Michael Collins
A member of Sinn Fein since 1908, Collins was a soldier, politician, and a skilled leader. Collins was among the Irish delegates sent to negotiate the terms of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. He was in favor of partitioning Ireland and creating the Irish Free State, becoming the leader of its provisional government.
Michael Collins was born on 16 October 1890 near the small rural town of Clonakilty in County Cork. Collins left school at the age of 15 and moved to London in 1906 to work as a boy clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank. Collins spent nine years in London and during that time he became involved in radical Irish nationalist politics.
In 1908, Collins was a member of Sinn Fein, joining the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) a year later. In January 1916, Collins returned to Dublin, taking part in the failed Easter Rising, where was later imprisoned and released in December of the same year.
In 1918, when the British government called for mandatory Irish conscription for the war effort, Collins went on the run to avoid serving. In that time Collins assembled a network of spies within government institutions; this experience would serve him well later during the War of Independence, where Collins’ skill for reconnaissance severely hurt the British. In the General Election in December of that same year, Collins won his seat for South Cork, in a landslide victory for Sinn Fein. After the formation of the Irish sovereign parliament, the Dail Eireann, Eamon de Valera was elected president of the Dail, with Collins appointed minister of home affairs—and later minister of finance.
Collins is renowned for his leadership of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the War of Independence. He pioneered the guerrilla tactics used against the British forces; Collins was known for directing a group of gunmen in a mission on 21 November 1920 in which fourteen British officers were killed. That afternoon, in a disastrous reprisal, British forces opened fire at Croke Park, in the middle of a Gaelic football match, killing fourteen and wounding over 60 people. The reprisal became remembered as “Bloody Sunday.”
In July 1921, a truce was declared, with Collins leading the Irish delegation at the London peace conference. The delegates came to an agreement with the British government, and the Anglo-Irish Treaty was announced in December 1921. The Treaty was passed and accepted by the Dail in a small majority, with de Valera opposing its passage.
Collins became the chairman and finance minister of the provisional government of the newly-formed Irish Free State. But, the Treaty remained controversial and its passage split the republicans into two factions: the Pro-Treaty and Anti-Treaty republicans. Tensions were high. In April 1922, a group of Anti-Treaty Republicans took control of the Four Courts Building in Dublin. In June, Collins ordered the bombardment of the building and a Civil War erupted. Collins served as the commander-in-chief of the pro-treaty, Free-State Army, leading a successful campaign. On 22 August 1922, only two months into the war, Collins was assassinated by Anti-Treaty forces in an ambush in County Cork. Collins was one of many republican leaders that were brutally killed during the tragic Civil War.[1]
[1] “Michael Collins (1890-1922),” BBC History, accessed March 10, 2026, https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/collins_michael.shtml.
