Michael Collins
Photo: Michael Collins
Aged 10 at the time of Census 1901
Address: 19, Woodfield (Coolcraheen, Cork)1
The 1901 Census return for the Collins family in Woodfield, Coolcraheen, Cork, included Michael, a 10 year old schoolboy. The head of household was listed as Mary Collins (aged 45) who was Michael’s mother. The Census return also includes Michael’s three sisters: Margaret (23) who was a National School teacher and Helena (17) and Katie (13) who were both scholars. Two brothers were also listed, John (22) and Patrick (15). The occupation recorded for John was “Farmers son” while Patrick was a scholar.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Cork/Coolcraheen/Woodfield/1162061/
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000600805/
Born in 1890 in Clonakilty, Co. Cork, Micheal Collins was the youngest of 8 children. Michael’s father was 60 years old at the time of his marriage to Mary in 1876 and by the time of the 1901 Census Mary Collins was a widow. When he was 16 years old, Collins went to London and worked for the British postal service before getting a job in an American Bank. He lived with his sister Helena (Hannie) and joined the GAA and Gaelic League. He went on to join Sinn Féin and the IRB in 1909. In 1914 he joined the Irish Volunteers in London but moved back to Dublin in early 1916 when Britain introduced conscription. He found employment with the chartered accountants, Graig, Gardener and Co. He became heavily involved in the work of the IRB and the Irish Volunteers and was chosen by Joseph Plunkett to be his aide-de-camp at the GPO.
Joseph Good recalled seeing Michael Collins at the GPO where Collins was in charge of the Instrument room. “It was hardly a dangerous post and Mick did not seem pleased. He gave the impression that he was in a post that was too minor for a man of his temperament2". The following day the GPO caught fire and Collins attempted to put out the blazing fire himself with a hosepipe but there was little water and Collins' trousers were burned.
Following the surrender, Collins was not considered dangerous enough to be court-martialled as he was unknown to the Dublin authorities and was sent with other internees to Frongoch prison in Wales. He set up a branch of the IRB in the prison. After his release in December 1916 he became a prominent member of Sinn Féin. Collins was elected to the Supreme Council of the IRB and worked with Thomas Ashe and Diarmuid Lynch to revise the IRB constitution: he was by now an important figure in every major Republican group. Along with Cathal Brugha and Éamon de Valera, Michael Collins emerged as one of the most influential republican leaders in Ireland.
In the 1918 General Election Collins was elected for Sinn Féin to the first Dáil for two constituencies - Cork South and Tyrone. He was initially appointed as Minister of Home Affairs and in April 1919 was made Minister for Finance. When de Valera was arrested in 1918, Collins and Harry Boland masterminded his escape from Lincoln prison in 1919 by smuggling prison keys to de Valera which were hidden in cakes3.
Joseph Good recalled “Michael Collins was heroic and pitiable; that he was foolishly trying to carry the resistance to conscription on his own shoulders, whilst others were allowing themselves to be arrested. He was trying to rescue Volunteers by force of arms, if necessary. G.H.Q. were intact and they were loyal comrades, but Michael Collins was the only one of the political leaders who, in my opinion, was a practical revolutionary. He was always available for instructions and the means to carry out those instructions were given in detail. Michael Collins had one great advantage over his contemporaries; he knew the English and their art of dissimulation, and he had the common touch2”.
During the War of Independence from 1919 to 1921 Michael Collins, known as “the Big Fellow”, became a revolutionary leader. He was the Adjutant General, Director of Intelligence and Director of Organisation and Arms Procurement for the IRA. He organised the supply of weapons and developed a network of spies around the country and within the Dublin administration. Collins became the chief organiser of the British resistance campaign in Ireland. He also had a ‘Squad’, otherwise known as the ‘Twelve Apostles’, who were a group of specially trained gunmen and who were employed on a permanent salaried basis.
At the time Michael Collins was the most wanted man in Ireland. Seamus Ua Caomhanaigh recalls his brother Peadar, a salesman of sporting gear which brought him into contact with a number of British military officers, having a coffee in Grafton Street. A British officer approached him and told him that if he could get information on Michael Collins, capturing Collins would be worth £15,000 which the officer would then split with him4. Collins was informed of the incident and a few days later shots were heard and a young man in a navy suit which Ua Caomhanaigh believed to be the British officer was shot dead at the corner of South William Street.
Collins was President of the Irish Republican Brotherhood from November 1920 until his death in 1922 and was a member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. A vicious civil war (1922-23) between the pro-Treaty Free State forces and the anti-Treaty group, led by de Valera, broke out after the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Collins was both Chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander in Chief of the pro-Treaty army. Collins was shot and killed in an ambush at Béal na Bláth in August 1922 during the Irish Civil War.
Sources:
Go to Seán T. O’Kelly
