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 question every visitor to the 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 fight in between competing sides in the Irish Civil War.


A century on, there remains a huge interest in "the Big Fella", his function in Irish independence and his enduring tradition.


"A great deal of our visitors are middle-aged and some have moms and dads and grandparents who were involved 100 years ago," states Mr Crowley, whose granny was Collins' cousin.


"But then we likewise have actually got 14 and 15 years of age who are big Collins fanatics who can be found in who understand what he had for his last breakfast.


"They toss some truly good questions at us."


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Collins was an essential figure in the battle for Irish self-reliance and was director of intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during 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 extremely controversial and resulted in 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 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 got out of his automobile to battle 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, along with leader of its militaries.


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


"People ask would he have tried to cause a 32 county settlement? Would he have allowed nationalists in the northern state to have been treated 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 simply the beginning."


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


In the end, although the commission recommended small transfers of land in both directions, its recommendations were never ever executed and the border stayed the very same as it remained in 1921.


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


The very first official executions were brought out in November 1922 and they continued 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 actually Collins not been killed.


"There has been a lot of speculation that the course of the civil war could have been various, that perhaps the acrimony of the executions may have been different," she says.


"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 defending the treaty settlement since he had been a signatory of the treaty.


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


Collins' killing came just 10 days after the death of Arthur Griffith - another key 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 says those who filled the vacuum were also capable leaders.


"Griffith was replaced by WT Cosgrave who was probably the most skilled politician in Sinn Féin," she says.


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


"So most likely, in fact, he knew 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 variety 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 constantly keen to inquire about who was accountable for his death.


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


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


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On Sunday, Mr Crowley will participate in the main celebrations and on Monday the centre is running a trip to numerous locations associated with 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 elements of Collins' legacy stays the fact he accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty.


It developed 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 allegiance to.


It likewise verified the partition of Ireland and the production of Northern Ireland.


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


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


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