The Enduring Legacy Of Michael Collins 100 Years On

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21 August 2022
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Luke SprouleBBC News NI


"What if Michael Collins had lived?"


That is the concern every visitor to the Michael Collins Centre and Museum in Castleview, County Cork, wishes to ask, according to its joint founder Tim Crowley.


Monday marks 100 years considering that Collins was eliminated in a gun battle between completing sides in the Irish Civil War.


A century on, there remains a big interest in "the Big Fella", his function in Irish self-reliance and his enduring legacy.


"A lot of our visitors are middle-aged and some have parents and grandparents who were included 100 years back," says Mr Crowley, whose grandmother was Collins' cousin.


"But then we likewise have actually got 14 and 15 year olds who are substantial Collins enthusiasts who come in who understand what he had for his last breakfast.


"They toss some actually excellent concerns at us."


Thousands to go to Michael Collins commemoration


Collins was a crucial figure in the fight for Irish independence and was director of intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) throughout the War of Independence with Britain, which lasted from January 1919 until July 1921.


But the regards to the peace treaty with Britain, which he signed, were extremely controversial and caused a civil war which broke out in June 1922, with the IRA splitting into professional and anti-treaty factions.


Collins was commander-in-chief of the pro-treaty forces, which ended up being the new Irish National Army, but on 22 August 1922 while he was travelling through his home county of Cork his convoy was ambushed by anti-treaty fighters.


Collins left his automobile to combat and in the gun fight which followed he was shot dead.


He was 31 years old.


At the time of his death he was chairman of the provisionary government of the new Irish Free State, along with leader of its armed forces.


To this day people wonder what may have been if he had actually survived and gone on to lead the new state.


"People ask would he have tried to bring about a 32 county settlement? Would he have permitted nationalists in the northern state to have been treated the method they were?" Mr Crowley says.


"I think he was the one leader at that time that the proof suggests had real interest in the northern scenario.


"In his mind the treaty was just the beginning."


He thinks Collins would have been more forceful when it pertained to the Boundary Commission, which was meant to choose where the brand-new border in between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland ought to lie.


In the end, although the commission recommended small transfers of land in both instructions, its recommendations were never implemented and the border stayed the like it was in 1921.


Lock of Michael Collins' hair to be auctioned


How the Irish Civil War emerged 100 years earlier


The civil war left a bitter legacy in Irish society, particularly the execution of dozens of anti-treaty fighters by the new provisional government.


The first official executions were performed in November 1922 and they continued up until May 1923.


But Prof Marie Coleman, teacher of 20th Century Irish history at Queen's University, Belfast, does not think this would have been any different had Collins not been eliminated.


"There has been a lot of speculation that the course of the civil war might have been different, that possibly the acrimony of the executions might have been different," she says.


"I see nothing to suggest that Collins would have prosecuted the war any in a different way.


"Arguably, he had more at stake in safeguarding the treaty settlement due to the fact that he had actually been a signatory of the treaty.


"He showed absolutely nothing in between June and August 1922 to recommend that he would have been any softer on the republican side than Richard Mulcahy sought him."


Collins' killing came just 10 days after the death of Arthur Griffith - another crucial figure in the defend Irish self-reliance.


Other prominent leaders such as Éamon De Valera were now on the anti-treaty side.


But Prof Coleman states those who filled the vacuum were likewise capable leaders.


"Griffith was changed by WT Cosgrave who was probably the most knowledgeable political leader in Sinn Féin," she states.


"Collins was changed by Richard Mulcahy, who had been the chief of personnel of the IRA during the War of Independence.


"So probably, in reality, he understood more about running the army than Collins would have done."


There is still no agreement on who fired the fatal shot that killed Collins, which has left space for a series of theories and conspiracies.


Mr Crowley states the events of Collins' final day are the most popular part of the museum and centre which he runs, with visitors always keen to inquire about who was accountable for his death.


"People are interested by the reality he passed away the way he did," he states.


"He passed away a hero's death with a gun in his hand, you could not make it up."


What was the Anglo-Irish Treaty?


The key figures on complimentary state's road to civil war


On Sunday, Mr Crowley will go to the main celebrations and on Monday the centre is running a trip to a number of places related to Collins, including the scene of his death at Béal na Bláth where they will hold a minute's silence at the time Collins was shot.


One of the more questionable aspects of Collins' legacy remains the reality he agreed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty.


It produced the Irish Free State but within the British Empire and with the British King as head of state, who Irish TDs (MPs) were required to swear an oath of loyalty to.


It also validated the partition of Ireland and the creation of Northern Ireland.


"Some people say to us that Michael Collins was not a republican," Mr Crowley says.


"But I would state he was a practical with a plan that might actually succeed.


"He was the sort of leader who just comes along for a country once in a thousand years."

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