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 concern every visitor to the Michael Collins Centre and Museum in Castleview, County Cork, wants to ask, according to its joint founder Tim Crowley.


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


A century on, there stays a huge interest in "the Big Fella", his role in Irish self-reliance and his enduring legacy.


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


"But then we also have got 14 and 15 years of age who are substantial Collins fanatics who can be found in who understand what he had for his last breakfast.


"They throw some really good questions at us."


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Collins was a crucial 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 up until July 1921.


But the regards to 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 professional 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 taking a trip through his home county of Cork his convoy was assailed by anti-treaty fighters.


Collins got out of his cars and truck to eliminate 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 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 survived and gone on to lead the 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 says.


"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 simply the start."


He suspects Collins would have been more forceful when it came to the Boundary Commission, which was meant to choose where the brand-new border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland must 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 very same as it was 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 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 killed.


"There has actually been a lot of speculation that the course of the civil war might have been different, 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 protecting the treaty settlement due to the fact that he had been a signatory of the treaty.


"He revealed 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 simply 10 days after the death of Arthur Griffith - another crucial figure in the fight for Irish self-reliance.


Other prominent leaders such as Éamon De Valera were now on the anti-treaty side.


But states those who filled the vacuum were also capable leaders.


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


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


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


There is still no contract on who fired the deadly shot that eliminated Collins, which has actually left area for a variety 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 constantly keen to ask about who was accountable for his death.


"People are interested by the truth he died the method 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 attend the main celebrations and on Monday the centre is running a journey to numerous places connected 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 questionable elements of Collins' legacy stays the fact he consented to the Anglo-Irish Treaty.


It created 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 validated the partition of Ireland and the creation of Northern Ireland.


"Some individuals state to us that Michael Collins was not a republican," Mr Crowley says.


"But I would say he was a practical republican with a plan that might really be successful.


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