Michael Collins

Michael Collins was the dominant military and political figure of the Irish revolutionary period. Born in County Cork, he was radicalized by the Easter Rising of 1916, in which he fought in the GPO. On his release from internment he rapidly rose through the ranks of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Sinn Féin, becoming Director of Intelligence for the IRA during the War of Independence. His intelligence network was extraordinarily effective, systematically dismantling British intelligence in Ireland through targeted assassinations and informer networks. He organised the Squad, a unit of gunmen tasked with eliminating British agents, and on Bloody Sunday in November 1920 orchestrated the killing of fourteen British intelligence officers in a single morning. His guerrilla strategy forced the British to negotiate. Collins co-led the Irish delegation that signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, famously saying he had signed his own death warrant. The treaty created the Irish Free State but partitioned Ireland and retained an oath to the Crown, splitting the republican movement. When civil war broke out between pro- and anti-Treaty forces in 1922, Collins became Chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-Chief of the National Army. He was killed in an ambush at Béal na Bláth in his native Cork in August 1922, aged thirty-one.

• Lived: 1890 CE – 1922 CE
• Nationality: irish
• Roles: military_leader, revolutionary, politician

Related

• Easter Rising
• Irish War of Independence
• Partition of Ireland and Anglo-Irish Treaty
• Irish Civil War and Establishment of the Free State