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 Michael Collins Centre and Museum in Castleview, County Cork, desires to ask, according to its joint creator Tim Crowley.


Monday marks 100 years since Collins was killed in a gun fight between competing sides in the Irish Civil War.


A century on, there stays a substantial interest in "the Big Fella", his role in Irish independence and his long-lasting legacy.


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


"But then we likewise have got 14 and 15 year olds who are substantial Collins fanatics who are available in who understand what he had for his last breakfast.


"They toss some really good concerns at us."


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Collins was an essential figure in the defend 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 till July 1921.


But the terms of the peace treaty with Britain, which he signed, were incredibly controversial and caused a civil war which broke out in June 1922, with the IRA splitting into professional and anti-treaty factions.


Collins was commander-in-chief of the pro-treaty forces, which became the brand-new Irish National Army, but on 22 August 1922 while he was taking a trip through his home county of Cork his convoy was assailed by anti-treaty fighters.


Collins got out of his vehicle to combat 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, as well as leader of its armed forces.


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


"People ask would he have attempted to bring about a 32 county settlement? Would he have allowed nationalists in the northern state to have been dealt with the method they were?" Mr Crowley states.


"I think he was the one leader at that time that the evidence recommends had real interest in the .


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


He suspects Collins would have been more forceful when it came to the Boundary Commission, which was planned to select where the brand-new border in between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland must lie.


In the end, although the commission suggested little transfers of land in both directions, its suggestions were never ever executed 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, especially the execution of dozens of anti-treaty fighters by the new provisional government.


The first authorities executions were carried out in November 1922 and they continued 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 eliminated.


"There has been a great deal of speculation that the course of the civil war could have been various, that maybe the acrimony of the executions may have been different," she states.


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


"Arguably, he had more at stake in defending the treaty settlement due to the fact that he had actually been a signatory of the treaty.


"He revealed nothing in between June and August 1922 to suggest 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 crucial figure in the defend Irish independence.


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 skilled politician in Sinn Féin," she states.


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


"So most likely, in truth, he understood 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 variety of theories and conspiracies.


Mr Crowley says 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 amazed by the truth he died the method he did," he says.


"He died 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 go to the official ceremonies and on Monday the centre is running a journey to numerous areas associated 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.


Among the more controversial aspects of Collins' tradition remains 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 head of state, who Irish TDs (MPs) were needed to swear an oath of loyalty to.


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


"Some people say to us that Michael Collins was not a republican," 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 nation when in a thousand years."