| Description |
Michael Collins was an Irish nationalist and urban guerrilla leader. He fought in the Easter Rising of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1916, a failed uprising against British rule in Ireland that was harshly repressed and highly unpopular. He was “commander-in-chief” of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) throughout the Irish War of Independence. During that fight, he pioneered urban terror tactics, provoking a British counter-terror which rallied opinion behind the nationalist cause of the IRA. Collins famously penetrated British Intelligence HQ in Dublin Castle, and sent his “twelve apostles” to execute British agents and Irish informers. Along with Arthur Griffith, in 1921 Collins undertook the thankless task of negotiating the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the first ever modern treaty between Britain and Ireland. It partitioned Ireland between a rump Ulster and the semi-sovereign “Irish Free State.” Collins understood that the IRA was on its last fighting legs in 1921 and that control of 26 southern counties was all that nationalists could reasonably expect to obtain at the time. He defended the treaty against IRA irreconcilables during a referendum campaign. But he failed to convince a minority of his old comrades-in-arms in the IRA, led by a later president of the Irish Republic (Eire), Eamonn de Valera. Collins then led the Free State Army in the Irish Civil War against the de Valera faction of the IRA. Collins was killed by the IRA in a rural ambush in August, 1922. His funeral occasioned a spectacular demonstration of devotion and respect, including on the part of some former enemies. His pioneering urban warfare tactics and skillful use of propaganda were emulated by divers nationalist guerrilla movements in the decades that followed.
Professor Cathal J. Nolan, of the Department of History and the International History Institute, will introduce and show the film “Michael Collins.” After the film, he will take questions. This presentation is made by the IHI together with the Undergraduate History Association. |
