Michael Collins (Irish leader)

Collins was born in Woodfield, Sam's Cross, near Clonakilty, County Cork, on 16 October 1890,[7][note 1] the third son and youngest of eight children. His father, Michael John (1816–1897), was a farmer and amateur mathematician, who had been a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) movement. The elder Collins was 60 years old when he married Mary Anne O'Brien, then 23, in 1876.[8][9][10] The marriage was apparently happy. They brought up eight children on a 90-acre (36 ha) farm called Woodfield, which the Collins family had held as tenants for several generations. Michael was six years old when his father died.

Michael Collins at the age of 8 with his family.

He was a bright and precocious child with a fiery temper and a passionate feeling of Irish patriotism. 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 IRB, while Santry's family had participated in, and forged arms for, the rebellions of 1798, 1848 and 1867.[11][12] There are a number of anecdotal explanations for the origin of his nickname "the Big Fellow". His family claim that he was called this as a child, as a term of endearment for an adventitious and bold youngest brother. The nickname was established by his teens, long before he became a political or military leader.

At the age of thirteen he attended 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 West Cork People and Collins helped out with general reporting and preparing the issues.[13]

Collins as a young recruit.

Leaving school at fifteen, Collins took the British Civil Service examination in Cork in February 1906[14] and moved to the home of his sister Hannie in London, where he became a boy clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank at Blythe House.[3][4][5][6] In 1910 he became a messenger at a London firm of stockbrokers, Horne and Company.[14] While living in London he studied law at King's College London.[15] He joined the London GAA and, through this, the IRB. Sam Maguire, a republican from Dunmanway, County Cork, introduced the 19-year-old Collins to the IRB.[16] In 1915 he moved to work in the Guaranty Trust Company of New York where he remained until his return to Ireland the following year joining part-time Craig Gardiner & Co,[17] a firm of accountants in Dawson Street, Dublin.[18]

Captured Irish soldiers in Stafford Gaol after the failed Easter Rising. Collins is fifth from the right with an 'x' over his head.

The struggle for Home Rule, along with labour unrest, had led to the formation in 1913 of two major nationalist paramilitary groups who later launched the Easter Rising: the Irish Citizen Army was established by James Connolly, James Larkin and his Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) to protect strikers from the Dublin Metropolitan Police during the 1913 Dublin Lockout. The Irish Volunteers were created in the same year by nationalists in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers (UVF), an Ulster loyalist body pledged to oppose Home Rule by force.

An organiser of considerable intelligence, Collins had become 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 Plunkett. Collins took part in preparing arms and drilling troops for the insurrection.

The Rising was Collins' first appearance in national events. When it commenced on Easter Monday 1916, Collins served as Joseph 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 members of the Rising leadership. The Rising was put down after six days, but the insurgents achieved their goal of holding their positions for the minimum time required to justify a claim to independence under international criteria.[19]

Following the surrender, Collins was arrested and taken into British custody. He was processed at Dublin's Richmond Barracks by "G-Men", plain-clothes officers from Dublin Metropolitan Police. During his screening, Collins was identified as someone who should be selected for further interrogation, harsher treatment, or execution. However, he overheard his name being called out so he moved to the other side of the building to identify the speaker. In doing so, he joined the group that was transferred to Frongoch internment camp in Wales, a movement that historian Tim Pat Coogan describes as "one of the luckiest escapes of his life."[20]

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.[21]

At Frongoch he was one of the organisers of a program of protest and non-cooperation with authorities. The camp proved an excellent opportunity for networking with physical-force republicans from all over the country, of which he became a key organiser.[20]

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 railed 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 Frongoch prisoners were sent home.

Before his death, Tom Clarke, first signatory of the 1916 Proclamation and widely considered the Rising's foremost organiser, had designated his wife Kathleen Clarke as the official caretaker of Rising official business, in the event that the leadership did not survive. By June 1916, Mrs. Clarke had sent out the first post-Rising communiqué to the IRB, declaring the Rising to be only the beginning and directing nationalists to prepare for "the next blow." Soon after his release Mrs. Clarke appointed Collins Secretary to the National Aid and Volunteers Dependents Fund and subsequently passed on to him the secret organisational information and contacts which she had held in trust for the independence movement.

Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith

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.)[22] Griffith's organisation 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 Sinn Féin, while agreeing to disagree with Griffith's moderate ideas of a dual monarchy solution based on the Hungarian model.[23] The British government and mainstream Irish media had wrongly blamed Sinn Féin for the Rising. This attracted Rising participants to join the organisation in order to exploit the reputation with which such British propaganda had imbued the organisation. 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, stood for the presidency of Sinn Féin against Griffith, who stepped aside and supported de Valera's presidency.[23]

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) with the right to sit in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London. Unlike their rivals in the Irish Parliamentary Party, Sinn Féin MPs had announced that they would not take their seats in Westminster but instead would set up an Irish Parliament in Dublin.[24]

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. De Valera and others ignored the warnings on the argument that, if the arrests happened, they would constitute a propaganda coup. The intelligence proved accurate and de Valera, along with Sinn Féin MPs who followed his advice, were arrested; 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 de Valera'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 de Valera's escape from Lincoln Prison in England, after which Brugha was replaced by de Valera.

No state gave diplomatic recognition to the 1919 Republic, despite sustained lobbying in Washington by de Valera and prominent Irish-Americans and at the Paris peace conference.

De Valera appointed Collins as Minister for Finance in the Ministry of Dáil Éireann in 1919.[25] Most of the ministries existed only on paper or as one or two people working in a room of a private house, given the circumstances of war in which they were liable to be arrested or killed by the Royal Irish Constabulary, British Army, Black and Tans or Auxiliaries.

Despite that, Collins managed to produce 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.[26] 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 by the British, was lodged in the individual bank accounts of the trustees. The gold was kept under the floor of O'Connor's house until 1922.[27] The Russian Republic, in the midst of its own civil war, ordered Ludwig Martens the head of the Soviet Bureau in New York City to acquire a "national loan" from the Irish Republic through Harry Boland, offering some jewels as collateral. The jewels remained in a Dublin house until 1938, when they were handed over to de Valera.[28]

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 from the 3rd Tipperary Brigade including Séumas Robinson, Dan Breen, Seán Treacy and Seán Hogan, 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, known as the Soloheadbeg ambush. This ambush is considered the first action in the Irish War of Independence.[29] The engagement had no advance authorisation from the nascent government. The legislature's support for the armed struggle soon after became official, with the Dáil ratifying the IRA's claim to be the army of the Irish Republic.[22]

Harry Boland (left), Michael Collins (middle), and Éamon de Valera (right).

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 which now had a mandate to pursue an armed campaign, as the official military of the Irish nation. With Cathal Brugha as Minister of Defence, Collins became Director of Organisation and Adjutant General of the Volunteers. Collins spent much of this period helping to organise the Volunteers as an effective military force, and concentrating on forcing the RIC – which represented British authority in Ireland – out of isolated barracks and seizing their weapons.[30] Collins was determined to avoid the massive destruction, military and civilian losses for merely symbolic victories that had characterised the 1916 Rising. Instead, he directed a guerrilla war against the British, suddenly attacking then just as quickly withdrawing, minimising losses and maximising effectiveness.[31]

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. Officially or unofficially, many of these groups were given a free hand to institute a reign of terror, shooting Irish people indiscriminately, invading homes, looting and burning.[22][32]

As the war began in earnest, de Valera 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 de Valera (who had been elected Príomh Aire by the Dáil) was first referred to as "President". While financially successful, grave political conflicts followed in de Valera'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 because their organisation's constitution had a different definition of that title.[22][23][33]

Back in Ireland, Collins arranged the "National Loan", organised the IRA, effectively led the government, and managed arms-smuggling operations. Local guerrilla units received supplies, training and had largely a 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 in the south-west. Collins, Dick McKee and regional commanders such as Dan Breen and Tom Barry oversaw tactics and general strategy. There were also regional organisers, such as Ernie O'Malley and Liam Mellows, who reported directly to Collins at St Ita's secret basement GHQ in central Dublin.[34] They were supported by a vast intelligence network of men and women in all walks of life that reached deep into the British administration in Ireland.[35][36]

Collins inspects a soldier.

It was at this time that Collins created a special assassination unit called The Squad expressly to kill British agents and informers. Collins was criticised for these tactics but 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 extrajudicial killings such as that of Tomás Mac Curtain, nationalist mayor of Cork City.

In 1920 the British offered £10,000 (equivalent to GB£300,000 / €360,000 in 2010) for information leading to Collins' capture or death. He evaded capture and continued to strike against British forces, often operating from safe-houses near government buildings, such as Vaughan's and An Stad.

In 1920, following Westminster's prominent announcements that it had the Irish insurgents on the run, Collins and his Squad killed several British secret service agents in a series of coordinated raids. In retaliation, members of the Royal Irish Constabulary went to Croke Park, where a G.A.A. football match was taking place between Dublin and Tipperary. The police officers opened fire on the crowd, killing twelve and wounding sixty. This event became known as Bloody Sunday. A stampede of panicking British operatives sought the shelter of Dublin Castle next day. About 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 increasingly under rebel control.[31][37]

These republican victories would have been impossible without widespread support from the Irish population, which included every level of society and reached deep into the British administration in Ireland. This pattern of guerrilla success against sophisticated imperialist powers was repeated around the world in the early 20th century.[38]

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, County Limerick.[22][39]

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 martial law, including the suspension of "all normal life."[40] Westminster's foreign policy ruled out this option: Irish-American public opinion was important to British agendas in Asia. In addition, Britain's efforts at a military solution had already resulted in a powerful peace movement, which demanded an end to the unrest in Ireland. Prominent voices calling for negotiation included the Labour Party, The Times and other leading periodicals, members of the House of Lords, English Catholics, and famous authors such as George Bernard Shaw.[41][42]

Still, it was not the British government that initiated negotiations. Individual English activists, including clergy, made private overtures which reached Arthur Griffith. Griffith expressed his welcome for dialogue. The British MP Brigadier General Cockerill sent an open letter to Prime Minister David Lloyd George that was printed in the Times, outlining how a peace conference with the Irish should be organised. The Pope made an urgent public appeal for a negotiated end to the violence. Whether or not Lloyd George welcomed such advisors, he could no longer hold out against this tide.[22]

In July, Lloyd 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 uncertainty as to the two sides' capability to have carried on the conflict much longer. Collins told Hamar Greenwood after signing the Anglo-Irish Treaty: "You had us dead beat. We could not have lasted another three weeks. When we were told of the offer of a truce we were astonished. We thought you must have gone mad".[43] However he stated on the record that "there will be no compromise and no negotiations with any British Government until Ireland is recognised as an independent republic. The same effort that would get us Dominion Home Rule will get us a republic."[44] At no time had the Dáil or the IRA asked for a conference or a truce.[45]

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.[46]

Many of the rebel forces on the ground first heard of the Truce when it was announced in the newspapers and this gave rise to the first fissures in nationalist unity, which had serious consequences later on. They felt they had not been included in consultations regarding its terms.[45][47]

De Valera was widely acknowledged as the most skillful negotiator on the Dáil government side and he participated in the initial parlays, agreeing the basis on which talks could begin. The first meetings were held in strict secrecy soon after the Custom House battle, with Andrew Cope representing Dublin Castle's British authorities. Later, de Valera 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.[22][48]

During this Truce period, de Valera sued for official designation as President of the Irish Republic and obtained it from the Dáil in August 1921, in place of the title which had previously been used of President of Dáil Éireann.[49] Not long after, the Cabinet was obliged to select the delegation that would travel to the London peace conference and negotiate a treaty. In an extraordinary departure from his usual role, de Valera adamantly declined to attend, insisting instead that Collins should take his place there, along with Arthur Griffith.[50][51]

Collins resisted the appointment, protesting that he was "a soldier, not a politician" and that his exposure to the London authorities would reduce his effectiveness as a guerrilla 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 very few reliable photographs of him.)[52] The Cabinet of seven split on the issue, with de Valera casting 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."

Collins in London as delegate to the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations.

The Irish delegates sent to London were designated as "plenipotentiaries", meaning that they had full authority to sign an agreement on behalf of the Dáil government. The Treaty would then be subject to approval by the Dáil.[53] The majority of the delegates, including Arthur Griffith (leader), Robert Barton and Eamonn Duggan (with Erskine Childers as Secretary General to the delegation) set up headquarters at 22 Hans Place in Knightsbridge on 11 October 1921. Collins shared quarters at 15 Cadogan Gardens with the delegation's publicity department, secretary Diarmuid O'Hegarty, Joseph McGrath as well as substantial intelligence and bodyguard personnel including Liam Tobin, Tom Cullen, Ned Broy, Emmet Dalton and Joseph Dolan of The Squad.[54]

The British team were led by their Prime Minister Lloyd George, the Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill and F. E. Smith. During two months of arduous negotiations the Irish delegates made frequent crossings between London and Dublin to confer with their Dáil colleagues, and Collins' correspondence reflects his frustration at Dáil debates and the Irish delegate's inability to agree clear instruction as to whether or not they should accept a treaty.[22][55]

In November, with the London peace talks still in progress, Collins attended a large meeting of regional IRA commanders at Parnell Place in Dublin. In a private conference he informed Liam Deasy, Florence O'Donoghue and Liam Lynch that there would have to be some compromise in the current negotiations in London. "There was no question of our getting all the demands we were making." He was advised by Lynch not to bring this out in the full assembly. Reviewing subsequent events, Deasy later doubted the wisdom of that advice.[45]

The negotiations ultimately resulted in the Anglo-Irish Treaty which was signed on 6 December 1921. The agreement provided for a Dominion status "Irish Free State", whose relationship to the British Commonwealth would be modelled after Canada's. This was a compromise, half-way between an independent republic and a province of the Empire. The Treaty was signed under considerable pressure from the British. The negotiators had agreed at the cabinet meeting in Dublin that they would not sign the Treaty without bringing it back for the Dáil cabinet to ratify. But once back in London on December 5 at 7:30 pm, Lloyd George told them it was immediate signature or 'immediate and terrible war' and that he had to know by the next day. The Treaty was signed at 2:20 am, December 6, 1921.[56]

The settlement overturned the Act of Union by recognising the native Irish legislature's independence. Under a bicameral parliament, executive authority would remain vested in the king, represented in Ireland by a Governor General, but exercised by an Irish government elected by Dáil Éireann as a "lower house". British forces would depart the Free State forthwith and be replaced by an Irish army. Along with an independent judiciary, the Treaty granted the new Free State greater independence than any Irish state, and went well beyond the Home Rule which had been sought by Charles Stewart Parnell or by his Irish Parliamentary Party successors John Redmond and John Dillon.

The Treaty acknowledged the partition of Ireland. Before Treaty negotiations had concluded, executive powers had already been passed to the government of Northern Ireland created under the Government of Ireland Act in 1920.[57] Northern Ireland, which had a majority unionist population, could opt out of the Free State, a year after the signing of the Treaty. An Irish Boundary Commission was to be established to draw a border, 'in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants' and ‘economic and geographic conditions’.[58] Collins anticipated a redrawing of the border would result in much of the south and west of Northern Ireland becoming part of the Free State, making Northern Ireland economically non-viable, and facilitating the reunification of the 32 counties in the near future.[46]

Collins argued that he had signed the Treaty as the alternative was a war that the Irish people did not want. 'I say that rejection of the Treaty is a declaration of war until you have beaten the British Empire, apart from any alternative document. Rejection of the Treaty means your national policy is war.... The Treaty was signed by me, not because they held up the alternative of immediate war. I signed it because I would not be one of those to commit the Irish people to war without the Irish people committing themselves to war'.[59] While the Treaty fell short of the republic for which he had fought, Collins concluded that the Treaty offered Ireland "not the freedom that all nations desire and develop to, but the freedom to achieve it."[60]

Nonetheless, he knew that elements of the Treaty would cause controversy in Ireland. Upon signing the treaty, F. E. Smith remarked "I may have signed my political death warrant tonight". Collins replied "I may have signed my actual death warrant".[39]

Collins' policy toward Northern Ireland was ambiguous. He told the Dáil during the Treaty debates that, 'We have stated we would not coerce the North-East ... Surely we recognise that the North-East corner does exist, and surely our intention was that we should take such steps as would sooner or later lead to mutual understanding. The Treaty has made an effort to deal with it .. on lines that will lead very rapidly to goodwill, and the entry of the North-East under the Irish Parliament. I don't say it is an ideal arrangement, but if our policy is, as has been stated, a policy of non-coercion'.[59]

However he told the Northern Divisions of the IRA in private, early in 1922 that, ‘although the Treaty may have seemed as an outward expression of partition, the [Provisional Irish] Government plans to make it [partition] impossible…even if it meant smashing the Treaty’.[68] Collins' Provisional Government also funded county councils and paid the salaries of teachers in Northern Ireland who recognised the Free State.

In Northern Ireland in the first half of 1922, there was considerable violence between rival forces along the new border, the IRA on the southern side and the Ulster Special Constabulary on the Northern side. There were also many killings of civilians, notably by "unauthorised loyalist paramilitary forces" who targeted Catholics. Catholic were also driven out of their jobs, notably in Belfast's shipyards.

In March, Collins met Sir James Craig, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, in London. They signed an agreement declaring peace in the north which promised cooperation between Catholics and Protestants in policing and security, a generous budget for restoring Catholics to homes which had been destroyed, and many other measures. The day after the agreement was published, violence erupted again in the Arnon Street killings. A policeman was shot dead in Belfast and in reprisal, police entered Catholic homes nearby and shot residents in their beds, including children. There was no response to Collins' demands for an inquiry. He and his Cabinet warned that they would deem the agreement broken unless Craig took action.[69] In his continual correspondence with Churchill over violence in the north, Collins protested repeatedly that such breaches of the Truce threatened to invalidate the Treaty entirely.[70] The prospect was real enough that on 3 June 1922 Churchill presented to the Committee of Imperial Defence his plans "to protect Ulster from invasion by the South."[71]

Throughout the early months of 1922, Collins had been sending IRA units to the border and sending arms and money to the northern units of the IRA. Collins joined other IRB and IRA leadership in developing secret plans to launch a clandestine guerrilla war in the northeast. Some British arms that had been supplied to the Provisional government in Dublin were turned over by Collins to IRA units in the north. In May–June 1922 Collins and IRA Chief of Staff Liam Lynch organised an offensive that would involve mobilising and arming both pro- and anti-Treaty IRA units along the border area.[72][73] 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.

This activity was supposed to culminate in a 'joint Northern offensive' in May 1922 that was to involve both pro and anti-Treaty IRA units. However, it appears that Collins countermanded the offensive at the last minute. While the Northern units took part, the Divisions based in southern territory and under Collins' authority, the 1st, 4th and 5th Northern Divisions did not, leading to the suppression of the offensive with relative ease by the Northern authorities.[74] Collins chided pro-Treaty IRA units who became embroiled in heavy fighting with British troops at Pettigo in June 1922 and the Provisional Government subsequently issued an order that their policy was “peaceful obstruction… and no troops from the twenty- six counties either official or attached to the executive [anti-Treaty] should be permitted to invade the six county area”.[74]

At the time of his death in August 1922, it was still unclear what Collins' true intentions towards Northern Ireland were.

Michael Collins addresses a crowd in Cork on Saint Patrick's Day, 1922.

De Valera resigned the presidency and sought re-election but Arthur Griffith replaced him after a close vote on 9 January 1922. Griffith chose as his title President of Dáil Éireann, rather than President of the Republic as de Valera had favoured.[75] The Dáil Éireann government did not hold legal status in British constitutional law. The provisions of the Treaty required the formation of a new government, which would be recognised by Westminster as pertaining to the Free State dominion that had been established by the Treaty. Despite the abdication of a large part of the Dáil, the Provisional Government (Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann) was formed by Arthur Griffith as president and Michael Collins as Chairman of the Cabinet (effectively Prime Minister). Collins retained his position as Minister for Finance.[65]

In British legal tradition, Collins was now a Crown-appointed prime minister of a Commonwealth state, 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. The republican view of the same meeting is that Collins met FitzAlan to accept the surrender of Dublin Castle, the official seat of British government in Ireland. Having surrendered, FitzAlan still remained in place as viceroy until December 1922.

The Provisional Government's first obligation was to create a Constitution for the Free State. This was undertaken by Collins and a team of solicitors. The outcome of their work became the Irish Constitution of 1922.[76] He drew up a republican constitution which, without repudiating the Treaty, would include no mention of the British king. His object was that the Constitution would allow participation in the Dáil by dissenting TDs who opposed the Treaty and refused to take any oath mentioning the Crown. Under the Treaty, the Free State was obliged to submit its new Constitution to Westminster for approval. Upon doing so, in June 1922, Collins and Griffith found Lloyd George determined to veto the provisions they had fashioned to prevent civil war.[77]

The meetings with Lloyd George and Churchill were bitter and contentious. Collins, although less diplomatic than Griffith or de Valera, had no less penetrating comprehension of political issues. He complained that he was being manipulated into "doing Churchill's dirty work", in a potential civil war with his own former troops.[65][78]

Negotiations to prevent civil war resulted in, among others, "The Army Document" published in May 1922 which was signed by an equal number of pro- and anti-Treaty IRA officers including Collins, Dan Breen, and Gearóid O'Sullivan. This manifesto declared that "a closing of ranks all round is necessary" to prevent "the greatest catastrophe in Irish history." It called for new elections, to be followed by the re-unification of the government and army, whatever the result.

In this spirit and with the organising efforts of moderates on both sides the Collins-de Valera "Pact" was created. This pact agreed that new elections to the Dáil would be held with each candidate running as explicitly pro- or anti-Treaty and that, regardless of which side obtained a majority, the two factions would then join to form a coalition government of national unity.

A referendum on the Treaty was also planned but it never took place. The Pact elections on 16 June 1922 therefore comprise the best quantitative record of the Irish public's direct response to the Treaty. The results were pro-Treaty 58 seats, anti-Treaty 35, Labour Party 17, Independents 7, Farmers party 7, plus 4 Unionists from Trinity College, Dublin.[79]

Six days after the Pact elections, Sir Henry Wilson was assassinated on 22 June 1922 in broad daylight on the steps of his London home by a pair of London IRA men. A British Army field marshal, Wilson had recently resigned his commission and been elected an MP for a constituency in Northern Ireland. He had a long history as one of the chief British leaders opposing Collins in the Irish conflict. At that time Wilson had served as military advisor to the Northern Ireland government led by James Craig, in which role he was seen to be responsible for the B-Specials and for other sources of loyalist violence in the north.

The debate concerning Collins' involvement continued in the 1950s, when a number of statements and rebuttals on the subject were published in periodicals. These were re-printed with additions in Rex Taylor's 1961 book Assassination: the death of Sir Henry Wilson and the tragedy of Ireland. Participants in that discussion were Joe Dolan, Florence O'Donoghue, Denis P. Kelleher, Patrick O'Sullivan and others.[80]

The Provisional Government, led by Collins, gave the order to bombard the Four Courts with artillery shells in an attempt to remove the anti-Treaty IRA. This was the start of the Irish Civil War.

The death of Sir Henry Wilson caused a furor in London. Lloyd George, the prime Minister sent a letter to Collins saying that the 'ambiguous position' of the Provisional Government with regard to the IRA in the Four Courts could no longer be tolerated.[81] The British cabinet met the day after the assassination and agreed that Collins’ reply had not given a 'definite enough commitment' to disperse the Four Courts occupation. They ordered Nevil Macready commander of the British garrison still in Dublin, to attack the Four Courts, whose republican garrison they blamed for the shooting of Wilson.[82] The plan was put on hold at the last minute when Macready advised the government, on June 26, to give Collins' Provisional Government one more chance to act against the Four Courts.[83]

Collins himself was in Cork at the time of the crisis. President Arthur Griffith and military officer Emmet Dalton met with British official to discuss 'the continued occupation of the Four Courts by the Irregulars under Rory O'Connor'.[84] There is little documentation of the decision taken by the Provisional government, headed by Collins, to attack the Four Courts; Historian Michael Hopkinson writes, 'the scarcity of evidence is explained by the acute sensitivity of the subject, both at the time and since'.[85] When Collins arrived back in Dublin, his forces began to act against the anti-Treatyites. On June 27 they arrested anti-Treaty IRA officer Leo Henderson as he was enforcing the Belfast Boycott by seizing cars.[86] In retaliation the anti-Treaty IRA men abducted J.J. "Ginger" O'Connell, a Free State general and held him in the Four Courts.[87]

These two developments led to the Provisional Government's 27 June 1922 order serving notice on the Four Courts garrison to surrender the building, their arms and release O'Connell, that night or face military action "at once".[87] According to historian Charles Townsend, 'Collins must have consented to this though the actual decision seems to have been taken by Griffith'.[88] Peter Hart similarly writes, 'it was Griffith rather than Collins who took the lead in this decision'.[89] However cabinet member Ernest Blythe recalled that, 'the decision to attack the Four Courts was almost automatic once Collins had agreed to it.[90]

Collins' position in this conflict was extraordinary indeed. A majority perhaps of the IRA he had helped lead in the War of Independence, were now ranged against the Provisional Government, which he represented. In addition, the force which by the will of the electorate he was obliged to lead had been re-organised since the Truce. Formed from a nucleus of pro-Treaty IRA men, it had evolved into a more formal, structured, uniformed National Army that was armed and funded by Britain. Many of the new members were World War I veterans and others who had not fought on the nationalist side before. Collins' profoundly mixed feelings about this situation are recorded in his private and official correspondence.[91][92][93][94][95]

Michael Collins as Commander-in-Chief of the Irish National Forces.

Artillery was provided to Richard Mulcahy, as Minister for Defence and the Free State Army by the British for the purposes of attacking the Four Courts. Emmet Dalton, an Irishman who had served in the British Army and the IRA, who was now a leading Free State commander and close associate of Collins, was placed in charge of it. The Four Courts surrendered after three days of fighting.

Heavy fighting broke out in Dublin between the anti-Treaty IRA Dublin Brigade and the Free State troops. Much of O'Connell Street suffered heavy damage; the Gresham Hotel was burned and the Four Courts reduced to a ruin. Still, under Collins' direction, the Free State rapidly took control of the capital. By July 1922 anti-Treaty forces held much of the southern province of Munster and several other areas of the country. At the height of their success, they administered local government and policing in large regions.[96] Collins, Richard Mulcahy, and Eoin O'Duffy decided on a series of seaborne landings into republican held areas, which re-took Munster and the west in July–August.

That July, Collins set aside his title as Chairman of the Provisional Government to become Commander-in-Chief of the National Army. However, according to Charles Townshend, he became 'a kind of generalisimo, combining military and political supremacy. Griffith had no desire or capacity to dispute the day to day conduct of government with him and while Mulcahy had great administrative capacity, he deferred to Collins as a strategist and thinker'.[97] He also prorogued the meeting of the Dail, or parliament until the end of hostilities, a move that historians such as John Regan have seen as an unconstitutional concentration of power in Collins himself and his military colleagues.[98]

Civil War peace moves

Roughly two weeks after Cork city had been taken by Provisional Government forces, Collins travelled there to attempt to seize large sums of money that the anti-Treaty Republicans had lodged in various banks, under the account of the Land Bank.[99]

There is also considerable evidence that Collins' journey to Cork in August 1922 was made in order to meet republican leaders with a view to ending the war.[100]

Collins also conducted a series of meetings, regarding the possibility of peace talks in Cork on 21–22 August 1922. In Cork city, Collins met with neutral IRA members Seán O'Hegarty and Florence O'Donoghue with a view to contacting Anti-Treaty IRA leaders Tom Barry and Tom Hales to propose a truce. The anti-Treaty side had called a major convocation of officers to Béal na Bláth, a remote crossroads, with ending the war on the agenda.[45]

Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy at Arthur Griffith's funeral, a few days before Collins' own death.

De Valera was present there, however, Michel Hopkinson writes that 'there is no evidence that there was any prospect of a meeting between de Valera and Collins.[101] The People's Rights Association, a local initiative in Cork City, had been mediating a discussion of terms between the Provisional Government and the anti-Treaty side for some weeks.[22][66]

Collins' personal diary outlined his proposals 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".[101] 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".[102]

Collins' body laid out at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin

A replica of the Crossley Tender in Collins' convoy on a replica of the road where it happened [103]

A newspaper in Boston—a U.S. city with a large population of Irish immigrants—described Collins with adulation, describing his "contempt for danger" through several prior attempts on his life, including a separate attempt only a few days prior.[104]

In August 1922, it seemed as though the Civil War was winding down. The Free State had regained control of most of the country, and Collins was making frequent trips to inspect areas recently recovered from anti-Treaty forces.[62]

His plan to travel to his native Cork on 20 August was considered particularly dangerous, and he was strenuously advised against it by several trusted associates. County Cork was an IRA stronghold as much of it was still held by anti-Treaty forces. Yet he was determined to make the trip without delay. He had fended off a number of attempts on his life in the preceding weeks and had acknowledged more than once, in private conversation, that the Civil War might end his life at any moment. On several occasions, Collins assured his advisors "they won't shoot me in my own county," or words to that effect.

On 22 August 1922 Collins set out from Cork City on a circuitous tour of West Cork. He passed first through Macroom then took the Bandon road via Crookstown. This led through Béal na Bláth, an isolated crossroads. There they stopped at a local pub named 'Long's Pub', now known as The Diamond Bar,[105] to ask a question of a man standing at the crossroad. The man turned out to be an anti-Treaty sentry. He and an associate recognised Collins in the back of the open-top car.[100]

As a result, an ambush was laid by an anti-Treaty column at that point, on the chance that the convoy might come through again on their return journey.[45] Between 7:30 and 8:00 pm, Collins' convoy approached Béal na Bláth for the second time. By then most of the ambush party had dispersed and gone for the day, leaving just five or six men on the scene. Two were disarming a mine in the road, while three on a laneway overlooking them, provided cover. A dray cart, placed across the road, remained at the far end of the ambush site.

The Irregulars in the laneway opened fire with rifles on the convoy. Emmet Dalton ordered the driver of the touring car to 'drive like hell', but Collins said 'no, stop and we'll fight 'em' and jumped from the vehicle along with the others. Collins first took cover behind the low grass bank bordering the road but then jumped up and ran back along the road to begin firing with his Lee Enfield rifle from behind the armoured car. The Vickers machine gun in that car had also been firing at the attackers but then stopped because a badly-loaded ammunition belt caused it to jam. Apparently, to get a better view of the laneway, Collins left the protection of the armoured car and moved even farther back along the road. Now standing in the open, he fired a couple of shots and as he was once more working the bolt of his rifle he was struck in the head by a bullet fired by one of the ambushing party – Denis "Sonny" O'Neill, a former British Army sniper.[106]

Collins was the only fatality sustained in the ambush, although another member of his party suffered a neck wound. After he was shot the fire from the ambushing party quickly fell off and they withdrew from the scene. Collins was found, face down, on the roadway. One of his men whispered an Act of Contrition into his ear, but Collins was clearly dead. He was lifted into the back of the touring car with his head resting against the shoulder of Emmet Dalton. The convoy cleared the dray cart obstruction and resumed its journey to Cork.

The lengthy time the convoy took to cover the twenty miles back to Cork City was because many of the roads were blocked and the convoy had to travel across muddy fields and through farms to circumnavigate the obstacles, all in darkness. At times, when the vehicles became bogged down, members of the convoy had to carry Collins' body on their shoulders. The touring car eventually had to be abandoned because of mechanical trouble.

There was no autopsy. Collins' field diary was taken by General Emmet Dalton who had been with him during his tour of the south. The body was first presented at Shanakiel Hospital in Cork, a small military establishment, and then shipped around the coast to Dublin where it was laid out in St Vincent's Hospital Dublin. From there it was removed to the City Hall beside Dublin Castle where it was laid in state.

Sean Collins behind the coffin of his brother Michael.

Collins lay in state for three days. 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 at that time.[22]

No official inquiry was ever undertaken into Collins' death and consequently, there is no official version of what happened, nor are there any authoritative, detailed contemporary records.[100]

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

In this vacuum, independent investigations and conspiracy theorists have put forward a number of suspects as having executed or ordered his death, including an anti-Treaty sharpshooter, members of his own escort, the British secret service, or de Valera himself.

De Valera is alleged to have declared in 1966, "It is my considered opinion that in the fullness of time history will record the greatness of Michael Collins; and it will be recorded at my expense."[109]

Collins on his bicycle.

Collins' elderly father inspired his fondness and respect for older people. His mother, who had spent her youth caring for her own invalid mother and raising her own brothers and sisters, was a powerful influence. The entire management of the Collins farm fell to her, as her husband succumbed to old age and died. In a society which honoured hospitality as a prime virtue, Mrs Collins was eulogised as "a hostess in ten thousand." Her five daughters avowedly doted on their youngest brother.[22] He enjoyed rough-housing and outdoor sports. Having won a local wrestling championship while still a boy, he is said to have made a pastime of challenging larger, older opponents, with frequent success. A very fit, active man throughout life, in the most stressful times he continued to enjoy wrestling as a form of relaxation and valued friendships which afforded opportunities to share athletic pursuits.[22] He could be abrasive, demanding, and inconsiderate of those around him, but frequently made up for it with gestures such as confectionery and other small gifts.[110]

Unlike some of his political opponents, he was characterized by many close personal friendships within the movement. It has been justly said that while some were devoted to "the idea of Ireland", Collins was a people person whose patriotism was rooted in affection and respect for the people of Ireland around him. Among his famous last words is the final entry in his pocket diary, written on the journey which ended his life, "The people are splendid."[111][31][52]

Kitty Kiernan

In 1921–22, he became engaged to Kitty Kiernan. Under Kiernan's influence, he would resume Catholic religious practice (though retaining secularism as a political position), despite his previous hostility to the Irish Catholic hierarchy. He made a general confession before his departure for London to negotiate the Anglo-Irish Treaty. While in London, his practice of lighting votive candles for Kiernan developed a habit of attending mass daily, usually at the Brompton Oratory. In letters between the two, he credits Kiernan as having given him a newfound appreciation of Confession and Communion. Collins attended mass regularly throughout the ensuing civil war.[112]

Collins was a complex man whose character abounded in contradictions. Although Minister of Finance and an accountant by pre-war profession, he seems never to have pursued personal profit; indeed he was sometimes all but homeless during the war for independence. This characteristic was exemplified by a letter he wrote on 4 August 1922 to his canvassing agent; offering to pay half the bill for a hired election car because some of the journeys had been for personal trips.[113] While clearly fond of command and keen to take charge, he had an equal appetite for input and advice from people at every level of the organisation, prompting the comment that "he took advice from his chauffeur."[48] Although acknowledged by friends and foes as "head centre" of the movement, he continually chose a title just short of actual head of state; becoming Chairman of the Provisional Government only after the abdication of half the Dáil forced him to do so. While his official and personal correspondence records his solicitous care for the wants of insurgents in need, during the war he showed no hesitation in ordering the death of opponents who threatened nationalist lives.[114]

Certainly a man of fierce pride, his pride was tempered by a sense of humour that included a keen sense of the absurd in his own situation. While mastermind of a clandestine military, he remained a public figure. When official head of the Free State government, he continued to cooperate in the IRA's secret operations. He was capable of bold, decisive actions on his own authority, which caused friction with his colleagues, such as his falling out with Cathal Brugha; but at critical junctures he could also bow to majority decisions which were profoundly disadvantageous and dangerous to his own interests (such as his appointment to the Treaty negotiating team).

Memorial cross at Béal na Bláth.

An annual commemoration ceremony takes place each year in August at the ambush site at Béal na Bláth, County Cork, organised by The Béal na mBláth Commemoration Committee. 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 at Collins' grave in Glasnevin Cemetery on the anniversary of his death every year.

Michael Collins grave at Glasnevin Cemetery

Michael Collins House museum in Clonakilty, Cork is a museum dedicated to Michael Collins and the history of Irish Independence. Situated in a restored Georgian House on Emmet Square, where Collins once lived, the museum, tells the life story of Collins through guided tours, interactive displays, audiovisuals and historical artefacts.[115]

The Central Bank of Ireland released gold and silver commemorative coins on 15 August 2012 which feature a portrait of Michael Collins designed by Thomas Ryan based on a photograph taken not long before his death.[116]

Love of Ireland by John Lavery.

Collins bequeathed to posterity a considerable body of writing: essays, speeches and tracts, articles and official documents in which he outlined plans for Ireland's economic and cultural revival, as well as a voluminous correspondence, both official and personal. Selections have been published in The Path to Freedom (Mercier, 1968) and in Michael Collins in His Own Words (Gill & Macmillan, 1997). In the 1960s, Taoiseach Seán Lemass, himself a veteran of the 1916 Rising and War of Independence, credited Collins' ideas as the basis for his successes in revitalizing Ireland's economy.

Nine years after his death, the UK Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, which removed virtually all of London's remaining authority over the Free State and the other dominions. This had the effect of making the Free State the first internationally recognised independent Irish state, thus fulfilling Collins' vision of having "the freedom to achieve freedom."

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 Ireland's former Minister for Justice and TD Nora Owen, grand-niece of Michael Collins.

• Families in the Oireachtas
• F. Digby Hardy
• List of members of the Oireachtas imprisoned during the Irish revolutionary period
• List of people on the postage stamps of Ireland
• List of unsolved murders

• Works by or about Michael Collins at Internet Archive
• Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins (dual memorial volume) available from the Digital Library@Villanova University
• Hang Up Your Brightest Colours: The Life And Death Of Michael Collins on YouTube
• Frank Callanan: Collins, Michael, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
• Michael Collins 22 Society webpage
• A Man Against an Empire
• Collins family in the 1901 Irish census, Michael aged 10
• Michael Collins Centre, Clonakilty, Co Cork
• Irish Genealogy Site
• Michael Collins at IMDb
• British Pathe Video from 1922: In Memory Of Michael Collins
• Papers of Michael Collins. The papers, pertaining to the period when Collins lived in London, relate primarily to Civil Service examinations, the Gaelic League and Gaelic Athletic Association in London, together with draft articles and speeches written by Collins, and several personal letters addressed to him from family and friends. A UCD Digital Library Collection.
• Newspaper clippings about Michael Collins in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW