Liam Mellows was born in England in 1892, the son of a British army sergeant
who was himself the son of a British army sergeant. He came to live in 1894
and through reading and family influences, he became interested in the national
struggle, joining Fianna Eireann and later the Irish Volunteers. In1914 he was
sent from, Dublin to Galway as organizer for the Volunteers and stayed to lead
them in their contribution to the 1916 Rising.
He was a TD for Galway in the First and Second Dails, and taking the republican
side against the Treatvites was captured and imprisoned in Mountjoy .jail
following the surrender of the Four Courts garrison at the end of June 1922.
In the bitterness of the months of civil war that followed, Liam Mellows was
taken from his prison cell along with Rory O'Connor, Dick Barrett and Joe
McKelvey on the morning of December 8th 1922. All four were shot dead, as
reprisals, on the orders of the Free State government.
However. there was more than this to Liam Mellows. The republican socialist
author, Peadar O'Donnell, described Mellows as "the richest mind our race has
achieved for many a long day." The following text Of Phil Flynn's lecture
concentrates on the politics of Mellows in the context of on the political forces at
work in his time.
In the second text printed below, Flynn first examines the class differences that existed
.in the 26 counties 1922 and how these affected the ability to win of the anti-Treatyite forces. Next he looks at Mellows' own contribution in this period and
quotes Mellows' crucial Notes from Mountjoy written months before his
execution. As should become clear, both Mellows' life and his radical writings
retain an eerie relevance for the present struggle.
Liam Mellows speaking at Bodenstown
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