Liam Mellows: Republican Enigma

Anti-Treaty leader’s personal steel was cloaked by his inoffensive character, writes Conor McNamara

LIAM Mellows, who led the Galway Rebels during Easter Week, was shot dead by the Irish Free State on December 8, 1922.

It was one of the first brutal executions of Anti-Treaty IRA Volunteers by the National Army during the Civil War. He was 30 years of age and had given his entire adult life to the cause of an Irish Republic.