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 considering that Collins was eliminated in a gun fight in between competing sides in the Irish Civil War.


A century on, there remains a big interest in "the Big Fella", his function in Irish self-reliance and his legacy.


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


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


"They toss some truly great concerns at us."


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Collins was a crucial figure in the defend Irish independence and was director of intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during 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 extremely controversial and led to 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 ended up being the brand-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 left his cars and truck to eliminate and in the gun fight which followed he was shot dead.


He was 31 years old.


At the time of his death he was chairman of the provisionary government of the new Irish Free State, in addition to leader of its armed forces.


To this day individuals question what may have been if he had actually survived and gone on to lead the brand-new state.


"People ask would he have tried to cause a 32 county settlement? Would he have enabled nationalists in the northern state to have been treated the method they were?" Mr Crowley states.


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


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


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


In the end, although the commission suggested small transfers of land in both directions, its suggestions were never ever carried out 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, especially the execution of dozens of anti-treaty fighters by the new provisionary federal government.


The very first official executions were performed 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 different had actually Collins not been killed.


"There has been a great deal of speculation that the course of the civil war could have been different, that perhaps the acrimony of the executions may have been various," 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 because he had been a signatory of the treaty.


"He revealed absolutely nothing in 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 just 10 days after the death of Arthur Griffith - another crucial figure in the fight for 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 also capable leaders.


"Griffith was replaced by WT Cosgrave who was probably the most skilled political leader in Sinn Féin," she states.


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


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


There is still no arrangement on who fired the deadly shot that eliminated Collins, which has actually left space for a variety of theories and conspiracies.


Mr Crowley states the events of Collins' last day are the most popular part of the museum and centre which he runs, with visitors always keen to inquire about who was responsible for his death.


"People are interested by the fact he passed away 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 main ceremonies and on Monday the centre is running a trip to numerous locations connected 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.


One of the more controversial elements of Collins' legacy stays the reality 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 needed to swear an oath of obligation to.


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


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


"But I would say he was a pragmatic republican with a strategy that might actually be successful.


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