Introduction
Michael Collins was one of the Irish Revolution’s brightest and most significant figures. The revolutionary leader and his past activity still stand out with unflagging attention from scholars, researchers, and artists. In the wake of his tragic death, Collins’s image never fades from the pages of books and magazines and is especially noticeable in the online space.
In the context of the new historical and cultural paradigm, there are increasing questions about whether he was a noble warrior, human rights activist, and fighter for independence, or a terrorist and bandit. Indeed, there are many positive and negative aspects of this multifaceted person. Still, one should recognize that Michael Collins’s image, formed posthumously, has forever gone down in history as a hero and martyr of the Irish national movement. Michael Collins is a great hero of Irish history who has made valuable contributions to national development since independence from Great Britain.
Michael Collins as a Hero and Freedom Fighter
Replacing the expressive-symbolic and military aspects with reverence for objective merits and humanizing, Michael Collins remains one of the most notable heroes of the struggle for independence. He was sharp, charismatic, convincing, and a true revolutionary in spirit. To this extent, he played a unique role in revolutionary, political, and military activities. In particular, Collins became famous as the leader of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and as a “trucileer,” he took an active part in the War of Independence against British domination. At the same time, he was the Chairman, Commander-in-Chief, and Minister of Everything who “assembled a new government, parliament, army and constitution.”
Generally, Michael Collins is remembered by many people as a national hero with incredible courage and a great desire to achieve independence for his country. Collins’ contribution to establishing an independent Irish state is impressive, from creating the Twelve Apostles, a punitive unit aimed at eliminating British agents and their informers, to organizing a government loan and an arms smuggling operation from the leadership of the IRA to the management of Parliament during de Valera’s trip to the United States.
For many years, Michael Collins actively fought for dignity and freedom for all Irish citizens. Notably, he was also a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and Sinn Féin. As a skillful organizer of an established intelligence service, he was respected among IRB members. Having been involved in the IRB, he was willing to sacrifice himself for the common good and the glorious destiny that the Irish people deserved. In his role as head of intelligence for the Irish Republican Army, Collins had great success, not only in eliminating enemy informants and police officers but also in acquiring his sources from the Dublin police.
In addition, due to Collins, Sinn Féin, the political party to which the Irish revolutionary belonged, was able to acquire a militant and uncompromising Republican leadership. For the most part, however, these aspects of Collins’s biography sometimes overshadow his participation in the 1916 Easter Rising, although this event was the beginning of real successes. Altogether, it is impossible not to admit that due to Collins’s efforts, Ireland became truly free.
Significantly, Michael knew his place in Irish history and tried to achieve justice in every possible way. Michael’s interest in revolutionary ideas was evident from a young age, having been inspired by his teacher Denis Lyons, an IRB member, and local stories about the rebellion and the religious conflicts. Collins grew up as an intelligent child with a temper and a keen sense of nationalism. He especially wanted to be remembered as a true patriot and a martyr with a halo over his head, playing a rebel role that was a source of strength and energy for him. Remarkably, he succeeded this way, and modern Irishmen still remember Collins’s merits to the fatherland.
Michael Collins’s influence on the masses has always been significant, and most people were encouraged by his concepts. Freedom, he argued, requires a national effort, and Ireland must become a prosperous nation. His innovative, time-defying views have contributed to significant societal transformations, and his activities were essential for the future. Michael Collins was an outstanding and epic character important to the Irish liberation movement; this authoritative man contributed enormously to the victory over the giant British Empire.
The Significance of Death
Michael Collins’s assassination, in a way, has drawn a line under an entire historical phase in Ireland, and his death has devastated many of the country’s citizens. Thus, the essential unsolved murder mystery led to a thorough and profound study of the revolutionary’s achievements and merits. At least three major books have been written about his death: John Feehan’s The Shooting of Michael Collins, Meda Ryan’s The Day Michael Collins was Shot, and Patrick Twohig’s The Dark Secret of Bealnablath. Moreover, Michael Collins remains one of the most discussed figures on the World Wide Web.
Without exaggeration, Michael was a controversial and, undoubtedly, tragic figure whose demise caused a tremendous public outcry and began the formation of many myths surrounding this event. As a fallen hero in an unequal battle, he showed courage and willingness to sacrifice his life for the country. Michael Collins was a man whom Irish history does not favor. Nonetheless, it must be remembered that without him, Ireland would not have been a state, and England and Ireland’s history would have taken a different path. In other words, Michael’s death did not go unnoticed; the Irish still remember and honor their hero.
The importance and significance of Collins’s death were primarily in the context of the revolutionary’s contribution to Irish history. As one knows, Michael Collins was killed on 22 August 1922. Collins was ambushed as he and his companions traveled through a town in his home county of Cork, which his advisers opposed because it was a stronghold of the rebel IRA. He and his traveling companions engaged in a firefight, taking cover behind their car. Still, at one point, Collins neglected his safety and was mortally wounded in the head, becoming the only casualty of the fight.
In general, Michael Collins had many ups and downs in his life, but he tried to get as close as possible to a hero’s majestic image. For example, even while imprisoned, he gained credibility among Sinn Féin’s members and soon rose to a leading position within this political party. After being released, Michael began organizing a new stage of the struggle for independence.
In contemporary times, Michael Collins’s image is actualized as a cultural hero, especially for the new generation of Irish people. Indeed, he was a man of practice and action who could shoot and conduct business on a serious, national scale. Despite the difference in approaches to evaluation, his figure remains today a cornerstone of Irish statehood. During his lifetime, Collins could and was accused of having signed a “treasonous” treaty, but he paid for his views with his life and earned the respect of his position.
Michael was also spared the mistakes that all politicians make, such as Eamon de Valera, who remains a controversial figure in Irish history. The life and death of Michael Collins are identified with the triumph, horror, and tragedy of the Irish Civil War period. Collins and his partners regained Parliament, but the British still equated the Irish people with cattle. Collins’ death was undoubtedly a disaster since he would end the Civil War in Ireland. His death created more rifts, both in the IRA and in Irish political activity in general at the time. By the way, he laid the foundations for a modern Irish polity independent of Britain.
Eamon De Valera and Michael Collins’s Death: The Possible Connection
It is possible that Eamon De Valera was directly connected to the death of Michael Collins. Nevertheless, it has not been proven that de Valera masterminded the assassination of his former comrade and rival for the Prime Minister’s seat of Liberated Ireland. Collins knew of his future fate when the peace treaty between the government and the separatists had been signed in London. He once said, “I may have signed my actual death-warrant.” Furthermore, Eamon De Valera and his supporters in Parliament refused to accept the treaty’s terms and accused Collins of failing the mission.
Anyway, Michael Collins accomplished far more than one would have expected. He was able to negotiate with London for partial autonomy for Ireland, given that for the previous 700 years, no freedom had been discussed at all. De Valera and his faction were radical and demanded independence. Eamon De Valera said, “Ireland has never agreed to become a subject nation or a part of the British Empire.”
At the same time, on both sides, from London and Dublin, the same motif came through: unbreakable ties binding the two nations. The day after the treaty was signed, the London newspapers came out with headlines like “Ireland Defeated.” All this did not add to Collins’s popularity, and it cost him an inhuman effort to convince both Parliament and the public that this was the only possible outcome. According to one version, Collins was to meet with Eamon De Valera in Cork to discuss the possibility of a truce and an end to the civil war. At the time of his death, Collins was 31 years old.
Eamonn de Valera was in solidarity with Michael but refused to go to the signing of the treaty with the British. Collins did not suspect anything strange in this decision because he valued and respected his comrade-in-arms; Collins was an open and honest man. On the contrary, De Valera envied Michael Collins’s famous authority and never considered him capable of governing the country. Although he portrayed himself as an intellectual, Eamon de Valera supported the war, and the true patriot of Ireland, the knowledgeable man, was Michael Collins. The time has judged these politicians: Michael Collins became a national hero of Ireland, and Eamon de Valera is also remembered, but epithets about him are different.
Michael Collins and His Influence on Modern Ireland
In modern Ireland, Michael Collins is remembered as a national hero and a revered figure in Irish history of the twentieth century. More has been said about him than any other Irish Republican leader. For the most part, Michael is represented as a romantic hero of the struggle for national freedom. He is like “Irish Che Guevara,” whose portrait is a must-have in any Irish pub.
Conclusion
There are many bright figures in the pantheon of Irish heroes of the struggle for independence, but Michael Collins, who died young, is undoubtedly one of the most notable. Michael Collins is known as an Irish revolutionary, soldier, politician, and a leading figure in the struggle for freedom in Ireland. A careful and in-depth analysis of primary source data and relevant scholarly literature leads to the conclusion that Collins is a hero rather than a terrorist. He did his best for the people of Ireland, worked his way up the “career ladder” swiftly and faithfully, and achieved excellent results in his activities.
Michael’s merits to his country are not forgotten; a halo of mystery and mysticism still surrounds his death. There are several theories that Michael Collins was killed by his opponent, Eamonn De Valera. Nevertheless, there is no direct evidence to support this claim. Michael Collins certainly influenced the modern arrangement of Ireland by making it independent from Britain’s influence.
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