assassinated. On Friday, 25 August 1922, Lynch, in command of a large force of Dublin Guards, set out for Kenmare to relieve and strengthen the garrison that had been established earlier in the month by Tom O’Connor-Scarteen. The geography meant that the Kenmare could only be supplied by sea and a land link was necessary. As Lynch's column advanced along the Killarney-Kilgarvan road it came under fire from anti-treaty forces at Filadown, near Glenflesk. This brought an ironic comment to Lynch, TD for the area, that his constituents did not seem to think much of him. As night fell, and following a number of wounded, the Free State column retreated, returning to the area the next day. He was elected to the 3rd Dáil at the 1922 general election as a Pro-Treaty Sinn Féin TD and on 9 September 1922, Lynch was appointed as a Minister without Portfolio in the government of the Third Dáil, being unavailable for immediate service in the Government as he remained on active service. On 5 December, legislation adopted by the Westminster parliament approved both the Free State Constitution and the Anglo-Irish Treaty of a year before, satisfying the British insistence that the Free State be based on constitutionalism and legislation rather than violence. On 14 December 1922, with the dissolution of the Provisional Government, Lynch became Minister for Fisheries in the Free State Government of W. T. Cosgrave. On 6 December 1922, the day the Irish Free State came into being, two members of its legislature were shot by the Irregulars, one of whom, Sean Hales, was killed, as part of a retaliatory policy for the military court executions that had started a few weeks earlier. Following the execution of the Four Courts IRA members, a threat was published that all pro-treaty TDs were legitimate targets for assassination. However, the reluctance of former colleagues to attack him may have ensured his survival during the war – Frank Henderson of Dublin's No. 1 brigade of the IRA told Ernie O'Malley of his reluctance to become involved in reprisal shootings after Free State executions, commenting: ‘I didn't like that order. I could have shot Eamon Duggan and Fionán Lynch, for they went home every night drunk, but I left them alone.’ Although the civil war ended in 1923, Lynch was provided with an armed guard as late as 1932, because of the ongoing threat of assassination.