Liam Lynch’s dream of an Irish Republic has 'never been closer', says Sinn Féin leader

Mary Lou McDonald called for all parties in the North to draw on the spirit that drove the Good Friday Agreement and Liam Lynch and to make things better for future generations

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald speaking at the centenary commemoration ceremony for General Liam Lynch at the memorial in Anglesborough on Monday. She told the audience: “I believe that the Unity Referendums provided for by the Good Friday Agreement will happen in this decade." Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Some 500 people marched up a winding country road to mark the centenary of the death of Irish republican Liam Lynch at his home under sloping mountains near Anglesborough, Co. Limerick.

The Chief of Staff of the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army was shot 100 years ago while on a secret mission in the Knockmealdown Mountains in Tipperary. His death effectively ended the civil war as weeks later, IRA units were ordered to cease operations under his successor, Frank Aiken.