Copy letter from Charles Lynch
A copy of a letter from Charles Lynch to ‘Willie’ referring to his company taking positions in a cinema on Dame Street during the latter stages of the Rising. He notes that the cinema had previously been ‘occupied by Sinn Feiners who had been driven out by the bayonet, and the walls were bullet marked in several places’. He also describes the shelling and destruction of Sackville Street and the North Quays. He affirms that his duty was to ‘prevent the Halfpenny Bridge being used as a way of [reb
Details
- Level of description
- Item
- Date
- 1916
- Reference
- 6
- Extent and medium
- 4 pp; typescript
- Scope and content
- A copy of a letter from Charles Lynch to ‘Willie’ referring to his company taking positions in a cinema on Dame Street during the latter stages of the Rising. He notes that the cinema had previously been ‘occupied by Sinn Feiners who had been driven out by the bayonet, and the walls were bullet marked in several places’. He also describes the shelling and destruction of Sackville Street and the North Quays. He affirms that his duty was to ‘prevent the Halfpenny Bridge being used as a way of [rebel] escape to our side of the river’. He later describes the capitulation of some of the rebel garrisons, and particularly the surrender of Constance Markievicz. He refers to the mistakes made by the rebels during the insurrection and to the ‘unchecked looting’ which took place. He also suggests that ‘a noticeable change took place’ upon the arrival of General Sir John Maxwell. Thereafter the fighting ‘took an ordered course’. Reference is also made to the youth and inexperience of the British soldiers, the casualties suffered by the army, and the reasons for their heavy losses. Incidences of indiscriminate shooting and civilian deaths are also mentioned. Lynch wrote ‘Personally, I never used my rifle through the whole of the trouble, not that I would have done so had I seen a definite enemy’. Finally, Lynch expresses his opinions on the reasons for the outbreak of the Rising. The letter is titled ‘Letters from Dublin. Easter 1916. 5th Letter’. An annotation in pencil on the second page reads ‘Charles M. Lynch / 29 Antrobus Street, SW1’. The annotation is dated 28 January 1942.
- Repository
- Irish Capuchin Archives
- Context
- Irish Capuchin Archives > Papers of 'The Capuchin Annual' and the Irish Capuchin Publications Office > Papers of Fr. Senan Moynihan OFM Cap. > Letters of Charles Lynch relating to the 1916 Rising
Annotations
Rights
- Rights
- Copyright held by the respective institution. Contact the archive for reproduction permissions.
Related Items
Extracted Mentions
People, places, and terms identified via handwriting recognition and named entity recognition.
Sample passages
- The bayonet, and the walls were bullet marked in several places, but the we spent some forty eight hours with the cinema as our base, plus the folling evening were detailed to watc…
- would hardly sheer off merely because the bridge was closed. We abstained from giving the position away by firing, because lying in the middle of the road as we were, once located…
- Letters from Dublin. Easter 1916. 5th Letter. In charge of our cavalry escort, much needed sinnew of war for our opponents, and the invention of The Guinness Locomotive which was d…
Full Transcript (OCR, 1 pages)
Machine-generated OCR transcript. Handwritten material may contain recognition errors.
Page 1
Letters from Dublin. Easter 1916. 5th Letter. Dame St My last letter left me at the corner of the narrow lane behind Tlvane when after forty eight hours unrelieved, it occurred to Mr Mc Tlvane to halve the number of posts and thus provide relief, as it would be impossible to carry on indefinitely with all his small force on entrance sentry go. We took possession of the cinema which had its back overcoats in our lane and the front entrance in Dame St, and blankets and coverings whilst we slept. We had from now on four hours on sentry and four hours off so managed to get some much needed rest, it was very cold in the empty cinema but we were so tired that we slept despite the driven out by the place had been occupied by Sein Feiners who had been placed. The bayonet, and the walls were bullet marked in several places, but the we spent some forty eight hours with the cinema as our base, plus the folling evening were detailed to watch the toll bridge across The Lifey from The Astone quay side. By this time the General Post Office was in flames and it became too hot for its garrison, numbers of them fled across Sackville St many of them being shot down by a machine gun mounted in a window of Trinity College. Sackville St and Edene quay with the corner of Bachelors Walk also burst into flame, making an awful but beautiful scene. Our duty now was to prevent The Halfpenny Bridge being used as a way of escape to our side of the river. Jacob's Biscuit Factory was not in hands of the enemy under the command of De Valera and it was not our intention to allow fugitives from our side of the river to strengthen its garrison. I and another chap lay on blankets in the middle of the road on Astone quay, whilst opposite us the quays went up in flame. I shall never witness such a sight again. No attempt was made to extinguish the flames as the firemen having come under fire from the rebels had withdrawn to safety. The beauty of the spectacle was amazing as the buildings seemed to blaze from floor to roof with perfect eveness, no part burning more fiercely than another. It was just as if an immense collision comb was aflamed the doors and windows belching flame as through the teeth of the comb. At one moment of my spell of sentry a half hearted attempt was made to cross the bridge, a small crowd running to the bridge entrance at the further side of the river. The upper window of a house opposite the bridge pay box was quickly opened and a voice shouted warning and the party dispersed. The window was shut down. All the work of a moment. Whether the warning conveyed the fact that the bridge was guarded at our side I cannot say, but the crowd would hardly sheer off merely because the bridge was closed. We abstained from giving the position away by firing, because lying in the middle of the road as we were, once located by the flash from our rifles, we would have been easy meat for marksmen in the opposite houses. At daybreak we returned to our posts near The Castle and a…
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