Michael Collins (Irish leader)

Lore & Background

Collins was born in Woodfield, County Cork, the youngest of eight children. He moved to London in 1906 to become a clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank at Blythe House. He was a member of the London GAA, through which he became associated with the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Gaelic League. He returned to Ireland in January 1916 and fought in the Easter Rising. He was taken prisoner and held in the Frongoch internment camp as a prisoner of war, but he was released in December 1916.

Collins subsequently rose through the ranks of the Irish Volunteers and Sinn Féin. He was elected as MP for South Cork in December 1918. Sinn Féin's elected members formed an Irish parliament, the First Dáil, in January 1919 and declared the independence of the Irish Republic. Collins was appointed Minister for Finance. In the ensuing War of Independence, he was Director of Organisation and Adjutant General for the Irish Volunteers, later Director of Intelligence of the IRA. He gained fame as a guerrilla warfare strategist, planning many successful attacks on British forces together with 'the Squad', such as the 'Bloody Sunday' assassinations of key British intelligence agents in November 1920.

After the July 1921 ceasefire Collins was one of five plenipotentiaries sent by the Dáil cabinet to negotiate peace terms in London. The resulting Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed in December 1921, would establish the Irish Free State but depended on an oath of allegiance to the Crown. De Valera and other republican leaders found this clause of the treaty most difficult to accept. Collins viewed the treaty as offering 'the freedom to achieve freedom', and he helped persuade a majority of the Dáil to ratify the Treaty. A provisional government was formed under his chairmanship in early 1922. During this time he secretly provided support for an IRA offensive in Northern Ireland. It was soon disrupted by the Irish Civil War, in which Collins was commander-in-chief of the National Army. He was shot and killed in an ambush by anti-Treaty forces in August 1922 at Beal na Blatha, County Cork.

Reader's Guide

Michael Collins was a central figure in the Irish struggle for independence, serving as Director of Intelligence for the IRA during the War of Independence and as a key negotiator of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. His guerrilla warfare strategies, including the 'Bloody Sunday' assassinations, significantly weakened British intelligence in Ireland. As Chairman of the Provisional Government and commander-in-chief of the National Army, he led the new Irish Free State through the early stages of the Civil War. His acceptance of the Treaty, which he saw as 'the freedom to achieve freedom', placed him in opposition to hardline republicans, contributing to the conflict that ultimately led to his death. Collins's legacy is that of a pragmatic revolutionary who helped shape modern Ireland, though his early death left many questions about the path the nation might have taken.

Did You Know?

• Collins was the youngest of eight children and was six and a half years old when his father died.
• He moved to London in 1906 to work as a clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank at Blythe House.
• At Frongoch internment camp, Collins helped organize a programme of protest and non-cooperation with authorities.
• He was shot and killed in an ambush by anti-Treaty forces at Beal na Blatha, County Cork, in August 1922.