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 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 enduring legacy.


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


"But then we also have got 14 and 15 year olds who are substantial Collins fanatics who can be found in who know what he had for his last breakfast.


"They throw some actually great questions at us."


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Collins was a crucial figure in the battle for 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 till July 1921.


But the terms of the peace treaty with Britain, which he signed, were exceptionally controversial 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, but 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 automobile to eliminate and in the gun battle which followed he was shot dead.


He was 31 years old.


At the time of his death he was chairman of the provisional government of the new Irish Free State, along with leader of its militaries.


To this day individuals wonder what may 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 permitted nationalists in the northern state to have been dealt with the way they were?" Mr Crowley states.


"I believe 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 suspects Collins would have been more powerful when it came to the Boundary Commission, which was intended to select 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 instructions, its suggestions were never implemented and the border stayed the like it was in 1921.


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How the Irish Civil War emerged 100 years back


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


The very first authorities executions were performed in November 1922 and they continued up until May 1923.


But Prof Marie Coleman, teacher of 20th Century Irish 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 could have been various, that possibly the acrimony of the executions might have been different," she states.


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


"Arguably, he had more at stake in protecting the treaty settlement due to the fact that he had actually 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 sought him."


Collins' killing came just 10 days after the death of Arthur Griffith - another essential figure in the battle for 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 knowledgeable politician in Sinn Féin," she states.


"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 fact, he knew more about running the army than Collins would have done."


There is still no arrangement on who fired the deadly shot that killed Collins, which has actually left space for a series 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 always keen to inquire about who was accountable for his death.


"People are fascinated by the reality he passed away the way he did," he says.


"He passed away a hero's death with a weapon in his hand, you couldn't make it up."


What was the Anglo-Irish Treaty?


The crucial figures on totally free state's roadway to civil war


On Sunday, Mr Crowley will go to the main ceremonies and on Monday the centre is running a journey to a number of areas related to 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 elements of Collins' tradition stays the fact he consented to 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 likewise validated 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 says.


"But I would say he was a pragmatic republican with a plan that might actually succeed.


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