Kate Collins

Kate Collins

Born on 28 August 1887, Catherine (more often Katie, or Kittie) Collins was only three years older than her illustrious brother. Although she was closer in age than any of his other siblings, Michael appears to have lost touch with Katie for a considerable period of his youth.  She left home to train as a teacher and by 1911, she resided in Bohola Co. Mayo. There, she boarded with the Walsh family of Barleyhill while teaching in the local school.[1]

On 3 January 1914, Katie married Joseph Sheridan at the parish Church in Bohola. Sheridan was a champion athlete (a weight thrower) from a very well-known and respected local family.[2] His brother Martin was a famous Olympian who won five gold medals representing the USA. Another brother was a pillar of New York’s Irish-American community and went on to become registrar of the State’s Supreme Court.[3] But it was his uncle, P.J. Sheridan who made the family synonymous with republicanism. Sheridan was a prominent IRB member who’d taken part in the famous raid on Chester Castle in 1867. He was also a senior member of the Land league and was imprisoned for sedition and opposing the collection of rent in 1881. He served his time in Kilmainham, alongside such luminaries as Charles Stewart Parnell and William O’Brien. It has been argued that he may well have sworn Parnell into the IRB. In any event, Sheridan left the country in 1882 after the British government became convinced of his involvement in the Phoenix Park murders. A subsequent application for his extradition was refused by the US government.[4]

Katie appears to have re-entered her brother’s life in 1918. She visited him while he was incarcerated in Sligo Gaol having made an anti-conscription speech in Longford. Collins was surprised that his sister found him changed, which is perhaps indicative of the length of time that had passed since they had seen each other:

Katie called to see me this morning. Did not recognise me. It strikes me that I cannot have changed as much as all that. Poor thing somewhat upset. Extremely nice and kind. In the course of our interview I discover that the late PJ Sheridan was an uncle of her husband. Her husband’s father is still alive and as he has all the details regarding the late Fenian Centre I hope to spend some interesting days with him yet. Hope I’ll be out soon enough. It would be a pity if things of this nature were lost. She promises to send her husband along some day during the coming week.[5]

Joe Sheridan does not appear to have called on his brother-in-law. He and Katie received news of the death of Martin Sheridan in New York, at about the same time.[6]

After Collins’ release he became increasingly involved in Republican affairs. Katie continued her renewed acquaintance, though perhaps Collins was not as enthusiastic a communicant as his sister. He was increasingly ‘wanted’ by Crown authorities and had to live his life accordingly. In December 1918 he complained of Kate to their sister Hannie, then resident in London:

My occasional landlady has received a letter from Katie also. Katie seems to have been talking a good deal about my movements here in town, the damned talk got to the local police. That is the way people get unmasked in Ireland.[7]

But these were just annoyances which siblings sometimes express to each other. Collins retained affection for his sister. In the midst of the War of Independence he once came to meet her at the Broadstone Station in Dublin. Kate was being followed by British agents who hoped that she’d lead them to Collins. Unknown to them she had swapped her coat with another traveller and so wasn’t immediately recognisable. Nonetheless she literally became sick with worry when she saw a military party searching for her at the Broadstone with Collins standing casually in their midst. When he saw that his sister was ill, he directed an officer’s attention to the situation and the chivalrous gentleman escorted her to a taxi. She and Collins then made their escape from the Broadstone. It was an incident which clearly remained in Kate’s memory as she related it to a friend some time later. [8]

In 1921 Katie appears to have endured some difficulty in caring for her aged father-in-law while her husband’s health also declined. Writing to his sister Helena, then in England, Michael sympathised:

Have heard from home during the week also from Katie and Mary. All are well but poor Katie is having a very hard time with her “men.” The old man is, I fear, getting worse and worse and her husband though improving now, has had a very bad time for months past.[9]

Although it was later reported that Kate ‘was a member of Cumann na mBan and did much organising work in Co. Mayo, this does not appear to be true.[10] Kate’s name does not appear among the lists  of members of the Bohola branch compiled by former Cumann na mBan officers for pension purposes. Neither does it appear among any of the names recorded for the Kiltimagh District Council.[11] It is highly unlikely that a woman of her profile was omitted from those lists. Very few Cumann na mBan members qualified for service pensions, but part of an officer’s qualification was dependent upon the number of subordinates that she had. Thus, the lists tend to be quite comprehensive regardless of civil war affiliation. Although Kate may well have been an active republican, she was not an active Cumann na mBan member.

Like many of her family, her known association with her famous brother may have singled her out for special treatment by his enemies. In the aftermath of the Civil War, in November 1924, a Free State officer was shot and wounded outside of her house. He had been visiting with Kate and her husband while local republicans celebrated their victory in the North Mayo by-election. The officer was in plain clothes and carried a revolver. He was under orders but later refused to state what those orders were and why he was visiting the Sheridan household.[12] Two of his alleged assailants were charged in early 1925, and the Cork Examiner left the following account of the court proceedings:

A sequel to the shooting of Lieutenant Thomas Byrne of the Free State Army, when leaving the house of Mrs Sheridan, at Bohola Co. Mayo, was provided at Kiltimagh District Court, when twelve young men from the neighbourhood were charged with shooting at the officer with intent to murder him. Of the twelve, Thomas Staunton and Patrick Carroll were committed for trial on bail; informations against the others were refused.

Mr Byrne said when leaving Sheridan’s house at 9pm on November 20th he was called upon to halt and put up his hands. Two shots were fired at him and he was hit in the arm leg and chest. He drew his revolver and fired at a man whom he saw inside the fence, and the man called out that he was shot. He was Patrick Dunleavy who is now in Sligo hospital, suffering from a wound in the stomach.

The witness crossed the fence and was in the act of picking up Dunleavy’s gun when two more shots were fired at him and he was again wounded. He shouted out that he was shot and Mr and Mrs Sheridan went to him.

He identified the men by the light of torches which were carried by a band that had passed the house previously and returned after the shooting.[13]

It seems that Kate’s husband left the safety of his home and went to Byrne’s side, knowing that the person who had just shot him was still out there. He later claimed that he too was ordered to put his hands up and halt when approaching Byrne. Her refused to do so and even asked his assailant to assist him in carrying the wounded man back to the house. Assistance was refused and so Kate, who had followed her husband from the house, helped to carry the stricken Byrne inside. Although hit by 150 shotgun pellets Byrne’s wounds were not life threatening. Nonetheless, the Sheridan’s assistance to him is surely a testament to their compassion and bravery.

Further evidence of their courage came when they appeared in court and testified against local men who they alleged had been involved in the shooting.[14] In all, eleven men were arrested, but only three were brought to trial, the court being unsatisfied that the others had a case to answer.[15] The Sheridans testified against all three.[16] Bohola was a small rural community and Kate and her husband were testifying against their neighbours. Whether their actions were driven by political ideology, moral character, or malicious intent, they were also fuelled by bravery.

In the end, only Patrick Dunleavy was found guilty. Dunleavy was a known republican with a long history of military service. He had served with the IRA, Sinn Féin and Republican police. He participated in the destruction of two local RIC barracks – one in Bohola – and in commandeering arms from local RIC personnel. His activity intensified during the Civil War and he was involved in the capture of Swinford barracks and engagements with the Free State army at Killasser and Ballinamore. He was captured at Ballinamore in August 1922 and imprisoned in Athlone, Galway, Hare Park and Mountjoy. He participated in a 33 day hunger strike during his period of detention and was eventually released on 14 November 1924, just one week before he turned up at Kate Sheridan’s residence.[17] In court, he claimed that he had been shot by somebody he didn’t see and had had nothing to do with the attack on Byrne. His claims were not believed and he was sentenced to three years Penal Servitude.[18] By then he had been in custody for more than a year with his case having been put back several times.

Having suffered the loss of her brother, the Byrne shooting placed Kate right at heart of a violent politically motivated attack. The intimacy of the belligerents cannot have escaped her notice when Byrne testified that Dunleavy was a cousin of his.[19] When the dust of the Civil War had finally settled, Dunleavy made his home in Dublin where he worked as a Civil Service messenger in the Department of Agriculture.[20] This put him in close proximity to Collins’ (and Kate’s) brother Johnny, who worked in the Land Commission.

Kate continued her life in Bohola where she taught at the school until her retirement in 1956. Her husband died the following year. In the final years of her life she divided her time between her Bohola home, the home of her sister Hannie in Monkstown Co. Cork, and the home of Mr and Mrs Charles Kelly in Terenure Co. Dublin. She frequently attended commemorative ceremonies and masses in honour of her brother and was made Honorary President of a Dublin based Fine Gael branch.[21] She was buried in Bohola cemetery, in close proximity to Patrick Dunleavy who had died just three years previously.[22]

  1. Southern Star, 24 August 2002 (Article by Thomas Collins, Castlebar). NAI, Census of 1911, Walsh, House 11, Barleyhill, Bohola, Co. Mayo.
  2. Irish Independent, 3 January 1914.
  3. Mayo News, 16 March 1957.
  4. Owen McGee, Sheridan, Patrick Joseph, Dictionary of Irish Biography, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 2009. Consulted online at dib.ie (26 February 2022).
  5. NLI, Sinéad Ní Dheirg Papers (Account in Michael Collins’ Hand of his capture and detention in Sligo Gaol), MS 49667/1.
  6. NLI, Sinéad Ní Dheirg Papers (Account in Michael Collins’ Hand of his capture and detention in Sligo Gaol), MS 49667/1.
  7. Adams Independence Catalogue, 19 April 2011, Letters from Michael Collins to his sister Hannie.
  8. Irish Independent, 26 March 1964.
  9. NLI, Michael Collins Letters, MS 35960.
  10. Connaught Telegraph, 4 April 1964.
  11. IMA, MSPC/CMB40
  12. Western People, 16 May 1925. It is possible that Kate operated, or was suspected of operating, a ‘call house.’ Call houses were used by Free State sympathisers and facilitated the gathering of intelligence on Republican movements via a network of callers to the house (Cal, McCarthy, Cumann na mBan and the Irish Revolution, Collins Press, Cork, 2014, p 199).
  13. Cork Examiner, 14 January 1925.
  14. Connaught Telegraph, 27 June 1925.
  15. Freeman’s Journal, 25 November 1924. Cork Examiner, 14 January 1925. NAI, Sligo Prison General Register, 1/34/16.
  16. Evening Herald, 19 June 1925. Western People, 16 May 1925.
  17. IMA, MSP/34/1542.
  18. Belfast Newsletter, 15 February 1926. Connaught Telegraph, 13 February 1926.
  19. Connaught Telegraph, 13 February 1926.
  20. IMA, MSP/34/1542.
  21. Evening Herald, 8 April 1964 (Navan Road Branch Vote of Sympathy).
  22. Irish Press, 22 May 1961. Irish Independent 24 March
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