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


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


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


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


"But then we likewise have actually got 14 and 15 year olds who are huge Collins enthusiasts who come in who know what he had for his last breakfast.


"They throw some truly great concerns at us."


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Collins was a key figure in the fight for 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 terms of the peace treaty with Britain, which he signed, were incredibly questionable and led to 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 left his vehicle to eliminate and in the gun battle which followed he was shot dead.


He was 31 years of ages.


At the time of his death he was chairman of the provisionary federal 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 new state.


"People ask would he have tried to bring about 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 evidence suggests had real interest in the northern circumstance.


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


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


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


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


The first official executions were performed in November 1922 and they continued until May 1923.


But Coleman, teacher of 20th Century Irish history at Queen's University, Belfast, does not believe this would have been any different had actually Collins not been eliminated.


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


"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 been a signatory of the treaty.


"He showed absolutely nothing between June and August 1922 to recommend that he would have been any softer on the republican side than Richard Mulcahy wanted him."


Collins' killing came simply 10 days after the death of Arthur Griffith - another key figure in the defend Irish self-reliance.


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 probably the most skilled political leader in Sinn Féin," she says.


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


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


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


Mr Crowley states the occasions of Collins' final day are the most popular part of the museum and centre which he runs, with visitors always keen to ask about who was accountable for his death.


"People are amazed by the fact he passed away the way he did," he says.


"He died a hero's death with a gun in his hand, you couldn't 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 a number of 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.


One of the more controversial elements of Collins' tradition stays the truth he accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty.


It produced 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 loyalty 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 states.


"But I would state he was a pragmatic republican with a strategy that could in fact be successful.


"He was the sort of leader who just occurs for a country as soon as in a thousand years."