Carl Ackerman
Journalist or Spy?
In August 1920 Michael Collins granted a rare interview to the well-known American journalist, Carl W. Ackerman. It was later claimed he was a spy. Was Ackerman a spy? And if so, was Collins aware that he that he was a spy? Who was fooling who?…
Dennis Collins
Clonakilty’s Other Infamous Collins
On 22 August 1922 Michael Collins visited Clonakilty for the last time. He spoke with old neighbours, friends and relations before continuing on his tour further west. That evening, on his return to Cork city as he journeyed towards an inconsequential crossroads known as Béal na Bláth, he was shot dead in an ambush. The date was forever more associated with Clonakilty’s most famous son, Michael Collins. But precisely ninety years before Michael Collins met his end, another of Clonakilty’s sons had found fame and infamy when he was tried for High Treason in Abingdon, Berkshire…
Helena Collins
Sr. Celestine
Born in 1883, Helena Collins was seven years older than Michael. In 1970 she committed her memories of her youth to paper in a letter to her grandnephew John Pierse. Her letter became an invaluable primary source for anybody studying Michael Collins’ youth and is retained in both the collections of the Michael Collins House Museum…
Kate Collins
Michael Collins’ Sister
Michael Collins’ sister Kate, died on this day in 1964. Born on 28 August 1887, she was closer in age to Michael than any of his other siblings. Nonetheless the two appear to have lost contact with each other after she left home for teacher training college. She subsequently took a job in Bohola Co. Mayo, where she lived and worked for most of her life…
Hannie Collins
Sister, ‘mother’ & Friend
Hannie Collins was born on 26 November 1879 some eleven years before her illustrious brother, Michael. She shared in the same happy home later described by her sisters Mary and Ellen to various Collins biographers. She participated in Collins’ care and was central to a well known story where she and her sister briefly neglected the child only to have him fall through the trap door of a loft…
Michael Collins: His Childhood, Family & Early Influences
Michael Collins has been the subject of more biography than any other figure from the Irish revolutionary period. Yet his multiple biographies tend to deal extensively with the last third of his life while confining his formative years to the periphery…
What if Collins had lived?
An article exploring the hypothetical ‘What if?
The titular question is probably the one encountered most in question and answer sessions at Michael Collins House. It has no definitive answer and any attempt to discuss its vagaries must be less of an exercise in history, and more of a flirtation with clairvoyance …
Collins, Women and Gender Dynamics
The women who helped shape and influence Michael Collins
The current and welcome upsurge in the writing of women’s history has started to make new demands of more traditional parts of the discipline. The central character of Michael Collins House Museum is not a woman. But he, like everybody else, was shaped and heavily ….
Ned Broy
The story of one of Collins inside men in the DMP G Division
Eamon “Ned” Broy was born into a farming family on the edge of the Bog of Allen in Ballinure near Rathangan Co. Kildare. In later life he recorded his youth as having been influenced by the pervasive power of local landlords …
Michael Collins in the British Media
As the Irish War of Independence began to escalate the British media clamoured to get a new angle or scoop on the Irish story. A relatively unknown West Cork man, a leader of the ‘Sinn Fein army’ slowly began to become a focus of much of their attention…
Collins, Commemoration, Conciliation & Conflict
The Role of the Beal na Blath commemoration in the thawing of Civil war Politics
As Ireland seems to move towards a historic coalition government between the political descendants of our civil war belligerents, it is worth noting a forgotten event that attempted to reconcile those two factions….
Collins in the british media part ii
Up until the truce of July 1921 Collins was a bit of an unknown entity to the media. He had been cast as a mystery figure, an indefinable force, an unknown quantity. ….
Beloved Enemy
Hollywoods first homage to Michael collins
Long before Neil Jordan brought Liam Neeson’s portrayal of Michael Collins to cinemas, Brian Aherne lit up the screen as the Irish freedom fighter, Dennis Riordan. The Riordan character was undoubtedly based on Michael Collins…
Michael Collins: The Films Critics
In 1996 the release of the film ‘Michael Collins’ directed by Neil Jordan brought the story of Michael Collins to a worldwide audience and cemented his status, for many, as one of Irelands greatest hero’s…
When Michael Collins Met Fianna fáil
Memory, Legacy, and Oratory in the Houses of the Oireachtas 1927 – 1932
When Michael Collins’ life was cut short at just the age of 31 Ireland lost one of its most recognisable and senior political figures….
Collins’s Closest Friends- Joe O’Reilly
If no man is an island, neither was Michael Collins. Like all of us, Collins had many friends and/or colleagues…
THe Burning of Cork & The Propaganda War
The Burning of Corks role in the changing the press viewpoint
Almost two weeks after the Kimichael ambush, and three weeks after Bloody Sunday, an IRA ambush at Dillon’s Cross on the northside of Cork city was the spark for one of the War of Independence’s most notorious reprisals – the Burning of Cork.
Twelve Dark Days
Tom Barry’s Twelve Dark Days in the Context of the wider Guerrilla Campaign.
The Upton ambush was a serious reversal for the West Cork IRA and came at a time when the county’s IRA units were coming under increasing pressure from an acceleration of British military activity in all of its regions…
Michael Collins & the Easter Rising
Michael Collins Role in the 1916 Easter Rising
The months and weeks before the Easter Rising of 1916 saw a few Irish Republicans returning from various parts of Great Britain and among them was a 25 year old Michael Collins.