The Enduring Legacy Of Michael Collins 100 Years On

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, wants to ask, according to its joint creator Tim Crowley.


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


A century on, there remains a substantial interest in "the Big Fella", his function in Irish self-reliance and his long-lasting tradition.


"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 also have got 14 and 15 year olds who are huge Collins fanatics who can be found in who know what he had for his last breakfast.


"They toss some actually great concerns at us."


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Collins was an essential 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 up until July 1921.


But the terms of the peace treaty with Britain, which he signed, were exceptionally questionable 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, however 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 cars and truck to battle 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 provisional federal government of the brand-new Irish Free State, as well as leader of its armed forces.


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


"People ask would he have attempted to cause a 32 county settlement? Would he have permitted nationalists in the northern state to have been dealt with the way they were?" Mr Crowley states.


"I think he was the one leader at that time that the evidence suggests had genuine interest in the northern situation.


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


He believes Collins would have been more powerful when it concerned the Boundary Commission, which was meant to choose on where the new border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland must lie.


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


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The civil war left a bitter tradition in Irish society, especially the execution of dozens of anti-treaty fighters by the new provisionary federal government.


The very first official executions were carried out 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 believe this would have been any various had actually Collins not been killed.


"There has been a great deal of speculation that the course of the civil war might have been different, that maybe the acrimony of the executions may have been various," she states.


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


"Arguably, he had more at stake in safeguarding the since he had actually been a signatory of the treaty.


"He revealed absolutely nothing between June and August 1922 to suggest 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 key figure in the defend Irish independence.


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


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


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


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


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


There is still no arrangement on who fired the fatal shot that eliminated Collins, which has left area for a variety of theories and conspiracies.


Mr Crowley says the occasions of Collins' final day are the most popular part of the museum and centre which he runs, with visitors constantly keen to ask about who was responsible for his death.


"People are fascinated by the truth he died the method he did," he states.


"He died a hero's death with a weapon in his hand, you could not make it up."


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On Sunday, Mr Crowley will go to the official commemorations and on Monday the centre is running a journey to numerous areas associated with Collins, consisting of the scene of his death at Béal na Bláth where they will hold a minute's silence at the time Collins was shot.


Among the more controversial elements of Collins' tradition remains the reality he accepted 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 needed to swear an oath of obligation to.


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


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


"But I would state he was a pragmatic republican with a strategy that could actually be successful.


"He was the sort of leader who just occurs for a country when in a thousand years."