Seamus Lynch

Seamus Lych is a former regional chairman of the Workers' Party in Northern Ireland.W.D. Flackes and Sydney Elliot, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1986-1988, Blackstaff Press, p.176.
Lynch joined the IRA in Belfast in 1965.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.34. he was captured in October 1971 and interned in Long Kesh.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.170. As the Official IRA Camp O/C he encouraged reading and education classes.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.210.
Lynch was the target of a number of attacks in early 1975, during the Official IRA's feud with the IRSP.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, pp.291-292. In April that year, according to authors Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, he became the Belfast O/C following the IRSP's killing of Billy McMillen.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.298.
Lynch was elected as a Belfast City Councillor in May 1977.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.379. In seeking to gain the trust of unionists on the council, he began to co-operate with Hugh Smyth, an independent unionist from the Shankill, with links to the UVF. He also built up relationships with Unionist MP John Carson and Education Secretary Lord Melchett.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.380. In the winter of that year he met Gerry Adams at Clonard Monastery on several occasions to mediate local disputes.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.380.
In 1978, Lynch became Vice-President of Sinn Féin - The Workers' Party and chairman of its northern arm, Republican Clubs - The Workers' Party.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.385. According to Hanley and Millar, he became northern commander of the Official IRA at around the same time, as well as remaining Belfast O/C.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.44.
In 1985, Lynch met UDA commander John McMichael at a function in Belfast. They had further meetings in 1986, at which Lynch called for an end to sectarian killings and commented on the UDA's political thinking.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.497.
In March 1986, Lynch appeared on RTE's Today Tonight to respond to allegations by RUC Chief Superintendent Bertie McCaffrey and the SDLP's Brian Feeney.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.475.
Lynch resigned from the Workers' Party on 21 February 1992.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.587. He stood in the 1992 Westminster election for New Agenda, the organisation that would become known as Democratic Left.Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, The Lost Revolution: The Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Penguin Ireland, 2009, p.589.
According to Dean Godson, Lynch was a major influence on Gary Kent's thinking on Ireland.Himself Alone, by Dean Godson, Harper Perennial, 2004, p263.
==Notes==
Lynch, SeamusLynch, Seamus