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


Monday marks 100 years given that Collins was eliminated in a weapon battle in between contending 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 great deal of our visitors are middle-aged and some have parents and grandparents who were involved 100 years back," says Mr Crowley, whose grandma was Collins' cousin.


"But then we also have actually got 14 and 15 years of age who are huge Collins enthusiasts who can be found in who know what he had for his last breakfast.


"They toss some actually excellent concerns at us."


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Collins was a key figure in the battle 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 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 pro and anti-treaty factions.


Collins was commander-in-chief of the pro-treaty forces, which became 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 got out of his vehicle to fight and in the weapon battle which followed he was shot dead.


He was 31 years of ages.


At the time of his death he was chairman of the provisional government of the new Irish Free State, in addition to leader of its militaries.


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


"People ask would he have tried to produce a 32 county settlement? Would he have enabled nationalists in the northern state to have been dealt with the way they were?" Mr Crowley says.


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


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


He believes Collins would have been more powerful when it pertained to the Boundary Commission, which was planned to select where the new border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland need to lie.


In the end, although the commission suggested little transfers of land in both directions, its recommendations were never ever implemented and the border stayed the like it remained in 1921.


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


The very first authorities 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 think this would have been any various had actually Collins not been killed.


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


"I see absolutely nothing to recommend that Collins would have prosecuted the war any differently.


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


"He revealed absolutely nothing 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 key figure in the fight for Irish self-reliance.


Other popular 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 replaced by WT Cosgrave who was most likely the most experienced political leader in Sinn Féin," she states.


"Collins was replaced by Richard Mulcahy, who had actually 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 contract on who fired the fatal shot that killed Collins, which has left area for a series 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 accountable for his death.


"People are fascinated by the truth he passed away the way he did," he states.


"He passed away 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 main celebrations and on Monday the centre is running a trip to numerous locations 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.


Among the more controversial aspects of Collins' legacy stays the reality he consented to the Anglo-Irish Treaty.


It created the Irish Free State however within the British Empire and with the British King as president, who Irish TDs (MPs) were needed to swear an oath of obligation to.


It also validated 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 might actually be successful.


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