Michael Collins (Irish leader)

Michael Collins (Irish name Micheál Ó Coileáin; October 16, 1890 – August 22, 1922), an Irish revolutionary leader, served as Minister for Finance in the Irish Republic, as Director of Intelligence for the IRA, as a member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations, as Chairman of the Provisional Government and as Commander-in-Chief of the National Army. He was assassinated in August 1922, during the Irish Civil War. Members and supporters of the political party Fine Gael hold in particular respect his memory.

Early life

Michael Collins was born in Sam's Cross, near Clonakilty, in County Cork, Ireland in 1890. Although most biographies list his date of birth as October 16, 1890, his tombstone lists his date of birth as October 12, 1890. His family, muintir Uí Choileáin, had once been the lords of Uí Chonaill, near Limerick, but like many Irish gentry, had become dispossessed and reduced to the level of ordinary farmers. Yet their farm of 145 acres (0.9 km²) made them wealthier and more comfortable than most Irish farmers of late nineteenth century Ireland. It was into that relatively well-to-do farming existence that Michael Collins, the third son and youngest of eight children was born. Michael's father, also called Michael Collins, had become a member of the republican Fenian movement when younger, but had left the movement and settled down to farming.

Related Topics:
Clonakilty - County Cork - October 16 - 1890 - October 12 - Limerick - Gentry - Acre - Nineteenth century - Republican - Fenian

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Collins was recorded as being a bright and precocious child, with a fiery temper and a passionate nationalism, spurred on by a local blacksmith, James Santry, and later by a local school headmaster, Denis Lyons, a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (an organization Collins would eventually become the leader of). Collins was tall, strapping and loved sports, which did not detract from his cerebral development or uncanny instincts. On February 1906 Collins took the British Civil Service examination in which he praised the "greatest empire" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3915341.stm (a common view in Ireland at the time). After leaving school, the fifteen-year-old Michael, like many Irish, moved abroad: he worked in the British Post Office in London from July 1906. He joined the IRB through Sam Maguire, a Protestant republican from Cork, in November 1913. He came to play a central role in the IRB, ending up as its president within little more than a decade.

Related Topics:
Nationalism - Irish Republican Brotherhood - 1906 - Empire - Post Office - London - Sam Maguire - Protestant - 1913

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