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 killed in a gun battle in between completing sides in the Irish Civil War.


A century on, there remains a substantial 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 earlier," says Mr Crowley, whose grandma was Collins' cousin.


"But then we also have actually got 14 and 15 year olds who are huge Collins enthusiasts who come in who know what he had for his last breakfast.


"They throw some really good questions at us."


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Collins was an essential figure in the fight for Irish self-reliance 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 regards to the peace treaty with Britain, which he signed, were incredibly questionable and caused 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, 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 automobile to fight 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 provisionary federal government of the new Irish Free State, in addition to leader of its armed forces.


To this day people question what may have been if he had actually made it through and gone on to lead the new state.


"People ask would he have attempted to produce a 32 county settlement? Would he have allowed nationalists in the northern state to have been treated the way they were?" Mr Crowley says.


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


"In his mind the treaty was simply the beginning."


He presumes Collins would have been more powerful when it came to the Boundary Commission, which was planned to choose where the new border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland need to lie.


In the end, although the commission suggested little transfers of land in both directions, its recommendations were never ever carried out and the border remained the exact same as it was in 1921.


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The civil war left a in Irish society, particularly the execution of dozens of anti-treaty fighters by the brand-new provisionary government.


The first authorities executions were performed 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 various had actually Collins not been killed.


"There has actually been a lot of speculation that the course of the civil war might have been different, that possibly the acrimony of the executions might have been different," she states.


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


"Arguably, he had more at stake in safeguarding the treaty settlement because he had actually been a signatory of the treaty.


"He revealed nothing between June and August 1922 to suggest that he would have been any softer on the republican side than Richard Mulcahy was after him."


Collins' killing came just 10 days after the death of Arthur Griffith - another key figure in the defend 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 changed by WT Cosgrave who was probably the most experienced 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 understood more about running the army than Collins would have done."


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


Mr Crowley says the events of Collins' last 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 amazed by the reality he passed away the method he did," he states.


"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 participate in the official ceremonies and on Monday the centre is running a journey to numerous places associated 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.


Among the more questionable aspects of Collins' legacy stays the fact he agreed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty.


It produced 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 loyalty to.


It likewise confirmed the partition of Ireland and the creation of Northern Ireland.


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


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


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