Kevin Lynch 25 May 1956 - 1 August 1981
Lynch was the youngest in a family of eight children born in Park, south County Derry.
Kevins older brother, Frank, was an amateur boxer and Kevin also participated in boxing as well and Gaelic football and hurling. He was a member of the winning Dungiven team which won the Feile na nGael in Thurles, County Tipperary in 1971 and in 1972 he captained the County Derry Hurling team to an Under-16 All-Ireland title at Croke Park, Dublin by beating County Armagh
1973, at the age of sixteen, Kevin went to England to join his three brothers.But Kevin never intended settling in England and on one of his occasional visits home ("he just used to turn up"), in August 1976, he decided to stay in Dungiven.
Shortly after his return home, coming away from a local dance, he and nine other young lads were put up against a wall by British soldiers and given a bad kicking, two of the lads being brought to the barracks.
Kevin joined the INLA around this time within the short space of little more than three months, Kevin's active republican involvement came to an end almost before it had begun. Following an ambush outside Dungiven, in November '76, in which an RUC man was slightly injured, the RUC moved against those it suspected to be INLA activists in the town.
On December 2nd, 1976, at 5.40 a.m. Brits and RUC came to the Lynch's home for Kevin.
Kevin was taken straight to Castlereagh, and, after three days' questioning, on Saturday, December 4th, he was charged and taken to Limavady to be remanded in custody by a special court. The string of charges included conspiracy to disarm members of the enemy forces, taking part in a punishment shooting, and the taking of 'legally held' shotguns. Following a year on remand in Crumlin Road jail, Belfast, he was tried and sentenced to ten years in December 1977, immediately joining the blanket men in H3, and eventually finding himself sharing a cell with his Dungiven friend and comrade, Liam McCloskey, continuing to do so until he took part in the thirty-man four-day fast which coincided with the end of the original seven-man hunger strike last December.
He joined the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike on 23 May 1981.His former H-Block comrade, Eunan Brolly, who was also in H3 before his release, remembers how Kevin once put up with raging toothache for three weeks rather than come off the protest to get dental treatment. It was the sort of thing which forced some blanket men off the protest, at least temporarily, but not Kevin. Eunan, who recalls how Kevin used to get a terrible slagging from other blanket men because the GAA, of which of course he was a member, did not give enough support to the fight for political status, also says he was not surprised by Kevin's decision to join the hunger strike. Like other blanket men, Eunan says, Kevin used to discuss a hunger strike as a possibility, a long time ago, "and he was game enough for it".
Neither were his family, who supported him in his decision, surprised: "Kevin's the type of man", said his father, when Kevin was on the hunger strike, "that wouldn't lie back. He'd want to do his share."
In the Free State elections, in June, Kevin stood as a candidate in the Waterford constituency, collecting 3,337 first preferences before being eliminated - after Labour Party and Fianna Fail candidates - on the fifth count, with 3,753 votes.
Kevin Lynch died in the Long Kesh hospital at 1.00 a.m. on Saturday, August 1st after seventy-one days on hunger strike.
Kevins older brother, Frank, was an amateur boxer and Kevin also participated in boxing as well and Gaelic football and hurling. He was a member of the winning Dungiven team which won the Feile na nGael in Thurles, County Tipperary in 1971 and in 1972 he captained the County Derry Hurling team to an Under-16 All-Ireland title at Croke Park, Dublin by beating County Armagh
1973, at the age of sixteen, Kevin went to England to join his three brothers.But Kevin never intended settling in England and on one of his occasional visits home ("he just used to turn up"), in August 1976, he decided to stay in Dungiven.
Shortly after his return home, coming away from a local dance, he and nine other young lads were put up against a wall by British soldiers and given a bad kicking, two of the lads being brought to the barracks.
Kevin joined the INLA around this time within the short space of little more than three months, Kevin's active republican involvement came to an end almost before it had begun. Following an ambush outside Dungiven, in November '76, in which an RUC man was slightly injured, the RUC moved against those it suspected to be INLA activists in the town.
On December 2nd, 1976, at 5.40 a.m. Brits and RUC came to the Lynch's home for Kevin.
Kevin was taken straight to Castlereagh, and, after three days' questioning, on Saturday, December 4th, he was charged and taken to Limavady to be remanded in custody by a special court. The string of charges included conspiracy to disarm members of the enemy forces, taking part in a punishment shooting, and the taking of 'legally held' shotguns. Following a year on remand in Crumlin Road jail, Belfast, he was tried and sentenced to ten years in December 1977, immediately joining the blanket men in H3, and eventually finding himself sharing a cell with his Dungiven friend and comrade, Liam McCloskey, continuing to do so until he took part in the thirty-man four-day fast which coincided with the end of the original seven-man hunger strike last December.
He joined the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike on 23 May 1981.His former H-Block comrade, Eunan Brolly, who was also in H3 before his release, remembers how Kevin once put up with raging toothache for three weeks rather than come off the protest to get dental treatment. It was the sort of thing which forced some blanket men off the protest, at least temporarily, but not Kevin. Eunan, who recalls how Kevin used to get a terrible slagging from other blanket men because the GAA, of which of course he was a member, did not give enough support to the fight for political status, also says he was not surprised by Kevin's decision to join the hunger strike. Like other blanket men, Eunan says, Kevin used to discuss a hunger strike as a possibility, a long time ago, "and he was game enough for it".
Neither were his family, who supported him in his decision, surprised: "Kevin's the type of man", said his father, when Kevin was on the hunger strike, "that wouldn't lie back. He'd want to do his share."
In the Free State elections, in June, Kevin stood as a candidate in the Waterford constituency, collecting 3,337 first preferences before being eliminated - after Labour Party and Fianna Fail candidates - on the fifth count, with 3,753 votes.
Kevin Lynch died in the Long Kesh hospital at 1.00 a.m. on Saturday, August 1st after seventy-one days on hunger strike.