Michael Collins (Irish leader)

For other people named Michael Collins, see Michael Collins (disambiguation).

Michael Collins
Chairman of the Provisional Government
In office January 1922 – 22 August 1922
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	W. T. Cosgrave
Minister for Finance
In office 2 April 1919 – 22 August 1922
Preceded by	Eoin MacNeill
Succeeded by	W. T. Cosgrave
Minister for Home Affairs
In office 22 January 1919 – 1 April 1919
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	Arthur Griffith
Teachta Dála
In office May 1921 – August 1922
Constituency	Armagh, Cork Mid, North, South, South East and West
In office December 1918 – May 1921
Constituency	Cork South
Personal details
Born	(1890-10-16)16 October 1890 Sam's Cross, County Cork, Ireland
Died	22 August 1922(1922-08-22) (aged 31) Béal na Bláth, County Cork, Ireland
Political party	Sinn Féin
Signature

Michael Collins (Irish: Mícheál Ó Coileáin; 16 October 1890 – 22 August 1922) was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála (TD) for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-chief of the National Army. Collins was assassinated in August 1922 during the Irish Civil War.

Although most Irish political parties recognise his contribution to the foundation of the modern Irish state, supporters of Fine Gael hold his memory in particular esteem, regarding him as their movement's founding father.

Early years

Born in Sam's Cross, near Clonakilty, County Cork, Collins was the third son and youngest of eight children. Most biographies state his date of birth as 16 October 1890, but his tombstone gives his date of birth as 12 October 1890.

Referred to in a British secret service report as “brainy”, the Collinses were a close, warmly supportive family of over-achievers. Part of an ancient clan, widely spread over County Cork, they had a rich intellectual life, and republican connections which can be traced back to the 1798 rebellion.

Collins’ father, Michael John, was a farmer by profession. A mathematician in his spare time, he had been a member of the republican Fenian movement. The elder Collins was 60 years old when he married Mary Anne O'Brien, then 23, in 1876. The marriage was apparently happy and they brought up eight children on their 90-acre (36 ha) farm in Woodfield.

Michael was six years old when his father died. On his death bed, his father (who was the seventh son of a seventh son) predicted that his daughter Helena (one of Michael's elder sisters) would become a nun (which she did, known as Sister Mary Celestine, based in Whitby). He then turned to the family and told them to take care of Michael, because "One day he'll be a great man. He'll do great work for Ireland."

Collins was a bright and precocious child, with a fiery temper and a passionate feeling of nationalism. He named a local blacksmith, James Santry, and his headmaster at Lisavaird National School, Denis Lyons, as the first nationalists to personally inspire his “pride of Irishness.” Lyons was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB); while Santry’s family had participated in, and forged arms for, the rebellions of 1798, 1848 and 1867.

There are a number of anecdotal explanations for the origin of his nickname, “The Big Fellow”. The most authoritative comes from his family, stating that he was so called by them while still a child. It had been a term of endearment for their youngest brother, who was always keen to take on tasks beyond his years. It was certainly already established by his teens, long before he emerged as a political or military leader.

At the age of thirteen and a half, he boarded at Clonakilty National School. During the week, he stayed with his sister Margaret Collins-O'Driscoll and her husband Patrick O'Driscoll, while at weekends, he returned to the family farm. Patrick O'Driscoll founded the newspaper "The West Cork People" and Michael helped out, with general reporting jobs and preparing the issues of the newspaper.

After leaving school aged 15, Collins took the Civil Service examination in Cork in February 1906, and was then employed by the Royal Mail from July 1906. In 1910, he moved to London where he became a messenger at a London firm of stockbrokers, Horne and Company. While in London he lived with his elder sister Hannie, and studied at King's College London. He joined the London GAA and, through this, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret, oath-bound society dedicated to achieving Irish independence. Sam Maguire, a republican from Dunmanway, County Cork, introduced the 19-year-old Collins into the IRB. In 1915, he moved to the Guaranty Trust Company of New York where he remained until his return to Ireland the following year joining part-time Craig Gardiner & Co, a firm of accountants in Dawson Street, Dublin.

Easter Rising

A skilled organiser of considerable intelligence, Collins became highly respected in the IRB. This led to his appointment as financial advisor to Count Plunkett, father of one of the Easter Rising's organisers, Joseph Mary Plunkett. The Rising would be Collins’ first appearance in national events

When the Rising took place on Easter Monday 1916, Collins served as Plunkett’s aide-de-camp, at the rebellion’s headquarters in the General Post Office (GPO) in Dublin. There he fought alongside Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and other Rising leadership.

The Rising is generally acknowledged to have been a military disaster. Yet the insurgents achieved their goal of holding their positions for the minimum time required, to justify a claim to independence, under international criteria.

Arrested along with thousands of other participants,[15] Collins fortuitously missed being included in the first rounds of executions of the Rising’s leadership. Soon after, public outcry put an end to such executions. The balance of those arrested were subsequently imprisoned at Frongoch internment camp in Wales.

Collins first began to emerge as a major figure, in the vacuum created by the executions of the 1916 leadership. He began hatching plans for “next time” even before the prison ships left Dublin.

At Frongach, he organized a program of protest and non-cooperation with authorities, similar to that later carried on by IRA internees of the 1980s. The camp proved an excellent opportunity for networking with physical-force republicans from all over the country, of which he became a key organizer.

While some celebrated the fact that a rising had happened at all, believing in Pearse's theory of "blood sacrifice" (namely that the deaths of the Rising's leaders would inspire others), Collins rallied against the military blunders made; such as the seizure of indefensible and very vulnerable positions like St Stephen's Green, which were impossible to escape from and difficult to supply.

Public outcry placed pressure on the British government to end the internment. In December 1916, the Frongach prisoners were sent home.

1917 - 1918

Collins became one of the leading figures in the post-Rising independence movement, spearheaded by Arthur Griffith, editor/publisher of the main nationalist newspaper, The United Irishman; (which Collins had read avidly as a boy.) Griffith’s organization, Sinn Féin, had been founded in 1905 as an umbrella group to unify all the various factions within the nationalist movement.

Under Griffith’s policy, Collins and other advocates of the “physical-force” approach to independence, gained the cooperation of non-violent Sinn Fein; while agreeing to disagree with Griffith’s moderate ideas of a dual-monarchy solution, based on the Hungarian model.

The British government and mainstream Irish media had wrongly blamed Sinn Fein for the Rising. This attracted Rising participants to join the organization, in order to exploit the reputation with which such British propaganda had imbued organization. By October 1917, Collins had risen to become a member of the executive of Sinn Féin and director of organisation for the Irish Volunteers.

Éamon de Valera, another veteran of 1916, held office in the Irish Volunteers as well. In 1917 he vied for the presidency of Sinn Fein against Griffith, who diplomatically stepped aside. In order to prevent a split in the movement he’d founded, he supported DeValera’s presidency of the organization. [16]

First Dáil

Members of the First Dáil
First row, left to right: Laurence Ginnell, Michael Collins, Cathal Brugha, Arthur Griffith, Éamon de Valera, Count Plunkett, Eoin MacNeill, W. T. Cosgrave, Kevin O'Higgins (third row, right)

In the 1918 general election, Sinn Féin swept the polls throughout much of Ireland, with many seats uncontested, and formed an overwhelming parliamentary majority in Ireland. Like many senior Sinn Féin representatives, Collins was elected as an MP for Cork South,[17] with the right to sit in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London. Unlike their rivals in the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP), Sinn Féin MPs had announced that they would not take their seats in Westminster, but instead would set up an Irish Parliament in Dublin.

Before the new body’s first meeting, Collins, tipped off by his network of spies, warned his colleagues of plans to arrest all its members, in overnight raids. DeValera and others ignored the warnings, on the argument that, if the arrests happened, they would constitute a propaganda coup. The intelligence proved accurate. DeValera, along with Sinn Féin MPs who followed his advice, were arrested; while Collins and others evaded incarceration.

The new parliament, called Dáil Éireann (meaning "Assembly of Ireland", see First Dáil) met in the Mansion House, Dublin in January 1919. In DeValera's absence, Cathal Brugha was elected Príomh Aire ('First' or 'Prime', Minister', but often translated as 'President of Dáil Éireann'). The following April Collins engineered DeValera’s escape from Lincoln Prison in England; after which Brugha was replaced by DeValera.

No state gave diplomatic recognition to the 1919 Republic, despite sustained lobbying in Washington by DeValera and prominent Irish-Americans, [24] and at the Versailles peace conference.

In January 1919 the Dáil ratified the Irish Republican Army’s (IRA) claim to be the army of the Irish Republic. (The Irish Volunteers, formed in 1913, began to be referred to as the IRA since their internment at Frongach. Up until the Civil War, the two terms were used interchangeably.)

Minister for Finance

In 1919, the already busy Collins received yet another responsibility when de Valera appointed him to the Aireacht (ministry) as Minister for Finance. Understandably, in the circumstances of a brutal war, in which ministers were liable to be arrested or killed by the Royal Irish Constabulary, the British Army, the Black and Tans or the Auxiliaries at a moment's notice, most of the ministries existed only on paper, or as one or two people working in a room of a private house.

This was not the case with Collins, who produced a Finance Ministry that was able to organise a large bond issue in the form of a "National Loan" to fund the new Irish Republic. According to Batt O'Connor, the Dáil Loan raised almost £400,000, of which £25,000 was in gold. The loan, which was declared illegal, was lodged in the individual bank accounts of the trustees; the gold was kept under the floor of O'Connor's house until 1922. The Russian Republic, in the midst of its own civil war, ordered Ludwig Martens, head of the Soviet Bureau in New York City, to acquire a "national loan" from the Irish Republic through Harry Boland, offering some of the Russian Crown Jewels as collateral (the jewels remained in a Dublin safe, forgotten by all sides, until the 1930s, when they were found by chance).

The War of Independence

The Irish War of Independence in effect began on the day that the First Dáil convened, 21 January 1919. On that date, an ambush party of IRA volunteers including Dan Breen and Seán Treacy, attacked a pair of Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) men who were escorting a consignment of gelignite to a quarry in Soloheadbeg, County Tipperary. The two policemen were shot dead during the engagement. This ambush is considered the first action in the Irish War of Independence.

The engagement had no advance authorization from the nascent government. However, Collins, in Dáil discussion of the incident, implicitly accepted responsibility on behalf of the IRB. The legislature’s support for the armed struggle soon after became official.

From that time, Collins filled a number of roles, in addition to his legislative duties. That summer he was elected president of the IRB (and therefore, in the doctrine of that organisation, de jure President of the Irish Republic). In September, he was made Director of Intelligence for the Irish Republican Army, who now had a mandate to pursue an armed campaign, as the official military of the Irish nation. With Cathal Brugha as Minister of Defense, Collins became Director of Organization and Adjutant General of the Volunteers.

Collins was determined to avoid the massive destruction, military and civilian losses, for merely symbolic victories, which had characterized the 1916 Rising. Instead, he directed a guerrilla war against the British, suddenly attacking, then just as quickly withdrawing, minimizing losses and maximizing effectiveness.

As the war began in earnest, DeValera travelled to the United States for an extended speaking tour to raise funds for the outlawed Republican government. It was in publicity for this tour that DeValera was first referred to as "President". While financially successful, grave political conflicts followed in DeValera’s wake there, which threatened the unity of Irish-American support for the rebels. Some members of the IRB also objected to the use of the presidential title, with regard to their organization’s constitution.[25] ]

Back in Ireland, Collins arranged the "National Loan"; organised the IRA; effectively led the government, and managed arms-smuggling operations. [ref TPC] Local guerrilla units received supplies, training, and a largely free hand to develop the war in their own region. These were the "flying columns" who comprised the bulk of the War of Independence rank and file. Collins, Dick McKee, and regional commanders such as Dan Breen and Tom Barry oversaw tactics and general strategy. They were supported by a vast intelligence network of men and women in all walks of life, which reached deep into the British administration in Ireland.

It was at this time that he created a special assassination unit called The Squad, expressly to kill British agents and informers. Criticized for these tactics, Collins cited the universal war-time practice of executing enemy spies, who were, in his words, “hunting victims for execution.” Campaigning for Irish independence, even non-violently, was still targeted both by prosecutions under British law, entailing the death penalty; and also by extra-legal killings, such as that of Tomas MacCurtain, nationalist mayor of Cork City.

In 1920, the British offered a bounty of £10,000 (equivalent to GB£300,000 / €360,000 in 2010) for information leading to Collins’ capture or death. Yet he and the national forces continued to evade capture and to carry out devastating strikes against British forces; frequently operating out of safe-houses in the shadow of government buildings, such as Vaughan's and An Stad.

The Crown responded with escalation of the war, with the importation of special forces such as “The Auxiliaries”, the “Black and Tans”, the “Cairo Gang”, and others. Many were, officially or unofficially, given a free hand to institute a reign of terror, shooting Irish citizens indiscriminately, invading homes, looting and burning.

In 1920, following Westminster’s prominent announcements that it had the Irish insurgents on the run, Collins and his Squad wiped out a number of top British secret service agents, in a daring series of coordinated raids known as Bloody Sunday. A stampede of panicking British operatives sought the shelter of Dublin Castle next day. Near the same time, Tom Barry’s 3rd Cork Brigade took no prisoners in a bitter battle with British forces at Kilmichael. In many regions, the RIC and other crown forces became all but confined to the strongest barracks in the larger towns, as rural areas came under rebel control.

These republican victories were impossible without widespread support from the Irish population, including every level of society, [Deasy, F O’Donoghue] and reaching deep into the British administration in Ireland: a pattern of guerilla success against sophisticated imperialist powers, which the 20th century would see frequently repeated around the world.

At the time of the ceasefire in July 1921 a major operation was allegedly in planning to execute every British secret service agent in Dublin, while a major ambush involving eighty officers and men was also planned for Templeglantine in Co. Limerick.[23]

The Truce

In 1921, General Macready, commander of British forces in Ireland, reported to his government that the Empire’s only hope of holding Ireland, was by all-out martial law, including the suspension of “all normal life.”

Political considerations regarding Westminster’s global foreign policy ruled out this option: Irish-American public opinion was important to US support for British agendas in Asia. Closer to home, Britain’s efforts at a military solution had already spawned a powerful peace movement, demanding an end to the slaughter in Ireland. Prominent voices calling for negotiations included the Labour Party, the London Times and other leading periodicals, members of the House of Lords, English Catholics, and famous authors such as George Bernard Shaw.

Still it was not the British government which initiated negotiations. Individual English activists, including clergy, made private overtures which reached Arthur Griffith. Griffith expressed his welcome for dialogue. An MP, Brigadier General Cockerill, sent an open letter to Prime Minister Lloyd George [<create link], which was printed in the Times, outlining how a peace conference with the Irish should be organized. The Pope made an urgent public appeal for a negotiated end to the violence. Whether or not George welcomed such advisors, he could no longer hold out against this tide.

In July, George’s government offered a truce. Arrangements were made for a conference between British government and the leaders of the yet unrecognised Republic.

There remains considerable controversy as to the two sides’ capability to have carried on the conflict much longer. Collins is alleged to have said that the IRA was weeks—or even days—from collapse for want of ammunition. Yet, in his words on the record, “There will be no compromise and no negotiations with any British Government until Ireland is recognized as an independent republic . . . The same effort that would get us Dominion Home Rule will get us a republic.” At no time had the Dáil or the IRA asked for a conference or a truce.

However, the Dáil as a whole was less uncompromising. It decided to proceed to a peace conference; although it was ascertained in the preliminary stages that a fully independent republic would not be on the table, and that the loss of some northeastern counties was a foregone conclusion.

Those in the rebel forces on the ground first heard of the Truce only imperfectly, when it was announced in the newspapers. They had not been included in consultations regarding its terms. This gave rise to the first fissures in nationalist unity, which were to have serious consequences later on.

DeValera, who was widely acknowledged as the most skillful negotiator in the Dáil government, undertook the initial parlays, agreeing the basis on which talks could begin. The first meetings were held in strict secrecy, with Andrew Cope representing Dublin Castle’s British authorities. [get date in Neligan] Later DeValera travelled to London for the first official contact with Lloyd George. The two met one-on-one in a private meeting, the proceedings of which have never been revealed.

During this Truce period, in August 1921, DeValera sued for and obtained from the Dáil official designation as President of the Irish Republic. Not long after, the Cabinet was obliged to select the delegation which would travel to the London peace conference and negotiate a treaty. In an extraordinary departure from his usual role, DeValera at this point adamantly declined to attend, insisting instead that Collins should take his place beside Arthur Griffith there.

Collins strenuously resisted this appointment. He protested that he was “a soldier, not a politician”; and that his exposure to the London authorities would reduce his effectiveness as a guerilla leader should hostilities resume. (He had kept his public visibility to a minimum, during the conduct of the war. Up to this time, the British still had almost no photographs of him.)</ref>

The Cabinet of seven split on the issue, and DeValera cast the deciding vote. Many of Collins’ associates warned him not to go, that he was being set up as a political scapegoat. Following intense soul-searching and all-night consultations with his most trusted advisors, he resolved to attend, “in the spirit of a soldier obeying orders.” In private correspondence he foresaw the catastrophe ahead, “Let them make a scapegoat or whatever they like of me. Someone must go.” </ref>

Anglo-Irish Treaty

The majority of the Irish Treaty delegates including Arthur Griffith (leader), Robert Barton and Eamonn Duggan (with Robert Erskine Childers as Secretary General to the delegation) set up headquarters at 22 Hans Place in Knightsbridge on 11 October 1921 and resided there until conclusion of the negotiations in December. Collins took up separate quarters at 15 Cadogan Gardens. His personal staff included Liam Tobin, Ned Broy and Joe McGrath. Collins himself protested his appointment as envoy plenipotentiary, as he was not a statesman and his revelation to the British (he had previously kept his public presence to a minimum) would reduce his effectiveness as a guerilla leader should hostilities resume.

The negotiations ultimately resulted in the Anglo-Irish Treaty which was signed on 6 December 1921, which envisaged a new Irish state, to be named the "Irish Free State" (a literal translation from the Irish language term Saorstát Éireann), which appeared on the letterhead de Valera used, though de Valera had translated it less literally as the Irish Republic. "Saorstat Eireann" was, in fact, the title used for the Irish Republic in the proclamation of the provisional government in 1916.

The treaty provided for a possible all-Ireland state, subject to the right of a six-county region in the north-east to opt out of the Free State. If this happened, an Irish Boundary Commission was to be established to redraw the Irish border, which Collins expected would so reduce the size of Northern Ireland as to make it economically unviable, thus enabling unity, as most of the unionist population was concentrated in a relatively small area in eastern Ulster. The Irish Free State was established in December 1922, and as expected, Northern Ireland opted to leave it and become an autonomous part of the United Kingdom.

The new state was to be a Dominion, with a bicameral parliament, executive authority vested in the king but exercised by an Irish government elected by a lower house called Dáil Éireann (translated this time as "Chamber of Deputies"), an independent courts system, and a level of internal independence that far exceeded anything sought by Charles Stewart Parnell or his Irish Parliamentary Party.

While it fell short of the republic that he'd originally fought to create, Collins concluded that the Treaty offered Ireland "the freedom to achieve freedom." Nonetheless, he knew that the treaty, and in particular the issue of partition, would not be well received in Ireland. Upon signing the treaty, F. E. Smith, 1st Viscount Birkenhead remarked "I may have signed my political death warrant tonight", to which Collins replied "I may have signed my actual death warrant".

Republican purists saw it as a sell-out, with the replacement of the republic by dominion status within the British Empire, and an Oath of Allegiance made (it was then claimed) directly to the King. The wording shows that the oath was made to the Irish Free State, with a subsidiary oath of fidelity to the King as part of the Treaty settlement, not to the king unilaterally.

Sinn Féin split over the treaty, and the Dáil debated the matter bitterly for ten days until it was approved by a vote of 64 to 57. The Supreme Council of the IRB, which had been kept informed in detail about every facet of the Treaty negotiations and which had approved many of its provisions, voted unanimously to accept the Treaty, with the single notable exception of later COS of the IRA Liam Lynch. De Valera joined the anti-treaty faction opposing the concessions. His opponents charged that he had prior knowledge that the crown would have to feature in whatever form of settlement was agreed.

Provisional Government

File:Michael Collins "Free State Demonstration" March 13, 1922.jpg

Michael Collins addressing a crowd at a "Free State Demonstration"

The Treaty was extremely controversial in Ireland. First, Éamon de Valera, President of the Irish Republic until 9 January, had been unhappy that Collins had signed any deal without his and his cabinet's authorisation even though he and his associates had known this would happen when he sent Collins to sign the Treaty. Second, the contents of the Treaty were bitterly disputed. De Valera and many other members of the republican movement objected to Ireland's status as a dominion of the British Empire and to the symbolism of having to give a statement of faithfulness to the British king to this effect. Also controversial was the British retention of Treaty Ports on the south coast of Ireland for the Royal Navy. Both of these things threatened to give Britain control over Ireland's foreign policy. Most of the Irish Republican Army opposed the Treaty, opening the prospect of civil war.

Under the Dáil Constitution adopted in 1919, Dáil Éireann continued to exist. De Valera resigned the presidency and sought re-election (in an effort to destroy the newly approved Treaty), but Arthur Griffith replaced him after the close vote on 9 January. (Griffith called himself "President of Dáil Éireann" rather than de Valera's more exalted "President of the Republic".) This government, or Aireacht, had no legal status in British constitutional law, so another co-existent government emerged, nominally answerable to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland.

The new Provisional Government (Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann) was formed under Collins, who became "President of the Provisional Government" (i.e., Prime Minister). He also remained Minister for Finance of Griffith's republican administration. An example of the complexities involved can be seen even in the manner of his installation:

• In British legal theory he was a Crown-appointed prime minister, installed under the Royal Prerogative. To be so installed, he had to formally meet the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Viscount Fitzalan (the head of the British administration in Ireland).
• According to the republican view, Collins met Fitzalan to accept the surrender of Dublin Castle, the seat of British government in Ireland. Having surrendered, Fitzalan still remained in place as viceroy until December 1922.
• According to British constitutional theory, he met Fitzalan to "kiss hands" (the formal name for the installation of a minister of the Crown), the fact of their meeting rather than the signing of any documents, duly installing him in office. Kissing hands was the only mechanism of transfer then, as the relevant British legislation only passed into law on 1 April 1922.

In his biography of Michael Collins, Tim Pat Coogan recounted that, when Lord Lieutenant Fitzalan remarked that Collins had arrived seven minutes late for 16 January 1922 ceremony, Collins replied, "We've been waiting over seven hundred years, you can have the extra seven minutes". The same tale was repeated when Richard Mulcahy took over Beggars' Bush Barracks, and may be apocryphal.

The partition of Ireland between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland was not as controversial. One of the main reasons for this was that Collins was secretly planning to launch a clandestine guerrilla war within the Northern State. Throughout the early months of 1922, he had been sending IRA units to the border and sending arms and money to the northern units of the IRA. In May–June 1922, he and IRA Chief of Staff Liam Lynch organised an offensive of both pro- and anti-treaty IRA units along the new border. British arms supplied to Collins's Provisional government were instead swapped with the weapons of IRA units, which were sent to the north.

Collins addressing crowd in Dublin in 1922

This offensive was officially called off under British pressure on 3 June and Collins issued a statement that "no troops from the 26 counties, either those under official control [pro-treaty] or those attached to the [IRA] Executive [anti-treaty] should be permitted to invade the six county area." Low level IRA attacks on the border continued. Such activity was interrupted by the outbreak of civil war in the south, but had Collins lived he may have continued guerrilla operations against Northern Ireland. Because of this, most northern IRA units supported Collins and 524 individual volunteers came south to join the National Army in the Irish Civil War

In the months leading up to the outbreak of civil war in June 1922, Collins tried desperately to heal the rift in the nationalist movement and prevent civil war. De Valera, having opposed the Treaty in the Dáil, withdrew from the assembly with his supporters. Collins secured a compromise, the "Pact", whereby the two factions of Sinn Féin, pro- and anti-Treaty, would fight the soon-to-be Free State's first election jointly and form a coalition government afterwards.

Collins proposed that the envisaged Free State would have a republican constitution, with no mention of the British king, without repudiating the Treaty, a compromise acceptable to all but the most intransigent republicans. To foster military unity, he established an "army re-unification committee" with delegates from pro- and anti-Treaty factions. He also made efforts to use the secret Irish Republican Brotherhood of which he was president, to get IRA officers to accept the Treaty. The British vetoed the proposed republican constitution under the threat of an economic blockade, arguing they had signed and ratified the Treaty in good faith and its terms could not be changed so quickly. By this stage most British forces had been withdrawn from the Free State but thousands remained. Collins was therefore unable to reconcile the anti-Treaty side, whose Army Executive had anyway decided in March 1922 that it had never been subordinate to the Dáil.

Civil War

Main article: Irish Civil War

Michael Collins Irish: Mícheál Ó Coileáin
Nickname(s)	The Big Fellow
Born	(1890-10-16)16 October 1890 Sam's Cross, County Cork, Ireland
Died	22 August 1922(1922-08-22) (aged 31) Béal na Bláth, County Cork, Ireland †
Allegiance	Irish Republic Irish Republican Brotherhood Irish Volunteers Old IRA National Army
Years of service	1909–22
Rank	Commander-in-chief
Battles / wars	Easter Rising Irish War of Independence Irish Civil War

On 14 April 1922, a group of 200 anti-Treaty IRA men occupied the Four Courts in Dublin in defiance of the Provisional government. Collins, who wanted to avoid civil war at all costs, did not attack them until June 1922, when British pressure also forced his hand. On 22 June 1922, Sir Henry Wilson, a retired British Army field marshal now serving as Military Advisor to the Craig Administration, was shot dead by two IRA men in Belgravia, London. At the time, it was presumed that the anti-Treaty faction of the IRA were responsible and Winston Churchill told Collins that unless he moved against the Four Courts garrison, he (Churchill) would use British troops to do so.

It has since been claimed that Collins ordered the killing of Wilson in reprisal for failing to prevent the attacks on Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland. Joe Dolan—a member of Collins's "Squad" or assassination unit in the War of Independence and in 1922 a captain in the National Army—said this in the 1950s, along with the statement that Collins had ordered him to try to rescue the two gunmen before they were executed. In any event, this forced Collins to take action against the Four Courts men and the final provocation came when they kidnapped J.J. "Ginger" O'Connell, a provisional government general. After a final attempt to persuade the men to leave, Collins borrowed two 18 pounder artillery pieces from the British and bombarded the Four Courts until its garrison surrendered.

This led to the Irish Civil War as fighting broke out in Dublin between the anti-Treaty IRA and the provisional government's troops. Under Collins's supervision, the Free State rapidly took control of the capital. In July 1922, anti-Treaty forces held the southern province of Munster and several other areas of the country. De Valera and the other anti-Treaty TDs sided with the anti-Treaty IRA. By mid-1922, Collins in effect laid down his responsibilities as Chairman of the Provisional Government to become Commander-in-Chief of the National Army, a formal, structured, uniformed army that formed around the nucleus of the pro-Treaty IRA. The Free State Army that was armed and funded by the British was rapidly expanded with Irish veterans of the British Army and young men unassociated with the Volunteers during the war to fight the civil war.

Collins, along with Richard Mulcahy and Eoin O'Duffy decided on a series of seaborne landings into republican held areas that re-took Munster and the west in July–August 1922. As part of this offensive, Collins travelled to his native Cork, against the advice of his companions and despite suffering from stomach ache and depression. Collins reputedly told his comrades that "They wouldn't shoot me in my own county". It has been questioned why Collins put himself in such danger by visiting the south of the country while much of it was still held by hostile forces. What historian Michael Hopkinson describes as 'plentiful oral evidence' suggests that Collins's purpose was to meet Republican leaders in order to bring the war to an end. In Cork city, he met with neutral IRA men Seán O'Hegarty and Florrie O'Donoghue, with a view to contacting Anti-Treaty IRA leaders Tom Barry and Tom Hales to propose a truce. Hopkinson asserts though that, although Éamon de Valera was in west Cork at the time, "there is no evidence that there was any prospect of a meeting between de Valera and Collins".

Collins's personal diary outlined his plan for peace. Republicans must "accept the People's Verdict" on the Treaty, but could then "go home without their arms. We don't ask for any surrender of their principles". He argued that the Provisional Government was upholding "the people's rights" and would continue to do so. "We want to avoid any possible unnecessary destruction and loss of life. We do not want to mitigate their weakness by resolute action beyond what is required". But if Republicans did not accept his terms, "further blood is on their shoulders".

Death

Funeral of Michael Collins in the Pro-Cathedral, Dublin (contemporary newspaper depiction of the state funeral)

The last known photograph of Collins alive was taken as he made his way through Bandon, County Cork in the back of an army vehicle. He is pictured outside Lee's Hotel (now Munster Arms) on 21 August 1922. On the road to Bandon, at the village of Béal na Bláth, Collins's column stopped to ask directions. The man they asked, Dinny Long, was also a member of the local Anti-Treaty IRA.

On 22 August 1922 an ambush was prepared for the convoy when it made its return journey back to Cork city. They knew Collins would return by the same route, as the two other roads from Bandon to Cork had been rendered impassable by Republicans. The ambush party, commanded by Liam Deasy, had mostly dispersed to a nearby pub by 8:00 p.m., when Collins and his men returned to Béal na Bláth but the remaining five ambushers on the scene opened fire on the Collins convoy. The ambushers had laid a mine at the scene, which could have killed many more people in Collins's party, but they had disconnected it by the time the firing broke out.

Seán Collins beside the coffin of his brother Michael Collins

Collins was killed in the subsequent gun battle, which lasted about 20 minutes, from 8:00 p.m. to 8:20 p.m. He was the only fatality. He had ordered his convoy to stop and return fire, instead of choosing the safer option of driving on in his touring car or transferring to the safety of the accompanying armoured car, as his companion, Emmet Dalton, had wished. He was killed while exchanging rifle fire with the ambushers. Under the cover of the armoured car, Collins's body was loaded into the touring car and driven back to Cork. The group became lost in the back roads of the area eventually taking the route of Béal na Bláth–Crookstown–Cloughduv–Aherla–Killumney–Ballincollig–Victoria Cross to Cork City. On the way they sought last rites for Michael seeking out Canon Tracey of Crookstown having received directions at Belmont Mills, but taking the wrong turn they ended up in Cloughduv at the parish house. Here the priest Fr. Timothy Murphy was brought to the car and according to his own report upon seeing how distraught the men were he turned to fetch his oils. Some of the men thought he was refusing to administer last rites to Michael and one soldier, (Sean O'Connell) discharged a shot at Murphy but the gun was struck by Emmet Dalton and the shot missed. Collins received last rites at the Sacred Heart Mission Church at Victoria Cross. At the time of his death, he was engaged to Kitty Kiernan.

Collins's grave, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

There is no consensus as to who fired the fatal shot. The most recent authoritative account suggests that the shot was fired by Denis ("Sonny") O'Neill, an Anti-Treaty IRA fighter and a former British Army marksman who died in 1950. This is supported by eyewitness accounts of the participants in the ambush. O'Neill was using dum-dum ammunition, which disintegrates on impact and which left a gaping wound in Collins's skull. He dumped the remaining bullets afterwards for fear of reprisals by Free State troops.

Collins's men brought his body back to Cork where it was then shipped to Dublin because it was feared the body might be stolen in an ambush if it were transported by road. His body lay in state for three days in Dublin City Hall where tens of thousands of mourners filed past his coffin to pay their respects, including many British soldiers departing Ireland who had fought against him. His funeral mass took place at Dublin's Pro Cathedral where a number of foreign and Irish dignitaries were in attendance. Some 500,000 people attended his funeral, almost one fifth of the country's population.

Collins's shooting has provoked many conspiracy theories in Ireland, and even the identity and motives of the assassin are subject to debate. Some Pro-Treaty accounts claim that de Valera ordered an assassination. Others allege that Collins was killed by one of his own soldiers, Jock McPeak, who defected to the Republican side with an armoured car three months after the ambush. Historian Meda Ryan, who researched the incident exhaustively, concluded that there was no real basis for such theories. "Michael Collins was shot by a Republican, who said [on the night of the ambush], 'I dropped one man'". Liam Deasy, who was in command of the ambush party, said, "We all knew it was Sonny O'Neill's bullet."

Eamon de Valera is reported to have stated in 1966:

"I can't see my way to becoming Patron of the Michael Collins Foundation. It is my considered opinion that in the fullness of time history will record the greatness of Collins and it will be recorded at my expense"

There is some doubt that de Valera ever made this controversial statement.

Commemoration

Memorial cross at Béal na Bláth.

An annual commemoration ceremony takes place each year in August at the ambush site at Béal na Bláth, Cork. This ceremony is organised by Frank Metcalfe. In 2009, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson gave the oration. In 2010 the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, Jnr became the first Fianna Fáil person to give the oration. In 2012 on the 90th anniversary of the death of Collins, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave the oration, the first serving head of government to do so.

There is also a remembrance ceremony in Glasnevin Cemetery at Collins's grave.

The Central Bank of Ireland released gold and silver commemorative coins on 15 August 2012. Both coins feature a portrait of Michael Collins designed by Thomas Ryan based on a photograph taken not long before his death.

Personal life

The public view of Michael Collins is of a militaristic person, but he was more of an administrator and orator than a military man. Many pictures of Collins were taken while he was in uniform. The picture of Collins in his full general's uniform is one of the most used and recognized pictures of him of all time. Behind the scenes of the war Collins was first, an administrator, Collins did not see any of the fighting from the time of the 1916 Easter Rising until the fire fight that ensued at his death/assassination. During the last five years of his life, Collins became very close with a woman by the name of Kitty Kiernan. Collins wrote back and forth with Kiernan for years, describing what he was doing and what was going on in the war effort. In later years, Collins shifts the tone of his letters to joy and love, he says in one particular letter "My thoughts just now are all with you, and you have every kind wish and feeling of mine." One of the later letters Kiernan sends to Collins points out the difference in opinions that they have. Kiernan was more interested in love and romance, where Collins was much more interested in talking politics. Collins was assassinated on 22 August 1922 at the age of 31. After Collins's death, Kiernan married a Quartermaster General in the Irish Army. In homage to Collins, she named her youngest son Michael Collins Cronin.

Societies

The Collins 22 Society established in 2002 is an international organisation dedicated to keeping the name and legacy of Michael Collins in living memory. The patron of the society is Nora Owen, grand-niece of Michael Collins.

In popular culture

Films

The 1936 movie Beloved Enemy, starring David Niven, is a fictionalised account of Collins's life. Unlike the real Michael Collins, the fictionalised "Dennis Riordan" (played by Brian Aherne) is shot, but recovers. Hang Up Your Brightest Colours, a British documentary by Kenneth Griffith, was made for ITV in 1973, but refused transmission. It was eventually screened by the BBC in Wales in 1993 and across the United Kingdom the following year.

In 1969 Dominic Behan wrote an episode of the UK television series Play for today entitled 'Michael Collins'. The play focused on Collins' attempt to take the gun out of Irish politics and took the perspective of the Republican argument. At the time of writing the script, the troubles had just begun in Northern Ireland and the BBC were reticent about broadcasting the production. An appeal by the author to David Attenborough (Director of Programming for the BBC at that time) resulted in the play eventually being broadcast; Attenborough took the view that the imperatives of free speech could not be compromised in the cause of political expediency.

An Irish documentary made by Colm Connolly for RTE Television in 1989 called The Shadow of Béal na Bláth covered Collins's death. A made for TV film, The Treaty, was produced in 1991 and starred Brendan Gleeson as Collins and Ian Bannen as David Lloyd George. In 2007 RTE produced a documentary entitled Get Collins, centred around the intelligence war which took place in Dublin.

Collins was the subject of director Neil Jordan's 1996 film Michael Collins, with Liam Neeson in the title role. Collins's great-grandnephew, Aengus O'Malley, played a student in a scene filmed in Marsh's Library.

In 2005 Cork Opera House commissioned a musical about Collins. It had a run in 2009 in Cork opera house and later in the Olympia Theatre in Dublin.

Songs

Irish-American folk rock band Black 47 recorded a song entitled "The Big Fellah" which was the first track on their 1994 album Home of the Brave. It details Collins's career, from the Easter Rising to his death at Béal na Bláth. Irish folk band the Wolfe Tones recorded a song titled "Michael Collins," also about Collins's life and death, although it begins when he was about 16 and took a job in London. Celtic metal band Cruachan recorded a song also titled "Michael Collins" on their 2004 album Pagan, which dealt with his role in the Civil War, the treaty, and eventual death. Also a song by Johnny McEvoy, simply named "Michael", depicts Collins's death and the sadness surrounding his funeral. The poem "The laughing boy" by Brendan Behan lamenting the death of Collins was translated into Greek in 1961 by Basilis Rotas. In October of the same year, Mikis Theodorakis composed the song "Tο γελαστό παιδί" ("The laughing boy") using Rotas' translation. The song was recorded by Maria Farantouri in 1966 on the album "Ένας όμηρος" ("The hostage") and became an instant success. It was the soundtrack of the movie Z (1969). "The laughing boy" became the song of protest against the dictatorship in Greece (1967–1974) and remains to date one of the most popular songs in Greek popular culture.

Play

Mary Kenny wrote a play Allegiance, about a meeting between Winston Churchill and Michael Collins. The play was adapted for stage in 2006 for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Mel Smith playing Winston Churchill and Michael Fassbender playing Michael Collins.

See also

• F. Digby Hardy
• Families in the Oireachtas
• Hazel Lavery
• List of imprisoned members of the Oireachtas
• List of people on stamps of Ireland

Sources

• Beaslai, Piaras (1926). Michael Collins and The Making of the New Ireland. Dublin: Phoenix.
• Collins, Michael (1922). The Path to Freedom. Dublin: Talbot Press.
• Coogan, Tim Pat (1996). Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland. Roberts Rinehart Pub. ISBN 1-57098-075-6.
• Coogan, Tim Pat (2002). Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-29511-1.
• Dwyer, T. Ryle (1999). Big Fellow, Long Fellow: A Joint Biography of Collins and De Valera. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-7171-4084-9.
• Dwyer, T. Ryle (2005). The Squad and the Intelligence Operations of Michael Collins. Mercier Press. ISBN 1-85635-469-5.
• Hart, Peter (2007). Mick: The Real Michael Collins. Penguin.
• Mackay, James (1997). Michael Collins: A Life. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-85158-857-4.
• O'Connor, Batt (1929). With Michael Collins in the fight for Irish independence. London: Peter Davies.
• O'Connor, Frank (1965). The Big Fellow: Michael Collins and the Irish Revolution. Clonmore & Reynolds.
• Stewart, Anthony Terence Quincey (1997). Michael Collins: The Secret File. University of Michigan. ISBN 0-85640-614-7.
• Talbot, Hayden (1923). Michael Collins' Own Story. London: Hutchinson.
• Taylor, Rex (1958). Michael Collins. Hutchinson.

External links

• Michael Collins 22 Society webpage
• A Man Against an Empire
• Collins family in the 1901 Irish census, Michael aged 10
• Michael Collins Centre
• Irish Genealogy Site