Collins, Michael

Revolutionary leader, signatory of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and commander in chief of Free State forces during the Civil War, Michael Collins (1890–1922) was born on his family's farm at Woodfield, Clonakilty, Co. Cork, on 16 October. He emigrated to London in 1906, where he held several clerical jobs and participated in the Gaelic League, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), and, from 1909, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB).

After his internment at the Frongoch prisoner-ofwar camp for his role in the Easter Rising in 1916, Collins established contacts with other internees who aided his advance in the IRB and the reorganized Sinn Féin Party. Elected MP for South Cork, he entered Dáil Éireann in January 1919. As Eamon de Valera's minister for home affairs and minister for finance, he spearheaded the successful campaign to raise loans for Dáil operations in defiance of the Crown regime. Concurrently, as director of organization and director of intelligence for the Irish Volunteers, he oversaw arms acquisitions and, critically, established an effective network of spies and a squadron of gunmen that blunted the Dublin and provincial police through intimidation and assassination. Some colleagues (notably minister for defense Cathal Brugha) distrusted the use of the IRB, of which Collins was president.

In autumn 1921, Collins and Arthur Griffith led the Irish plenipotentiaries who negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Although the treaty recognized a separate Northern Ireland state and identified the Irish Free State as a Crown dominion, Collins signed it on 6 December 1921, believing that it offered the Irish people a stepping-stone to total independence. He and Griffith carried this argument in the Dáil in January 1922 despite opposition from de Valera and others. When these opponents withdrew, Collins became chairman of the provisional government formed to implement the treaty. Attempting to avoid a rupture in Volunteer and Sinn Féin ranks, Collins cooperated with antitreaty forces in the north and agreed with de Valera to run Sinn Féin candidates as a bloc in the June 1922 general election. Under pressure from Britain and from antitreaty forces that had seized positions in Dublin and the provinces, he belatedly abandoned this strategy. Protreaty candidates won the election, and civil war erupted. As his Free State troops advanced rapidly in the south and west, Collins was ambushed and killed at Béal-na-mBláth, Co. Cork, on 22 August 1922, while making an ill-considered inspection tour.

In his brief career Collins established a controversial dual legacy. Some decry his methods, and others emphasize his willingness to compromise as fundamental to the ultimate establishment of an Irish Republic in 1949. What is clear is that his direction and discretion were indispensable to achieving the settlement of 1921 to 1922.

Collins, Michael

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