Liam was born near Anglesboro, Co. Limerick, in the townland of Barnagurraha in November 1892. He was the fifth of seven children born to Jeremiah and Mary (nee Kelly) Lynch. Liam was educated in Anglesboro National School. At seventeen Liam took up an apprenticeship with P. O’Neill’s hardware in Mitchelstown. It was during this time that he acquired a great love of reading especially Irish history.In early 1916 Liam moved to work at J Barry and Sons Fermoy , it was there on the 2nd May 1916 on Fermoy Bridge he witnessed the Kent family being dragged off to prison after the RIC and British army raided their home. Richard Kent died of wounds received in the raid while his brother Thomas was sentenced to death and executed in Cork prison on 9th May. It was these events that prompted Liam Lynch to dedicate his life to the cause of freedom and a thirty-two county Irish Republic. When the Fermoy Irish Volunteer Company was reformed in 1917, Liam was elected first lieutenant. A shy, retiring type, Liam won the respect and admiration of his men through dedication to the cause, his ability to organise and train men and officers, and his meticulous attention to detail when planning an offensive or organising a brigade. Liam saw the victory of the 1918 election as an endorsement of the people’s rightful claim to a thirty-two county Irish Republic. As the first Dáil sat in Dublin on 21 January 1919, Seamus Robinson, Dan Breen and other Volunteers attacked and secured a cart load of gelignite in Sologhedbeg . Two RIC men were shot during the raid.
The War of Independence had begun.
