Image: Alamy Image: Alamy THE DEATH OF Michael Collins, 100 years ago today, gave rise to arguably the greatest “what if” in Irish history.
Dorney, who has written several books on the Irish independence movement, says that Collins’s premature death means much of his life “had been actually securing independence. rather than [building] the exact kind of Ireland that he wanted.” In terms of political ideology, he wasn’t an out-and-out socialist like James Connolly, Doherty says, but he did “owe some sort of debt” to him.
Doherty notes: “He emphasised the need to map the journey, as well as recognise where the destination is, that there’s no point in saying ‘this is what we want for our country, this is what we desire for our country’ without saying ‘how are we going to get there?’”As well as being the new Minister for Finance, Collins was elected president of the IRB and Director of Intelligence in the IRA.
So it took Collins signing the Anglo-Irish Treaty to truly pitch the two against each other, with de Valera protesting that its terms were an unacceptable compromise. But Doherty casts doubt on the suggestion that “de Valera was setting Collins up in the Treaty negotiations knowing that they would fail”, arguing that this is based on the assumption that compromise was broadly unpopular.
Doherty says: “Every country needs an idea that things might have been better had somebody lived – you see [that] in America, for example, with JFK.”
Michael Collins & Arthur Griffith espoused politics that would've been called Neoliberal today. Hence the fanfare!
Michael Collins. FG remember him not for being a militant republican, but for using British money & arms in a brutal state repression of anti-treaty
His legacy has been appropriated by Fine Gael who were not formed until a decade after Collins death. Collins was not a fascist but Fine Gael were led by a Fascist in a Blueshirt.
If Michael Collins was alive today he would have the government on the run.
How the fuck did we get from him to fffg? I still cant make sense of how the irish elites turned into the brits.
Everything he believed and fought for has been sold out to globalism by a bunch of elite Davos quislings.
Trying to get Independence and unfortunately still failing.