Collins, Michael
Collins, Michael (1890–1922). Collins is the best-known 20th-cent. Irish revolutionary leader, a template for guerrillas, and has been very romanticized. From a west Cork farming background, he moved to London at 15, and was active among exiled nationalists. He played a background role in Dublin during the Easter Rising. After internment, through an agency of Irish Republican Brotherhood, Collins became the key figure in the reorganized Irish Volunteers/Irish Republican Army. As director of IRA intelligence, he infiltrated all agencies of British rule in Ireland. Against his will, he was a negotiator at the Anglo-Irish conference of October–December 1921, revealing his pragmatism by signing the Anglo-Irish treaty. As chairman of provisional government January–June 1922, Collins uneasily presided over the establishment of the new state while striving to appease anti-treaty former colleagues. British insistence on the treaty terms led to his ordering the Dublin Four Courts attack in June 1922, beginning the civil war. While visiting pro-treaty troops as commander-in-chief and searching for a basis for peace, he was killed in a west Cork ambush on 22 August 1922. Rumour and speculation have since run riot on the circumstances of his death. Lately debate has centred on what Collins might have contributed to Ireland had he lived. Undoubtedly the pro-treaty side lost its most charismatic figure and the Northern Ireland government its most fervent opponent.
Michael Hopkinson
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Collins, Michael