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


Monday marks 100 years given that Collins was killed in a weapon battle between contending sides in the War.


A century on, there remains a big interest in "the Big Fella", his role in Irish self-reliance and his long-lasting legacy.


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


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


"They throw some actually great questions 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 up until July 1921.


But the terms of the peace treaty with Britain, which he signed, were exceptionally controversial and caused 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 ended up being the brand-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 got out of his automobile to combat and in the gun fight which followed he was shot dead.


He was 31 years of ages.


At the time of his death he was chairman of the provisional government of the brand-new Irish Free State, in addition to leader of its militaries.


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 bring about a 32 county settlement? Would he have permitted nationalists in the northern state to have been treated the method they were?" Mr Crowley says.


"I think 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 suspects Collins would have been more strong when it pertained to 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 little transfers of land in both instructions, its suggestions were never ever executed and the border stayed 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 lots of anti-treaty fighters by the brand-new provisionary 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 history at Queen's University, Belfast, does not believe this would have been any different had Collins not been eliminated.


"There has actually been a lot of speculation that the course of the civil war could have been various, that perhaps the acrimony of the executions may have been different," she states.


"I see absolutely nothing to suggest that Collins would have prosecuted the war any in a different way.


"Arguably, he had more at stake in defending the treaty settlement since he had been a signatory of the treaty.


"He showed 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 simply 10 days after the death of Arthur Griffith - another crucial 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 likewise capable leaders.


"Griffith was replaced by WT Cosgrave who was most likely the most skilled politician in Sinn Féin," she states.


"Collins was changed by Richard Mulcahy, who had been the chief of personnel of the IRA throughout the War of Independence.


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


There is still no arrangement on who fired the fatal 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 interested by the fact 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."


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On Sunday, Mr Crowley will attend the official ceremonies and on Monday the centre is running a trip to numerous areas 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.


One of the more controversial elements of Collins' legacy remains the truth he accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty.


It produced the Irish Free State but within the British Empire and with the British King as president, who Irish TDs (MPs) were required to swear an oath of allegiance to.


It likewise verified the partition of Ireland and the development of Northern Ireland.


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


"But I would say he was a practical republican with a strategy that could really prosper.


"He was the sort of leader who only comes along for a nation as soon as in a thousand years."