Michael Collins (film)

Michael Collins is a semi-fictitious film released on October 11, 1996 about Michael Collins, the Irish patriot and revolutionary who died in the Irish Civil War. Liam Neeson stars as the title character. Also starring are Aidan Quinn (as Harry Boland), Stephen Rea, Julia Roberts, and Alan Rickman (as Éamon de Valera).It was directed by Neil Jordan.The soundtrack was written by Elliot Goldenthal.

The film's inaccuracies and fictions

Fictional aspects that proved controversial include:

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• its coverage of Harry Boland, a close friend of Collins; Boland's death did not occur in the manner suggested by the film.
• the suggestion that Collins headed the delegation to London that negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty; (Arthur Griffith led the delegation, with Collins as his deputy).
• its claim that Edward Broy of the Dublin Metropolitan Police was murdered by the British after his arrest in Vaughan's hotel (Broy in fact survived the Irish War of Independence and civil war, a decade later becoming Commissioner of the Garda Síochána. Contrary to the explicit claim in the film, he lived to a ripe old age).
• its fictionalised account of the circumstances surrounding Collins' death, and the claim that he had travelled to Cork, where he was shot, in order to meet Éamon de Valera, who, the film implied, bore some responsibility for his death, given that the assassin had been with de Valera that day. In fact, there is no evidence whatsoever for any of this. The film's treatment of de Valera was widely criticised as unfair.
• its other most dramatic fiction involved the blowing up of a carload of hardline northern unionist detectives sent to take over in Dublin Castle to "deal" with Collins and the IRA. No killings of police took place in Dublin Castle. Some commentators contended that this was a none-too-subtle effort to link the Anglo-Irish War with the later Troubles, as while car-bombs were common in the latter, they were unknown in the former.
• its fictionalised account of the end of the Easter Rising. In the movie the surrender appears to take place outside the GPO, when this was not the case.