Michael Collins

1890-1922. Irish revolutionary leader and politician.

Born as the youngest of eight children near Clonakilty in Ireland in October 1890. Collins was politically influence from an early age by local role models and teachers. He left school at the age of 15 and went to London to work and study.

During his college days he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), a secret society fighting for Irish independence from Britain. The first time he really was able to make a name for himself was during the Easter Rising in 1916 when he participated in fights against the British in Dublin. Like many other participants in the rising he was arrested, almost got executed and was imprisoned. Later he became a member of Sinn Féin, a nationalist party that became notorious after the rising. Collins soon became one of the leading figures of the party and was elected into the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Sinn Féin's elected MPs decided against going to Westminster and created the First Dáil, their own Irish parliament set in Dublin. In 1919 Collins became president of the IRB and was appointed minister for finance and the same year the Irish war of Independence started.

In 1920 the British set up a bounty on Collins' head but he wasn't captured or killed. In 1921 a truce was signed by the two opposing sides which was fortunate for the Irish because the IRA was running out of money and weapons. In December the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed, creating the Irish Free State, an independent Irish country without the part that is Northern Ireland today. This did not fare too well with members of the IRA and in 1922 the Irish Civil War broke out. The Pro-Anglo-Irish-Treaty nationalists with Michael Collins on their side were pitted against the nationalists who only wanted an Irish Republic made up of the whole island, including Northern Ireland. During the Irish Civil War Collins was killed in a gun-fight near Béal na mBlath on August 22 1922. His grave is located in Dublin.

Sources Coogan, Tim Pat. Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Mackay, James. Michael Collins: A Life. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1997.

--Retep 21:40, 7 December 2011 (UTC)