MICHAEL COLLINS (Irish) (1890 - 1922)
Irish nationalist.
To the British he was the most dreaded man in the Empire. But he was sheltered and fed by the common folks of Ireland who did not think twice about running messages or arms for him. Without the ‘civil support’ he could have achieved nothing. Mao’s ‘fish in the sea’ and Collin’s ’safe houses’ though far removed in time mean one and the same thing – an essential component in guerrilla warfare. ‘Like Che Guevara, Collins preferred people when they were dressed up in uniforms. This provided the context for the only sort of politics he found tolerable.
Collins was a born leader, methodical and with demonaical energy to get things done. He made up his mind instantly and an order once given, was rarely changed.His seemingly extraordinary luck to escape the British dragnet was his presence of mind. His remarkable cool even while closed in and his ability to move through as if he weren’t a fugitive worked for him time and again. It was largely his achievement to have diminished the influence of the moderates in the Sinn Fein movement by rigging the General election of 14, Dec 1919 – the German plot swoops and conscription scare created a favorable situation. (This was to plague him in the long term, because the voice of moderates was muted in the National Assembly when he desperately needed it in support for the Anglo-Irish treaty), of extremists to the convention of 1919. He had originally proposed to steal the Stone of Destiny from Westminister Abbey, but – this seeing inadequate – he turned his considerable talents to the systematic assassination of British Intelligence officials in Dublin. During the Anglo-Irish troubles of 1920-1921, Collins emerged as a formidable military organiser. In the autumn of 1921 he was sent off by the Dàil cabinet as one of the Irish delegates to the Treaty negotiations in London; as a result he was landed with the defence of the negotiated Free State and after the death of Arthur Griffiths in August 1922 he became head of the government. In this role he lasted less than two weeks before his own death in a Republican ambush in his native country Cork.
compiler:benny
