil War, 1922 (Part II)

    Four days after the anti-Treaty IRA seized the Four Courts in Dublin, Lynch wrote to his brother, exulting at how he was "absolutely certain that the Free State was sent to its doom by our action last week.” While Lynch had his regrets, he was determined not to let them deter him from doing what he must do: “Sad it is to risk having to clash with our old comrades but we cannot count the cost.”

    Still, Lynch hoped having to pay a cost at all. As he told his brother, he had the means to end the Free State by force if he so wished, “but we don’t mind giving it a slow death, especially when it means the avoidance of loss of life & general civil war.”

    For now, negotiations represented the best means to achieve the bloodless victory Lynch craved. The first step was a truce he signed with his Free State opponents on the 4th May, both sides pledging to abstain from violence. Next were a series of talks that slowly but surely made progress to the point that, by June, the Cork Examiner reported how:

    A scheme for the unification of the IRA forces has been agreed upon certain definite lines…Certain friendly incidents which have recently taken place in Dublin and elsewhere give ground for high hopes of efficiency and camaraderie among the army.
    Not so harmonious, however, were the relationships within the IRA Executive, increasingly riven as it was by feuds and cliques. "The Executive never fused into an effective unit. It never had a common mind or a common policy," complained one member. "Things were done and ordered to be done without knowledge of all the members, sometimes without Liam [Lynch]’s knowledge."

    Such tensions came to a head at the IRA Convention of the 18th June, when Lynch's resolutions for a reunited IRA, headed by a GHQ that consisted of both pro and anti-Treaty officers, clashed with a very different proposal by Tom Barry.

    By the end of the night, the IRA had been sundered even further, Lynch and his allies found themselves locked out of the Four Courts, and his dreams for peaceful settlement were dead in the water.



    (Group photo of pro and anti-Treaty IRA officers together – (left to right) Seán Mac Eoin, Seán Moylan, Eoin O’Duffy, Liam Lynch, Gearóid O’Sullivan and Liam Mellows)

  • #2
    Great article and series E...
    Everything is self-evident.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by cogito View Post
      Great article and series E...
      Cheers!

      Comment


      • #4
        I wouldn't trust a word out of the mouths of O’Donoghue, Deasy or McBride....they most of all spoke with forked tongue.
        We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

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        • #5
          I wouldn't trust a word out of the mouths of O’Donoghue, Deasy or McBride....they most of all spoke with forked tongue.
          Mind if I ask why you think so?

          Not disagreeing or trying to start a fight, I'm just curious.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Éireann_Ascendant View Post
            Mind if I ask why you think so?
            Well Deasy as a Brigade Commander / O.C. First Southern Division.....was certain to have known about....and most likely gave the order for the Collins ambush....yet in his book he cleverly removes himself from the immediate scene and from any knowledge of a planned ambush.

            His only admission was on learning the convoy was in the area, was to tell Dev he thought "an ambush would be prepared in case the convoy returned the same way".

            Later he would contradict himself a number of times while denying any prior knowledge of an ambush....particularly in his report later to his boss Liam Lynch.....I believe he was a liar.

            And how quick he was to give up the ghost to save his own bacon, and do a deal with his sworn enemy...

            He also stated that after the convoy drove off the attackers had no knowledge of any casualties.... Which was proven to be a complete fabrication......as O'Neil had owned up to killing Collins immediately after the fight.....which was when all were sworn to secrecy on the matter.

            As for oul Florrie.... the man who stayed neutral throughout, I believe in 1964 during a meeting in Cork he colluded with six of the senior officers including Deasy, who were present at Beal na mBlath at the time of the Collins ambush.....in an attempt to clear them of any direct blame for the action........under the auspices of putting the record straight. I think he was as much a liar as Deasy and the others were.

            Not disagreeing or trying to start a fight, I'm just curious.
            Ahhh why not
            Last edited by DAMNTHEWEATHER; 12-12-2017, 11:24 PM.
            We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

            Comment


            • #7
              With that accent of his, MacBride had to be a chancer too...
              Everything is self-evident.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by cogito View Post
                With that accent of his, MacBride had to be a chancer too...
                Never trust the French, after all.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by cogito View Post
                  With that accent of his, MacBride had to be a chancer too...
                  A brill mother and a shitehouse alcoholic father....poor him......la république!!!!
                  More than his oulfella ever did....He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974, the Lenin Peace Prize for 1975–1976 and the UNESCO Silver Medal for Service in 1980.
                  We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!

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