Background
One of twelve children, Lynagh was born and raised in Tully Estate, County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland.
One of twelve children, Lynagh was born and raised in Tully Estate, County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland.
While imprisoned, he studied and became a great admirer of Mao Zedong.
He joined the Provisional Irish Republican Army in the early 1970s. In December 1973 he was badly injured in a premature bomb explosion, arrested, and spent five years in the Maze Prison. After his release from prison in 1979 Lynagh was elected as a Sinn Féin councillor for Monaghan, and held this position when he was killed.
After his release from prison Lynagh became active in the Ireland Republican Army again, serving with the Provisional Ireland Republican Army He quickly became a unit commander and gradually built up his ruthless reputation.
After a series of Ulster loyalist attacks against Irish nationalist politicians in late 1980 and early 1981, Lynagh was suspected of involvement with an attack on the Stronge estate near Middletown. Lynagh was known as "The Executioner" by the RUC. He was picked up and interrogated many times by the Gardaí in Monaghan but was never charged.
During this time he devised a Maoist military strategy adapted to Irish conditions, aimed at escalating the war against British forces. The plan envisaged the destruction of police and British Army bases in parts of Northern Ireland to create liberated areas under Ireland Republican Army control.
In 1984 he started co-operating with Pádraig McKearney who shared his views.
The strategy began materialising with the destruction of a RUC police station in Ballygawley in December 1985 which killed two RUC officers, and in The Birches in August 1986. Lynagh was killed in the Loughgall Ambush by the Special Air Service on 8 May 1987 during an attack on Loughgall RUC barracks, his third attack on an isolated rural police station. Lynagh"s men detonated a 200 lb bomb and engaged in a fire-fight with the security services.
Lynagh was buried in Monaghan Town following an incident where Garda Special Branch officers were attacked by a crowd of mourners.
Provisional Irish Republican Army]
Lynagh and the seven other members of the Ireland Republican Army team who were killed became known as the "Loughgall Martyrs" to Irish republicans.