1921-214

Civilian James Lynch

Civilian James Lynch (aged about 50) of Whitegate, Midleton (Whitegate)

Date of incident: 5 May 1921 (killed as suspected spy by IRA)

Sources: Death Certificate, night of 5-6 May 1921 (Midleton District, Union of Midleton); RIC County Inspector’s Monthly Report, Cork City and East Riding, May 1921 (CO 904/115, TNA); Military Inquests, WO 35/153B/8 (TNA); Register of Compensation Commission (Ireland) Cases of Private Persons (CO 905/15, TNA).

 

Note: Lynch was taken from his house at Whitegate in the Midleton district just before midnight on 5 May 1921 and killed about 200 yards away. According to a British military record, Lynch ‘had been friendly with a family now under military protection’. His wife stated that two men had said to him about seven weeks before his death that ‘it was known that a lot of information was going to the military out of his house’, though her husband had denied this charge. The attackers asserted that they would not give Lynch another warning. He was shot in the chest and the head. His body was found the next morning in a nearby field by a neighbouring farmer. See Military Inquests, WO 35/153B/8 (TNA).

In 1911 the tailor James Lynch (then aged 40) and his wife Bridget (aged 45) resided in Whitegate town. Though they had been married for twelve years, they were childless. She was awarded compensation of £725 in relation to the killing of her husband. See Register of Compensation Commission (Ireland) Cases of Private Persons (CO 905/15, TNA). The Lynches were Catholic.  

The Irish Revolution Project

Scoil na Staire /Tíreolaíocht

University College Cork, Cork,

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