Liam Lynch was an officer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the commanding general of the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army during the Irish Civil War. He reorganised the Cork Volunteers in 1919 and commanded an effective Brigade in the War of Independence. He was a member of the Irish Republican Army Supreme Council, Chief of Staff of the IRA, established the IRA Executive in March 1922. He was an influential opponent of the 1921 Treaty.
With the aid of Liam Lynch's personal letters, private documents and historical records, Liam Lynch: The Real Chief traces the turbulent career of one of Ireland's greatest guerilla commanders from his birth in 1893 until his death twenty-nine years later in the civil war when he was killed in action on the Knockmealdown mountains.
This book demonstrates Liam Lynch's importance in Irish history, including his efforts with Michael Collins, Richard Mulcahy and others to avoid a civil war, and his unwavering efforts to achieve a thirty-two county republic, rather than a partitioned state