What was the name of Liam Lynch's granda?

February 17, 2006 10:04 AM

Liam Lynch, the IRA's leader in the early 1920s, supposedly had a great grandfather who had been a member of the United Irishmen and fought in the 1798 rebellion. Does anyone know the great grandfather's name or where I could find that information out?

I tried a few google searches but to no avail. This is a bit of a long shot, but thanks for any help you can offer.

posted by jamesonandwater to Grab Bag (7 answers total)

I also googled with no luck, so at this point you may be best served sending an email to someone at Sinn Fein - the only contact email I found was on the bookshop site, but if there's anyone that would know this sort of thing, it's Sinn Fein.
posted by pdb at 10:45 AM on February 17, 2006

"...and this is MY United States of Whatever!"

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posted by charmston at 10:45 AM on February 17, 2006

I'm reading "The Great Shame" (Michael Kenealy - who also wrote Schindler's List) about the famine/diaspora. Check to see if the bibliography of that book offers any help. Also, try a real libary - the reference librarians live for this kind of question!
posted by dbmcd at 2:53 PM on February 17, 2006

This is an ideal A9 search, but though Lynch's name comes up several times in connection with his own activities, I could find no searchable book that discussed his parentage. Genealogy forums were also of no help. I suggest you look up the biography of him.
posted by dhartung at 8:11 PM on February 17, 2006

Derek Lundy, author of the newly published Men that God made Mad researching his (infamous?) surname and geneology found information on an ancestor, the 18th Century Radical Presbeterian preacher William Steel Dickenson, one of the leaders of the UI.
It may be useful to try researching around your target and I would e-mail the author. He may have come across somthing useful.
posted by Wilder at 4:04 AM on February 18, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for all the responses folks (I wasn't reslly expecting any!) and for the searches pdb and dhartung. I will follow up on all of them and come back to update if I find anything.

I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of that Lynch bio, dhartung, and the older one from the 50s, but none of the libraries or bookshops up here have copies or seem willing to order them. I'd rather buy it second hand, but amazon may well be my next stop.

Wilder, that looks like a great book too - every time I visit this site my wish list gets longer . . . .
posted by jamesonandwater at 6:40 AM on February 18, 2006

Response by poster: Er, that should read "will follow up on all of the suggestions".
posted by jamesonandwater at 6:41 AM on February 18, 2006