In June 1920 , Liam Lynch engineered one of the most famous incidents of the war of Independence.
Liam was Brigade Commandant of the Cork No. 2 Brigade and, the capturing party included Sean Moylan, Paddy Clancy and George Power, as well as a few volunteers. They hoped that they could use the capture of General Lucas a a bargaining tool to negotiate a prisoner swap for a prisoner being held in Cork Jail.
On 26th June 1920 Liam and his comrades captured General Lucas along with two colleagues, Colonels Tyrrell and Danford while they were on a fishing expedition on the River Blackwater outside of Fermoy, Co. Cork.
As they drove away with their prisoners in two cars, Lucas and Danford attempted to overpower Lynch and Clancy in one of the cars. The car went off the road and after successfully overpowering Lucas, Lynch was forced to shoot Danford as he was in the act of choking Clancy. It was decided to leave Colonel Tyrrell on the roadside to attend to the wounded officer while the captured General Lucas and the rest of the raiding party continued their journey.
About a month later, Lucas would “escape,” (he was possibly allowed to go) after the Republicans were unable to get the British to agree to any sort of prisoner exchange. Lucas later related how well he was treated during his captivity. Perhaps the single most important element that contributed to the high esteem with which General Lucas regarded his captors was that throughout his imprisonment and at great danger to themselves, Liam Lynch facilitated a daily exchange of correspondence between the General and his young wife who had given birth to their first child prematurely during the period of his captivity. The letters written by the General to his wife throughout this period survive in the Lucas Family archive and throughout he refers to how well he is being treated as we can see later in the Civil War when Liam refused to execute prisoners. Liam Lynch was a man of high principles. See captions on pictures below.
