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


Monday marks 100 years given that Collins was eliminated in a gun fight in between contending 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 great deal of our visitors are middle-aged and some have moms and dads and grandparents who were included 100 years back," says Mr Crowley, whose grandmother was Collins' cousin.


"But then we also have actually got 14 and 15 years of age who are substantial 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 an essential 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 till July 1921.


But the terms of the peace treaty with Britain, which he signed, were extremely questionable and resulted in 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 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 car to combat and in the weapon 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, as well as leader of its militaries.


To this day people question what might have been if he had actually endured and gone on to lead the 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 treated the way they were?" Mr Crowley says.


"I think he was the one leader at that time that the proof suggests had genuine interest in the northern situation.


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


He suspects Collins would have been more forceful when it concerned the Boundary Commission, which was meant to choose on where the new border in between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland should lie.


In the end, although the commission suggested small transfers of land in both instructions, its suggestions were never implemented and the border remained the exact 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 federal government.


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


"There has actually been a great deal of speculation that the course of the civil war might have been different, that maybe 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 in a different way.


"Arguably, he had more at stake in defending the treaty settlement because 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 wanted him."


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


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


"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 agreement on who fired the fatal shot that eliminated Collins, which has left area for a series of theories and conspiracies.


Mr Crowley states 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 reality he died the way he did," he states.


"He passed away a with a weapon in his hand, you could not make it up."


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On Sunday, Mr Crowley will go to the main celebrations and on Monday the centre is running a journey to several 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 questionable elements of Collins' legacy stays the fact he concurred 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 required to swear an oath of allegiance to.


It also confirmed the partition of Ireland and the production of Northern Ireland.


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


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


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