Dinny Lacey

Who was Dinny Lacey?

Dennis 'Dinny' Lacey was an Irish Republican Army officer during the Irish War of Independence and anti-Treaty IRA officer during the Irish Civil War. Lacey was born in 1890 in a village called Attybrack, near Annacarty, county Tipperary.

He joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913 and was sworn into the secretive Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1914. He was introduced to the IRB by Seán Treacy. During the War of Independence he commanded an IRA flying column of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade. In July 1920, this guerrilla unit mounted two successful ambushes of British forces - killing six British soldiers at Thomastown near Golden, County Tipperary, and four Royal Irish Constabulary men at Lisnagaul in the Glen of Aherlow.

In April 1921, following another ambush of British troops near Clogheen, he captured RIC inspector Gilbert Potter, whom he later executed in reprisal of the British hanging of republican prisoners. In December 1921, his unit split over the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Lacey opposed the Treaty and most of his men followed suit. He later commanded the anti-Treaty IRA's Second Southern Division.