SHE was the Continuity IRA's very own Jihad Jane, a fanatical nationalist driven by the love of a notorious terror chief.

But as she settles in to her life sentence in Limerick prison this weekend, female assassin Rose Lynch is remaining staunchly loyal to her lover despite the fact that he has now dumped her and left her to carry the can on her own. The Sunday World can reveal that gardai believe Dermot Gannon, who has a conviction for membership of an illegal organisation and is currently serving a seven-year sentence on gun charges, was with Rose the day she assassinated innocent delivery man David Darcy.

The 49 year old mother of four, shocked the nation this week when she shouted `Tiocfaidh Ar La' from a court as she was convicted of the cold-blooded murder of the innocent van driver. She defiantly told the Special Criminal Court she was proud of her membership of to her victim's family. David Darcy was on a list of six men that Lynch had planned to coldly assassinate and bomb "in retaliation" for the murder of CIRA terror chief Liam Kenny in 2011. They blamed a Ballyfermot criminal - who was believed to have been sanctioned by the Real IRA - for ordering the murder of Kenny and the subsequent gun attack on his associate Frank Nolan. They were intent on revenge and retaliation before any other CIRA activists were hit.

Paranoid

But CIRA intelligence had got it wrong and Darcy was in fact a hard-working man who only came to their paranoid attention because his route often took him to and from Limerick to deliver meat. Gardai have twice arrested Gannon in connection with the murder and have now sent a file to the DPP in relation to his connection to Darcy's assassination at the gate of his Cabra home in November 2011. Rose had admitted her own part in the killing but refused to name anyone else involved. Officers believe she is making the ultimate sacrifice for her deluded cause — by loyally taking the blame alone. As she was convicted, David Darcy's heart-broken family asked how any mother could do what she did to another mother's son.

They, like most of us, find it so difficult to comprehend how a woman could coldly assassinate another human being, a father of two, a brothel; a son. While female assassins are rare, the path that led Rose Lynch to Darcy's Cabra home on a cold November morning where she emptied a handgun into him, was one steeped in a fanaticism so deep that her own father Joe insists that he is nothing but proud of her actions. "She did admit everything on her fifth day in custody hut she admitted she'd done it alone. She didn't blame anyone else. "According to the gardai there were more people involved but as far as I know she didn't name anyone else and I wouldn't agree if she did," said Joe who was once tried and acquitted for membership of an illegal organisation himself.

Rose was born and reared on the notorious Balhnacurra Weston estate in Limerick — the same area that spawned crime families like the Dundons and the Collins. At age five she joined Fianna Eireann and at 16 became a member of the IRA. After We unmask terror chief who inspired fanatic Rose Lynch to become cold-blooded assassin finishing school she moved to England where she married John Bardon. The couple had four children and Rose got some qualifications in psychology and social work before moving to Belfast where she became involved in Sinn Fein community initiatives. Notorious In 1998 she first met Gannon - a notorious prove from Mulhuddart in Dublin. He was married and a father of four but the pair forged a deep bond and began a relationship that divided her family. They set about earn-ing money for the cause and regularly used her kids to hold cash from robberies. Her father Joe said last night: "I know Dermot Gannon and 1 admire him. He is an honest man, a good republican who is very.

Her mother Nora doesn't like him at all and never did. "I spat on him once," she proudly admitted from her Limerick home. Rose's eldest son John doesn't like him either. "My mother was in active service when Mr Darcy was shot dead but she was not alone when he was shot," he said. "Dermot Gannon can rot in hell. He used my mother. He knows she is so staunch that she would never say anything about him." John is the only member of the Lynch family who has shown any remorse for what his mother has done. "My heart goes out to the Darcy family. I had a lump in my throat when they were reading the Victim Impact Statements. I wanted to walk out but they wouldn't let me.

It was very bad," he said. A year into their relationship Gannon was jailed for member-ship of an illegal organisation at the Special Criminal Court and received a four-year sentence. The couple went their separate ways but Rose always held a torch for Gannon. In the months before the murder of David Darcy the pair got back together again and this time it would prove to be a fatal attraction for Rose. Sources close to the investigation say that following the murder of CIRA terror chief Kenny, the organisation drew up a list of those they believed had planned and sanctioned the hit. Death The Ryan brothers who were running the Real IRA's Dublin brigade were said to be on the list as they were believed to have sanctioned the hit.

Joe Lynch is adamant that there were no republicans on the list. It is believed that Rose was given intensive training to become the assassin who would reap revenge for Kenny's death. In her fanatical mind she believed she was a soldier for Ireland when she took up arms against the innocent Darcy. Her mother Nora says that Rose will serve her time in prison 'without a bother'. "There would be nobody there who could break het: She will cope very well," she said. Her father Joe says his daughter is a ' true martyr: "Any woman or man who joins the Republican movement does-n't co through life without being on active service, it was her duty and she has made me very proud."