Michael Collins

From Conservapedia

For the Apollo XI astronaut, see Michael Collins (Astronaut)

Michael Collins (1890-August 22, 1922) was an Irish nationalist leader, and the main commander of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) and of the Irish Free State Army during the Irish Civil War (1921-1923). He was one of the great masters of guerilla warfare.

Collins was born into a middle class family in County Cork, in the south-west of Ireland; on leaving school he moved to London where he passed the examinations for the British civil service and in 1906 joined the Post Office. While in London he joined the local branch of the Gaelic Athletic Association, a sporting organisation closely associated with Irish republican politics, and through his GAA links was inducted into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), a republican secret society. He returned to Dublin in time to participate in the calamitous Easter Rising of 1916; his experience of the failure of that romantic gesture was to affect his leadership of the IRA during the War of Independence, characterised by ruthlessness and professionalism.

Collins was not the nominal head of the IRA: its Chief of Staff was Richard Mulcahy and the Minister of Defence in the underground Dail Eireann (republican Irish Parliament) was Cathal Brugha. However, he was able to dominate the movement through his forceful personality, his leadership of the IRB and the massive intelligence network which was at his command.

In 1921, Collins signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty with Great Britain that saw the creation of the Irish Free State. During the Irish Civil War, he led the newly-constituted Irish Army against Anti-Treaty dissidents under the command of former leader Eamon de Valera. While leading Free State forces in Cork during the summer of 1922, the column in which Collins was travelling was ambushed on 22 August, and he was shot dead in the crossfire.

Further Reading

• Tim Pat Coogan, "Michael Collins; The Man Who Made Ireland."
• T. Ryle Dwyer, "The Squad and the Intelligence Operations of Michael Collins," Mercier Press.