Michael Collins

Intelligence and military leader of the War of Independence who signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and was killed in an ambush during the civil war.

Life

Easter Rising

Collins came from a farming family in County Cork. As a young man he worked as a postal clerk in London, took part in the Easter Rising of 1916, and was imprisoned and later released.

Intelligence war

During the War of Independence of 1919–1921, he served as minister for finance and as intelligence chief of the Irish Republican Army, building a tight intelligence network and organizing "the Squad" to assassinate British intelligence agents, paralyzing Britain's intelligence system in Ireland.

The Treaty and civil war

In 1921, as a negotiator, he signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, arguing that it gave Ireland "the freedom to achieve freedom," and foreseeing that "I may have signed my actual death warrant." In 1922 he became Chairman of the Provisional Government and commander-in-chief of the National Army; after civil war broke out, he was killed in an ambush by anti-Treaty forces in his home County Cork in August, at just thirty-one.

Legacy

Collins was a key figure in Irish independence, and his early death still moves the Irish to lament today.

Did you know? The place where he was ambushed is called Béal na Bláth, which means "mouth of the flowers" in Irish.

Key dates

• 1916Takes part in the Easter Rising
• 1919Director of intelligence in the War of Independence
• 1921Signs the Anglo-Irish Treaty
• 1922Chairman of the Provisional Government
• 1922Killed in an ambush