Michael Collins - Biography

When Michael Collins came to Dublin in early 1916 the scene was being set for an armed insurrection. The IRB's military expert, Joseph Plunkett, appointed him as a staff officer and he kept in regular contact with two older IRB members, Tom Clarke and Sean Mac Diarmada. The Easter Rising, when it did come, was an organisational disaster. Eoin MacNeill, the founder of the Irish Volunteers, issued orders to abandon all plans for a Rising. The IRB countermanded this order. Despite the confusion, the Volunteers, together with Irish Citizen Army, succeeded in taking over some of the main buildings in the city. Michael Collins fought in the GPO alongside the leaders of the Rising, Padraig Pearse and James Connolly. After five days of fighting the Volunteers were forced to surrender. The Rising was denounced in the newspapers of the time and members of the public were angry about the destruction of the city. But the public mood changed quickly when the leaders of the rebellion, including Clarke and Mac Diarmada, were executed over a ten-day period. Connolly, who was the last to face the firing squad, had to be strapped to a chair, as he could not stand upright because of his injuries. The Rising and its aftermath were to make a deep and lasting impression on Michael Collins. Later he wrote: "They have died nobly at the hands of the firing squads. So much I grant. But I do not think the Rising week was an appropriate time for the issue of memoranda couched in poetic phrases nor of actions worked out in a similar fashion. Looking at it from the inside ....it had the air of a Greek tragedy about it .... Of Connolly and Pearse I admire the former the foremost. Connolly was a realist, Pearse the direct opposite...On the whole I think the Rising was bungled terribly, costing many a good life. It seemed at first to be well organised, but afterwards became subjected to panic decisions and a great lack of very essential organisation and co-operation".
Collins and his fellow Volunteers were rounded up and sent on a cattle boat to English prisons. At first he was held in Stafford jail and then, at the end of June, the prisoners were transferred to Frongach camp in Wales. The British government, anxious to defuse the growing public sympathy for the rebels in Ireland, released the internees on the 22 December, 1916. On returning home Collins quickly found employment as secretary of the Irish National Aid and Volunteer Dependants Fund. He used his position to revitalise the Volunteer movement and attract new recruits to the IRB. But it was Sinn Fein, and not the IRB, which had gained most from the fallout of the Rising, despite the fact that Griffith had been opposed to it. Initially suspicious of Sinn Fein, Collins realised that it was a radical nationalist party that could defeat the IPP. He campaigned vigorously in a series of by-elections, first in Roscommon and then in Longford. In the Longford by-election Collins nominated Joe McGuinness, who was still serving a prison sentence for his part in the Rising. Using the slogan "Put him in, to get him out", McGuinness was elected. The effect of the by-election victories was almost immediate. The British released the remaining 120 prisoners.
Among the prisoners released were two senior surviving officers, Thomas Ashe and Eamon de Valera. De Valera had not been executed in 1916 because he was born in the United States. Ashe was elected president of the IRB but was soon arrested for making seditious speeches. Because he was refused political status, Thomas Ashe went on hunger strike and died five days later when the British tried to force feed him. The funeral arrangements were made by Michael Collins. At the graveside a section of uniformed volunteers stepped forward and fired a volley. Then Collins gave a brief oration: "Nothing additional remains to be said. That volley which we have just heard is the only speech which it is proper to make at the grave of a dead Fenian." Collins then wept in what was a very rare public display of grief.
Collins now organised the election of de Valera as president of Sinn Fein in a deal with Arthur Griffith. Sinn Fein's main aim was now the "international recognition of Ireland as an independent Irish Republic." The militants dominated Sinn Fein and Collins began organising an effective intelligence gathering operation. Among those he recruited, to spy for him were Joe Kavanagh and Sergeant Ned Broy detectives in G division. The G-men, as they were known, were at the heart of British intelligence in Ireland. Having people on the inside was to prove an invaluable source of information for Collins.
Early in 1918 Collins was arrested for making a speech against conscription in Legga, County Longford. During his many visits to Longford Collins would stay at the Greville Arms in Granard, run by "four beautiful sisters and their brother." Michael had fallen in love with Kitty , the second eldest sister. His chief rival for her hand was his comrade in the IRB, Harry Boland. Collins was jailed in Sligo but applied for bail. Once out on bail he went on the run.
All over the country anti-conscription campaigns took place. The British decided to arrest the leading nationalists in an attempt to stop the anti-conscription protests. Collins was tipped off about the planned arrests by his informants and told de Valera and the Sinn Fein executive what was about to happen. They decided that they would win an even greater moral and political victory if they were arrested. Sean McGarry, the president of the IRB, was also arrested and Collins quickly succeeded him as the president of The Organisation, as it had become known.
The arrests only succeeded in fuelling nationalist resentment even further. Collins and Harry Boland were now in effective control of the republican organisations and they set about preparing Sinn Fein for the forthcoming General Election. This came when Lloyd George called a snap election following the end of the First World War. The elections were a triumph for Sinn Fein. They won 73 seats, compared with 6 for the IPP. Michael Collins was elected unopposed for the South Cork constituency.
On 21 January 1919, Sinn Fein's newly elected candidates assembled in Dublin's Mansion House to form the first national assembly in over a century. This day also marked the beginning of the War of Independence, when a group of Volunteers shot dead two policemen at Soloheadbeg in County Tipperary. The new parliament was to be known as Dail Eireann and it began by passing a declaration of independence. Only 27 of the 73 Sinn Fein TD's (members of parliament) could attend. Collins and his fellow TD Harry Boland were absent. They were in England organising de Valera's escape from Lincoln Jail. Within five weeks the remaining republican prisoners were released. When the Dail reassembled in April, Eamon de Valera was elected its president. Cathal Brugha was appointed as Minister of Defence and Michael Collins became Minister for Finance.
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