Michael collins
Michael collinsIn Michael Collins, I found the embodiment of that Irish virtue and tragedy. Michael Collins remains one of the most obscure and controversial heroes in Irish history. A survivor of the disastrous 1916 Easter Rising, Collins forged the fragments of the revolutionary movement into a ruthless underground army that compelled the British to sue for peace. Reluctantly serving as a treaty negotiator under the orders of the Irish president, �amon de Valera, Collins returned in 1921 with an agreement that left the country in its current state of partition into an independent south and a unionist north. De Valera and his followers refused to accept and civil war broke out. The following year Collins was ambushed and murdered by extremist republicans. Collins's life and death are apt metaphors for the long, ongoing tragedy of Irish nationalism: a tale of incandescent love of country, savage violence, gleeful melancholy, and treachery Early on, Collins erupts into its most spectacular moment -- British artillery blasting the handful of Republican volunteers defending the General Post Office in the Easter Rising. It's the Irish equivalent of the Alamo, and the terrible beauty addressed in Yeats's poem "Easter 1916" can almost be glimpsed in the painstakingly re-created destruction, carnage, and valor. Wooed by Boland and won by Collins when his friend and rival travels to America with de Valera in search of support, she serves as a device to separate the two boys and inject feeling into passions that are largely theoretical.
The character who most projects the burning, almost pathological patriotism that has fueled Irish nationalism to the
present day is Alan Rickman's de Valera. His aquiline eyes buttressed by rimless spectacles, he writhes with a
pinched, fanatic devotion to his cause. He emerges finally as the villain of the piece: envious of Collins's
popularity, power, and success, he returns from America and nearly undoes the revolution by returning to more
"honorable" conventional tactics. Jordan suggests he set up Collins to take the fall for the peace treaty and may
even have been involved in his rival's assassination.
In short, de Valera comes off as a more interesting figure than Collins. What's missing is Jordan's irreverence and
sardonic wit; though not exactly hagiography, Collins probes no deeper into its hero than to have him show
symptoms of mild dyspepsia when he has 19 British agents murdered on Bloody Sunday. As an introduction into the
causes and history of one of the longest-festering wounds in the world today, Michael Collins might be a landmark,
but its scale is more broad than epic.
A `greater truth'?
As a film, Michael Collins is a triumphant achievement, a powerful, exhilarating yet tragic
portrait of one of the most charismatic leaders of the 20th century.
Michael Collins, who was assassinated on Aug. 12, 1922, founded the Irish Republican Army and, from 1919 to 1921, led a guerrilla war campaign against repressive English rule.
Collins' exploits from his participation as a foot soldier in the failed Easter Uprising of
1916, through his violent campaign against the English, past his treaty negotiations, and into the political quagmire of the founding of the Irish Free State and the partition of the country into north and south. It is the civil war inspired by the treaty and partition that led directly to Collins' assassination.
Against that saga is the humanizing picture of Collins as a private citizen falling in love and pursuing his dreams.
As a viewer of the movie and outsider, not from Ireland, I can only observe Collins as a flawed hero who could unflinchingly order his men to carry out cold-blooded murders while he desperately harbored the illusion that the violence would eventually lead to freedom and lasting peace.
During those six years Michael had been greatly influenced by his father, who encouraged his children to learn patriotic ballads and poetry. West Cork was the heartland of Fenianism, the Irish nationalist movement founded in the 19th century. Jermiah O'Donovan Rossa, one of its founders, had been a teacher in a school in Rosscarberry, three miles away from the Collins household. Michael's own teacher, Denis Lyons, was a member of the Fenian organisation, the IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood) and was to prove an inspirational figure. The local blacksmith, James Santry, was also a Fenian. Young Michael would often call to his forge to hear stories of earlier Irish rebellions in 1798 and 1848. Years later Michael Collins was to recall that, "In Denis Lyons and James Santry I had my first tutors capable of, because of their personalities alone, infusing into me pride of the Irish as a race."
As a child Michael also read widely. He was familiar with Shakespeare and the great novelists of the 19th century. Every week he read the nationalist newspapers "The Freeman's Weekly" and "The Leader". When only 11 years of age Michael began to subscribe to 'The United Irishman', edited by Arthur Griffith. Almost 20 years later, Griffith and Michael Collins would be the most important Irish representatives in the Treaty negotiations with Britain. Griffith was the founder of Sinn Fein, a nationalist party that exists to this day. At that time Sinn Fein was not a republican party. Griffith believed that a Republic was unattainable and that Home Rule, which the constitutional nationalists sought, was inadequate. His goal was an independent Ireland with the same monarch as England. While this did not accord with the Fenian view, Griffith did have a profound influence on the young Michael Collins. At the age of 12 he wrote, "In Arthur Griffith there is a mighty force in Ireland. He has none of the wildness of some I could name. Instead there is an abundance of wisdom and an awareness of things which are Ireland."
When Michael Collins came to Dublin in early 1916 the scene was being set for an armed insurrection. The IRB's (Irish Republican Brotherhood’s) military expert, Joseph Plunkett, appointed him as a staff officer and he kept in regular contact with two older IRB members, Tom Clarke and Sean Mac Diarmada. The Easter Rising, when it did come, was an organizational disaster. Eoin MacNeill, the founder of the Irish Volunteers, issued orders to abandon all plans for a Rising. The IRB countermanded this order. Despite the confusion, the Volunteers, together with Irish Citizen Army, succeeded in taking over some of the main buildings in the city. Michael Collins fought in the GPO alongside the leaders of the
Rising, Padraig Pearse and James Connolly. After five days of fighting the Volunteers were forced to surrender. The Rising was denounced in the newspapers of the time and members of the public were angry about the destruction of the city. But the public mood changed quickly when the leaders of the
rebellion, including Clarke and Mac Diarmada, were executed over a ten-day period. Connolly, who
was the last to face the firing squad, had to be strapped to a chair, as he could not stand upright
because of his injuries. The Rising and its aftermath were to make a deep and lasting impression on
Michael Collins. Later he wrote: "They have died nobly at the hands of the firing squads. So much I
grant. But I do not think the Rising week was an appropriate time for the issue of memoranda couched in poetic phrases nor of actions worked out in a similar fashion. Looking at it from the inside ....it had the
air of a Greek tragedy about it .... Of Connolly and Pearse I admire the former the foremost. Connolly was a realist, Pearse the direct opposite...On the whole I think the Rising was bungled terribly, costing many a good life. It seemed at first to be well organized, but afterwards became subjected to panic decisions and a great lack of very essential organization and co-operation".
Collins and his fellow Volunteers were rounded up and sent on a cattle boat to English prisons. At first he was held in Stafford jail and then, at the end of June, the prisoners were transferred to Frongach camp in Wales. The British government, anxious to defuse the growing public sympathy for the rebels in Ireland, released the internees on the 22 December, 1916. On returning home Collins quickly found employment as secretary of the Irish National Aid and Volunteer Dependants Fund. He used his position to revitalise the Volunteer movement and attract new recruits to the IRB. But it was Sinn Fein, and not the IRB, which had gained most from the fallout of the Rising, despite the
fact that Griffith had been opposed to it. Initially suspicious of Sinn Fein, Collins realised that it was a radical
nationalist party that could defeat the IPP. He campaigned vigorously in a series of by-elections, first in
Roscommon and then in Longford. In the Longford by-election Collins nominated Joe McGuinness, who was still
serving a prison sentence for his part in the Rising. Using the slogan "Put him in, to get him out", McGuinness was
elected. The effect of the by-election victories was almost immediate. The British released the remaining 120
prisoners.
Among the prisoners released were two senior surviving officers, Thomas Ashe and Eamon de Valera. De Valera
had not been executed in 1916 because he was born in the United States. Ashe was elected president of the IRB but Early in 1918 Collins was arrested for making a speech against conscription in Legga, County Longford. During his many visits to Longford Collins would stay at the Greville Arms in Granard, run by "four beautiful sisters and their brother." Michael had fallen in love with Kitty , the second eldest sister. His chief rival for her hand was his comrade in the IRB, Harry Boland. Collins was jailed in Sligo but applied for bail. Once out on bail he went on the run. All over the country anti-conscription campaigns took place. The British decided to arrest the leading nationalists in an attempt to stop the anti-conscription protests. Collins was tipped off about the planned arrests by his informants and told de Valera and the Sinn Fein executive what was about to happen. They decided that they would win an even greater moral and political victory if they were arrested. Sean McGarry, the president of the IRB, was also arrested and Collins quickly succeeded him as the president of The Organisation, as it had become known. The arrests only succeeded in fuelling nationalist resentment even further. Collins and Harry Boland were now in effective control of the republican organisations and they set about preparing Sinn Fein for the forthcoming General Election. This came when Lloyd George called a snap election following the end of the First World War. The elections were a triumph for Sinn Fein. They won 73 seats, compared with 6 for the IPP. Michael Collins was elected unopposed for the South Cork constituency. On 21 January 1919, Sinn Fein's newly elected candidates assembled in Dublin's Mansion House to form the first
national assembly in over a century. This day also marked the beginning of the War of Independence, when a group
of Volunteers shot dead two policemen at Soloheadbeg in County Tipperary. The new parliament was to be known
as Dail Eireann and it began by passing a declaration of independence. Only 27 of the 73 Sinn Fein TD's (members
of parliament) could attend. Collins and his fellow TD Harry Boland were absent. They were in England
organising de Valera's escape from Lincoln Jail. Within five weeks the remaining republican prisoners were
released. When the Dail reassembled in April, Eamon de Valera was elected its president. Cathal Brugha was
appointed as Minister of Defence and Michael Collins became Minister for Finance.
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Collins, Michael (1890-1922), Irish patriot and soldier, born in Clonakilty. From 1906 to 1916 Collins worked as a clerk in London, where he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a revolutionary group working for Irish independence from British rule. He participated in the Easter Rebellion of 1916 in Dublin and was captured. After his release he became one of the chief workers for Irish freedom as a leader in Sinn Fein movement. In 1918 he was again arrested. Later, in spite of persistent attempts to capture him, he eluded the police and helped colleagues to escape. While still a fugitive, he was elected to the Sinn Fein revolutionary parliament and served as finance minister. From 1919 to 1921 Collins organized the guerrilla warfare that succeeded in forcing Great Britain to sue for peace. Collins represented Ireland in London and signed the peace treaty that brought the Irish Free State into existence. Later he was appointed commander in chief of the Irish Free State forces. On August 22, 1922, he was assassinated by members of Sinn Fein who were opposed to the peace treaty.