1 The Enduring Legacy Of Michael Collins 100 Years On
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21 August 2022 ShareSave

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 founder Tim Crowley.

Monday marks 100 years given that Collins was eliminated in a weapon fight in between completing sides in the Irish Civil War.

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

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

"But then we likewise have got 14 and 15 years of age who are substantial Collins enthusiasts who are available in who understand what he had for his last breakfast.

"They throw some really good questions at us."

Thousands to participate in Michael Collins celebration

Collins was a key figure in the defend Irish self-reliance 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 regards to the peace treaty with Britain, which he signed, were extremely controversial 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 assailed by anti-treaty fighters.

Collins got out of his vehicle to battle and in the weapon battle 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 question what might have been if he had actually endured 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 says.

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

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

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

In the end, although the commission recommended little transfers of land in both instructions, its suggestions were never implemented and the border remained the 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 provisionary federal government.

The very first official executions were brought out in November 1922 and they continued up until May 1923.

But Prof Marie Coleman, professor of 20th Century Irish history at Queen's University, Belfast, does not believe this would have been any various had Collins not been killed.

"There has been a lot of speculation that the course of the civil war might have been various, that perhaps 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 because he had been a signatory of the treaty.

"He showed nothing in 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 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 also capable leaders.

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

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

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

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

Mr Crowley says the occasions of Collins' last 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 captivated by the fact he passed away the method 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 attend the main commemorations and on Monday the centre is running a journey to a number of places connected 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.

One of the more controversial elements of Collins' tradition remains the reality 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 required to swear an oath of obligation to.

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

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

"But I would say he was a practical republican with a strategy that might really prosper.

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