Michael Collins And The Anglo Irish War

How the British Secret Service failed to neutralize Sinn Fein and the IRA

An evaluation of the contribution made by Michael Collins to the making of the Irish state. A series of specially commissioned essays, written by some of Ireland's leading historians (academic and popular), on the contribution made by Michael Collins to the making of the Irish state. This is a professional evaluation of Michael Collins which brings to light his multi-faceted and complex character. The contributors examine Collins as Minister for Finance, his role in intelligence, his policy towards the north, his career as Commander-in-Chief, the origins of the Civil War, his relationship w.

Michael Collins is often thought of as Ireland's lost leader: a man born into a revolutionary environment who became a skilled statesman and military leader. This book looks in at Collins' key role in the Anglo Irish War using primary sources which have not previously been available.

'It was the most providential escape yet. It will probably have the effect of making them think that I am even more mysterious than they believe me to be, and that is saying a good deal.' Michael Collins knew the power of his persona, and capitalised on what people wanted to believe. The image we have of him comes filtered through a sensational lens, exaggerated out of all proportion. We see what we have come to expect: 'the man who won the war', the centre of a web of intelligence that 'brought the British Empire to its knees'. He comes to us as a mixture of truth and lies, propaganda and misunderstanding. The willingness to see him as the sum of the Irish revolution, and in turn reduce him to a caricature of his many parts, clouds our view of both the man and the revolution. Drawing on archives in Ireland, Britain and the United States, the authors question our traditional assumptions about Collins. Was he the man of his age, or was he just luckier, more brazen, more written about and more photographed than the rest? Despite the pictures of him in uniform during the last weeks of his life, Collins saw very little of the actual fight. He was chiefly an organiser and a strategist. Should we remember him as a master of the mundane rather than the romantic figure of the blockbuster film? The eight thematic, highly illustrated chapters scrutinise different aspects of Collins' life: origins, work, war, politics, celebrity, beliefs, death and afterlives. Approaching him through the eyes of contemporaries and historians, friends and enemies, this provocative book reveals new insights, challenging what we think we know about him and, in turn, what we think we know about the Irish revolution.

"The Irish War of Independence, January 1919 to July 1921, constituted the final stages of the Irish revolution. It went hand in hand with the collapse of British administration in Ireland. The military conflict consisted of sporadic, localised but vicious guerrilla fighting that was paralleled by the efforts of the Dail Government to achieve an independent Irish Republic and the partitioning of the country by the Government of Ireland Act."--Book jacket.

Collins became the first commander-in-chief of the Irish Army while still in his twenties. This book--published to coincide with the release of the film The Big Fellow, based on Collins' life, starring Liam Neeson and Julia Roberts--contains 30 of Collins' articles and speeches in which he evaluates Ireland's heritage and charts its future.

Collins had a crucial role in working out the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921, but on the outbreak of the savage civil war of 1922-23 he conducted the campaign against the anti-Treaty rebels with flair and ruthless energy. When Griffith died suddenly on 12 August 1922, Collins became head of state as well as commander-in-chief of the army. Ten days later, while on a tour of inspection in his home county, General Collins was ambushed by the IRA and fatally shot. He was only 31 years old.

This is the biography of Michael Collins, 1890-1922, who fought in the Easter Rising in Dublin and quickly rose to prominence among Ireland's new revolutionary leaders. As director of Organisation and Intelligence during the War of Independence, he evoked the passionate loyalty of his friends and the hateful fear of his British opponents. He did, however, play a vital part in the Anglo-Irish negotiations of 1921 and resolutely defended the Treaty. An inspired Commander-in-Chief of the new Irish government's forces, he was shot dead at the age of 32 in an ambush at the height of the Civil War which followed the Treaty. His colourful personality as well as his controversial career left a permanent mark on the history of independent Ireland of which, in spite of his premature death, he is regarded as a founding father.

When President of the Irish Republic Michael Collins signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, he remarked to Lord Birkenhead, 'I may have signed my actual death warrant.' In August 1922 during the Irish Civil War, that prophecy came true – Collins was shot and killed by a fellow Irishman in a shocking political assassination. So ended the life of the greatest of all Irish nationalists, but his visions and legacy lived on. This authorative and comprehensive biography presents the life of a man who became a legend in his own lifetime, whose idealistic vigour and determination were matched only by his political realism and supreme organisational abilities. Coogan's biography provides a fascinating insight into a great political leader, whilst vividly portraying the political unrest in a divided Ireland, that can help to shape our understanding of Ireland's recent tumultuous socio-political history.