Michael1890-1922Collins LEGENDDEATHOFA
changedman–andCharismaticruthlesstheClonakiltywhohistory
‘History buffs –including teenagers who have been known to petition their parents to holiday in Clonakilty – want to walk where Michael Collins once walked’
2 Southern Star michael collins anniversary supplement Changing History 2&3 AUGUST 2022 The Treaty Negotiations 6 The Michael Collins Trail 20-21 Anything is Possible 24 On the cover 4&5 The Early Years Little Known Facts 16&17 An Impressive Family 18 The Media Darling1922-23 Itemising Michael Editor: Siobhan editor@southernstar.ieCronin Contributors: Jackie Keogh Kieran FrancesPaulineDrJamieNiamhRobertAndrewO’MahonyO’ConnorHumeHayesMurphyAlanMcCarthyMurphyFitzgerald MEP Design: Celtic Media Group/Southern Star Creative 7 Collins in the Star Collins in Pictures 14&15 Challenging Relationships 8&9 Romantic Michael 10&11 The Final Hours 12&13
Coming from humble beginnings in West Cork, the talented military strategist went on to be part of a team that put the first cracks in the British empire, writes Jackie Keogh
Michael1890-1922Collins LEGENDDEATHOFA
The Michael Collins homestead at Woodfield, near Sam’s Cross, is simple yet dignified and is regarded as a fitting memorial park.
T HE words of Ralph Waldo Emerson were used by the Hollywood actor Liam Neeson to describe how Michael Collins was – to use the vernacular – ‘his own man’. It would take an actor of the stature of Liam Neeson to convey on screen a sense of who and what Michael Collins was in life and why his death made such a mark on our history. Emerson observed it is tragic how few people ever possess their souls before they die. ‘Nothing is more rare in any man,’ said Emerson, ‘than an act of his Liamown.’Neeson – who played Michael Collins in the eponymous film in 1996 told an assembly at Emmet Square in Clonakilty in 2002 – ‘Michael Collins is my hero. He inspires me still.’ It was strange – and very gratifying – to hear the Hollywood star say: ‘If my presence here in any way helps to keep alive his memory, then I am doubly honoured.’ A few years before the Neil Jordan movie another Liam –Liam Collins, a nephew of the great man – was responsible for reclaiming the overgrown Woodfield homestead and making it a natural, almost spiritual, memorial park. A year after the movie came out, a distant relative, Tim Crowley, set about doing tours of locations associated with Michael Collins, the revolutionary leader who led a guerrilla army against the UK, helped negotiate the creation of the Irish Free State, and led the pro-Treaty army in the Irish CivilOnWar.oneof the first coach trips, 40 people came to see the preserved footprint of the old farmhouse at Woodfield.Amongthem was Joan Collins Bunworth, a niece of Michael Collins who, at 70 years of age, was able to throw her mind back 60 years to the time a British army sergeant stood menacingly in the smallShedwelling.saidhemade his brutal presence felt by using the barrel of his rifle to tip a grandfather clock to the floor, where he then ensured its destruction by smashing it with the butt. Thirty of the 40 people on that bus tour subsequently wrote to Tim to say how fortunate they felt to be in the presence of living history. History buffs – including teenagers who have been known to petition their parents to holiday in Clonakilty – want
Actor and Collins fan Liam Neeson as the Clonakilty man, giving one of his impassioned speeches, in the movie Michael Collins.
In the thousands of tours he has done, Tim said there were three occasions when tourists approached him and told him they had scattered the ashes of a loved one at ‘TheyWoodfield.werenorelation, they had no blood ties, but they still felt a bond with Michael Collins,’ said Tim. ‘As a historian, I find his story amazing. He came from humble beginnings and went to school here locally. At the age of 15-and-a-half, he left West Cork and went off to London to work and spent almost 10 years working there, until 1916. ‘He came back here and fought in the rebellion in Dublin in 1916, but was barely noticed at that stage because he was just a captain in the volunteers. ‘Then,’ said Tim, ‘he rose to the top of the IRA and Sinn Féin in 1917 and 1918, basically spearheading the War of Independence against the British. ‘We know he used military means – violence against the British – and that he was a genius at military tactics, guerrilla warfare especially. ‘But he didn’t really like using violence and the first chance he got – when he thought that military means had taken the situation as far as it could go – he was willing to agree to a truce, to compromise and negotiate with the British, and was one of the leaders who signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. ‘I have signed a Treaty of peace between Ireland and Great Britain,’ Arthur Griffith, one of the co-signatories wrote. ‘I believe that Treaty will lay foundations of peace and friendship between the two nations. What I have signed I shall stand by in the belief that the end of the conflict of centuries is at hand.’ Michael Collins is, of course, famously on record as having said the signing of the Treaty was the signing of his death warrant.
InSearchofMichaelCollins,muchofthefascinationhastodowiththefactthatCollinsisviewedas‘thecompletepackage’
MAKING OF A LEGEND
But there is another parallel in the pain of proximity. ‘As the closest colony to the British mainland, Collins and his compatriots were able to put the first crack in the British empire,’ said Tim. ‘They were able to force the British to relinquish control. It was a huge achievement that led to so many countries all over the world being able to gain their independence from Britain.’
michael collins anniversary supplement Southern Star 3 to walk where Michael Collins once walked. Visitors come to do ‘the trail’ and to take it all in. Invariably they go from Tim and Dolores Crowley’s Michael Collins Centre museum off the Timoleague Road, to Woodfield near Sam’s Cross, three miles west of Clonakilty, and the Michael Collins House Museum at Emmet Square. Even those who leave out the talks, the walks, the presentations, and the poring over artefacts, can feel the connection when they look at the remarkable bronze bust of Michael Collins at Woodfield, or the statue that towers over Emmet Square. The bronze statue – fixed on a large stone plinth – appears to be in motion and is therefore a good representation of the complexities of the man, and the myth. According to Tim Crowley, who wrote In Search of Michael Collins, much of the fascination has to do with the fact that Collins is viewed as ‘the complete package’. ‘He was good looking, charismatic and ruthless when he needed to be – a bit of a genius in many ways, and a visionary,’ he said. Neil Jordan’s historical biopic of the Irish revolutionary – the man who led a guerrilla war against the UK, helped negotiate the creation of the Irish Free State, and led the National Army during the Irish Civil War – has sparked the interest of international visitors, too. They marvel at the juxtaposition of his humble origins at Woodfield – a place that had been used as a sty for pigs in the 1970s – to him sitting across the table from Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George at 10 Downing Street in London where he helped to negotiate a huge level of independence for his country. ‘Then,’ said Tim, ‘having achieved so much power, and being so successful, to end up being killed at Béal na Bláth, just 30km from his birthplace, is part of the tragic story.’
His comment foreshadowed how the Treaty would lead to civil war, a war in which he became the commander-in-chief of the pro-Treaty army. ‘About two months into the war,’ Tim Crowley said, ‘he came down to West Cork on a tour of inspection and was killed about a half-hour’s journey from where he was born.’
According to Tim Crowley, who wrote
Open all year round, Woodfield, the birthplace of Michael Collins has become a place of pilgrimage for people.
M ICHAEL Collins was born into a strong nationalist family. It was the genesis of all that would follow in his three short, turbulent decades in this world. His early influences growing up at Woodfield, three miles west of Clonakilty, were, of course, his father Michael John Collins and his mother Mary Ann O’Brien. Michael’s father – who was 60 when he married his 23-year-old bride – was already steeped in the history of the Battle of the Big Cross, having been born a mere 17 years after the Michaelbattle.Collins, the youngest son in a family of eight, was raised listening to stories of the atrocities committed by the British militia. The battle had huge significance because it took place two miles north of Clonakilty, was the only battle fought in Munster in 1798, and resulted in the death of 120 local rebels. ‘I was a reverential kid,’ Michael Collins once said in an interview. ‘Reverence was not only instilled into me by my father. It seemed a natural trait. ‘Great age held something for me that was awesome,’ he said. ‘I was much fonder of old people in the darkness, than I was of young people in the daytime. ‘It’s at night you are able to get the value of old people. And it was listening to the old people that I got my ideas of nationality.’Attheage of six, Michael’s father died and a new chapter in his life began. He saw his mother – an equally strong role model – show tremendous fortitude in raising the family of eight and running the family farm. But it is Mary Ann, as a child, that provides yet another glimpse of the defiant streak in the Collins homestead. It is said that Mary Ann received a slap from her teacher and had to stand out in class for a week after changing the wording of a rhyme – that was chanted in the presence of Lord Carbery – from ‘Please God help make me a good British child’ to ‘Please God help make me a good Irish child’.
Mary Collins (Michael’s sister), Johanna O’Brien (grandmother), Mary Ann Collins (his mother) and Michael, aged about 11, taken in 1901. (Image courtesy of Michael Collins House, Clonakilty)
Michael’s maternal grandmother, Johanna McCarthy, also told Michael stories about the Great Famine. She recalled seeing dead bodies on the roadside – more hellish recollections to mould the young Michael.
The moulding of young Michael
Having lost his father as a child, Michael was no doubt hugely influenced by his mother – who was a strong-willed and formidable role model
4 Southern Star michael collins anniversary supplement BY JACKIE KEOGH
The footings of the farmhouse – which was once burned during the War of Independence – is all that remains of the house built by Mary Ann, Michael Collins’ mother. The simplicity of the setting at Woodfield is something the family wants to protect because the site today is more or less the same as it was when the Collins family moved out in 1923. ‘Our family,’ said Helen, ‘want it protected as is. It is a beautiful, real space and nothing should be added to it or changed. Its authenticity is its power.’
The magic of Woodfield
As a boy, Michael Collins was inspired by his teacher Denis Lyons at Lisavaird National School and he spent a lot of time listening to the stories of James Santry, the local blacksmith whose grandfather had made the croppy pikes in 1798. At the age of 15, Michael emigrated to London, where he lived with his sister Hannah, worked in the post office and attended King’s College, where he passed the advanced civil service exams. His involvement in the GAA, and his induction into the secretive Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1909 – having been introduced by Sam Maguire of Dunmanway – further shaped his sympathy for the nationalist cause. Conscription – which was introduced in Britain in March 1916 – was abhorrent to Michael Collins. He had no wish to be forced to join an army that was occupying his homeland, so he returned to Dublin to fight in the 1916 rebellion. His subsequent detention at the ‘University of Revolution’ at Frongoch in Wales, after the 1916 rising, convinced him that an Irish rebel army could not win a conventional war against British forces.Itwas at Frongoch that he was given the nickname ‘The Big Fellow’. It was, at the time, a kind of jibe about his strong presence and somewhat pushy personality. But, as director of intelligence for the IRA, Michael Collins did indeed become a big fellow, a legend, and an elusive master of guerrilla warfare. With a price on his head, Michael lived a precarious life, yet his organisational skills and immense work ethic succeeded in creating and operating a vast and incredibly successful intelligence network. His formation of an elite assassination unit known as ‘The Squad’ also played a huge role in bringing about victory in Ireland’s War of Independence. It has been said that Michael Collins never did anything without first asking the question: ‘What am I hoping to achieve by doing this?’ In reasoning everything out, he became a master strategist who was keenly aware that his own ‘legend’ status could be used as a weapon, and he was prepared to use any weapon at his disposal to defeat the British.
THE EARLY YEARS
Woodfield was handed over to the Irish people in 1991 and is now protected by the Office of At the entrance to the site is the stone that was unveiled when Woodfield was officially opened in 1990, while inside the only real adornment is a remarkable bust of MichaelAlthoughCollins.ithas had a troubled history, the site is a remarkably peaceful place and enjoys a special atmosphere that changes with the seasons. ‘Even on a wet day,’ said author Tim Crowley, ‘there is something magical about the sound of the raindrops dripping from the eaves onto the cobblestones.’
Mary Ann O’Brien (Michael’s mother) with Mary Collins Powel, baby Nora Collins, and grandmother Mary McCarthy. (Photo: Michael Collins House Museum).
BY JACKIE KEOGH
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THREE miles west of Clonakilty, near Sam’s Cross, is Woodfield, the place where Michael Collins was born in October 1890. His grandniece Helen Collins spoke of how the spirit of Michael lives on ‘in love’ at Woodfield while at Beal na Bláth speaks very much to his death. With just a gate, an old stone wall, and grass and trees surrounding the preserved stone and slate outline of the family farmhouse it is easy to see how it can be accessible all year around.
RIGHT: Taoiseach Micheál Martin with Helen Collins and one of the Michael Collins diaries which were presented to the State in November 2021 by the Collins family. The photograph was taken through a window of the original house where Michael Collins was born. (Photo: Martin Walsh)
huge divisions among nationalists. Some quickly branded the delegates ‘traitors’. The idea that Irish people still had to swear an oath of allegiance to the British monarchy, remain part of the British Empire, and lose six counties in Ulster was too bitter a pill to Butswallow.theStar warmly approved of the deal. It scorned the suggestion of devising some alternative oath of allegiance as ‘Tweedledum and Tweedledee’, and assumed northern unionists would soon realise a Dublin parliament served them better. Angrily dismissing republican criticism that Collins had negotiated an imperfect agreement, the paper praised the delegates as ‘far-seeing statesmen’, never to be bullied into a settlement. In a hugely sympathetic piece on 17 December, editor J M Burke referred to Collins as a selfless patriot. ‘No sane person would for a moment entertain the thought that Mr M Collins would be a party to any lowering of the nation’s honour’. If he had not accepted the peace terms, the result was bound to be more ‘war, ruin, destruction and desolation’. On Christmas Eve the paper praised Collins’ ‘remarkable’ speech in favour of ratifying the agreement.
Southern Star michael collins anniversary supplement THE face showed ‘a conspicuous pallor, made more pronounced by a crown of thick, wavy brown hair carelessly brushed back from a good forehead’.
After 750 years of exploitation by Britain, Ireland was finally gaining its freedom – not ultimate freedom but ‘the freedom to achieve it’. An important stepping stone.
Readers applauded. ‘Hurrah for Michael Collins, our patriot bold and grand, for he’s the man who’s struggled hard to free our native land’, penned Mrs Burke of Leap, in a nine-verse poem sandwiched between an advert to treat worms in chickens, and another for tins of rat poison (Southern Star, 29 April 1922).
On the day of his funeral in Dublin, 28 August, every individual lining the six-mile route to Glasnevin Cemetery felt his loss ‘as if some familiar friend had been taken’. The floral tributes that filled a score of cars were ‘worthy of the obsequies of a king’. Just as the coffin was being lowered into the grave, came reports that ‘a bright star shot out of space and filled the sky with its brilliancy’ (Southern Star, 16 September 1922). Padraig Ó Súilleabháin compared Collins’ soldierly qualities, his eloquence, and his capacity for swaying crowds to those of Georges Danton, the French lawyer and revolutionary (Southern Star, 2 and 9 September 1922). History will owe Collins a very special place. While Daniel O’Connell brought Catholic Emancipation, the Fenians helped disestablish the Church of Ireland, and Charles Stewart Parnell achieved security of tenure and fair rent, Michael Collins founded the Irish Free State. ‘No leader has done more than he to carry his country’s cause forward.’ What’s more, quipped Ó Súilleabháin, he ‘worked … like three men’, and possessed ‘a passion for efficiency which is rare in Ireland’.
Michael Collins held a warm place in the hearts of West Cork people. Hundreds had gathered to greet him when he visited Skibbereen the Tuesday before he was killed. ‘He never harboured feelings of hatred’, claimed the Star, before quoting his alleged last words, a whisper: ‘Forgive them’ (26 August 1922).
Sorrow in Skibbereen, Southern Star, 26 August 1922 p5
solid substance of independence …’
The Articles of Agreement that Collins helped frame around the cabinet table at 10 Downing Street caused Robert Hume looks at how The Southern Star covered the career of its foundshareholderone-timeandnoreason to doubt his integrity
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Collins was mourned by a nation when he was shot at Béal na Bláth on 22 August 1922. Having led such a ‘charmed life’ – on one occasion fleeing from pursuers across Dublin rooftops – some believed that Collins was immortal. Yet, he was snatched by a bullet, fired by ‘a misguided hand, that of a brother Irishman’, lamented an anonymous friend (Southern Star, 26 August 1922). His sister, Hannie, who still worked at the same London post office savings bank in Kensington where Michael had worked, told the paper that a year earlier he had a premonition that he would be killed. Though laughing it off at the time, she told herself: ‘It spells the end soon for you, my brother.’ (Southern Star, 2 September 1922).
The new masthead of the Southern Star (12 April 1919). The Collins family held shares in the paper. Mr Collins and The Treaty, Southern Star, 18 February 1922 p6
The Starwas full square behind its local hero
President Éamon de Valera, who had chosen not to attend the London peace talks, maintained that the Irish team had caved in under pressure and negotiated a settlement that misrepresented the feelings of Irish people. While acknowledging de Valera as ‘a chivalrous, dauntless soldier’, the Star continued to praise Collins’s ‘unimpeachable’ record (18 February 1922), and quoted his words – ‘We shall be rid completely of British interferences and British rule … The little we have not yet gained we can go ahead and gain’. In a half-page splash on 11 March 1922 the paper reported a 50,000-strong meeting in Dublin to launch a national campaign in favour of the agreement, which it continued to support wholeheartedly. The delegation, all men of principle – not ‘traitors’ – had brought back, in Collins’ words, ‘the fullest measure of freedom obtainable, the
COLLINS AND THE MEDIA
The eyes and upper part of the face ‘absolutely beamed pleasure’ but the lower part was ‘adamantine in its unbending expression’. This is how The Southern Star introduced Michael Collins to its readers on 27 August 1921, as he sat eating lunch with friends in Dublin’s Gresham Hotel. In practice, the Collins family already had close links to the weekly newspaper. A series of letters to and from Michael’s brother Johnny, written after the Star was taken over from Monsignor John O’Leary’s consortium in December 1917, and archived at Michael Collins House Museum in Clonakilty, reveal Johnny discussing shareholdings, says historian Cal McCarthy. Peter Hart (Mick: The Real Michael Collins, 2005) even claims that Michael put together the group of investors that stumped up £570 to buy the paper. Collins’s enthusiasm for publishing never left him after he worked as a young man at the Clonakilty-based West Cork People, owned by his brother-in-law, Patrick J O’Driscoll, former editor of The Southern Star (1901-02). It was there, while working as a copyboy, that Collins learnt to type and write up sporting events. But his early fondness for the press wasn’t always reciprocated. Nor was exclusively loyal. After his Gresham Hotel debut, The Southern Star next mentions Collins in its 29 October 1921 edition as a member of Arthur Griffith’s negotiating team, sent to London following the July truce with England. Collins – nicknamed the ‘Big Fella’ since his internment in Frongoch after the 1916 Easter Rising – was reluctant to go, sensing Britain would never agree to the full republican demands. Citing a report in the London Times, the Star noted how Collins’s ‘unconventional’ behaviour added ‘colour’ to the proceedings. The Woodfield man was already familiar with London, having worked there at fifteen, when a colleague dubbed him ‘the speediest young clerk in the Savings Bank’. Now aged thirty, and a competitive athlete, he ‘runs when his colleagues walk, and jumps up steps in Downing Street which they climb sedately’.
michael collins anniversary supplement Southern Star 7
The friendships and the frenemies
T HAT Michael Collins showed great devotion to his friends and the men and women he led, is in no doubt. He also inspired loyalty and love from those friends. And yet those friendships were rarely straightforward. Of course, to a great extent the friendships that Collins forged were a casualty of the turbulent times he lived in. As many of his friendships were forged through politics, then politics also played a part in tearing them apart. The civil war destroyed friendships and families across the country, and Collins was no exception to that. But other factors also played their part in stretching and straining those friendships to breaking point. Collins appears to be a complicated individual, fiercely loyal and yet could be seen as being somewhat careless with other people’s emotions. And, of course, as Collins rose up to the top of Irish politics this, too, affected his friendships, bringing insecurities and jealousies from those around him. The nature of Eamonn de Valera and Collins’s relationship could perhaps be described as an example of ‘frenemies’. Brought together because of the fight for Irish independence, they most probably otherwise would never have made an acquaintance. Their personalities were starkly different. Collins was passionate, emotional and excitable, while de Valera was a steady, reserved, methodical character. Yet they initially worked very well together – perhaps their differences complimenting each other. This was spectacularly illustrated when the two plotted to spring de Valera from Lincoln Jail. Collins was even waiting in a car on the night of the escape, outside the prison to smuggle de Valera to safety. De Valera then stowed away to America for eighteen months to raise funds and gather support for Irish Duringindependence.thistime,de Valera’s wife Sinead and their children remained at home in Greystones and each week Collins paid the family a visit. During these visits Collins brought money and support to the family, often being seen playing with the de Valera children. It sounds the stuff of unbreakable, lifelong friendship. And yet their bond was shattered within a couple of years.
As mentioned previously, politics obviously played its part in driving a wedge between the two men. Collins supported the Treaty, de Valera did not. But also, when de Valera returned from America, he must have been stunned to see the fame and popularity that Collins had achieved. Suddenly, de Valera was overshadowed by a charismatic character such as Collins. He handed Collins the poisoned chalice of going to London as part of the negotiating delegation.WhenCollins signed the Treaty, he admitted it was akin to signing his own political death warrant. If they were frenemies, then de Valera would appear to have been the victor, insofar as he was the one who had the political career that survived for decades that shaped Ireland. But despite Collins career and life being cut short, de Valera never quite escaped the shadow of his former friend as shown when he said: ‘It is my considered opinion that in the fullness of time, history will record the greatness of Collins and it will be recorded at my expense.’
Author Andrew O’Connor on the complicated webs which the Big Fellow weaved through both his personal and political life
8 Southern Star michael collins anniversary supplement
‘Their reservedValeraexcitable,different.werepersonalitiesstarklyCollinswaspassionate,emotionalandwhiledewasasteady,methodicalcharacter’
Collins’ time in London during the Treaty negotiations saw him making some new, unexpected friendships and also cementing some old ones. Collins stayed with members of his team in a house in Cadogan Square during the negotiations. There was very much a policy of ‘work hard and play hard’ at the house. Collins obviously knew his team were under tremendous pressure, so he encouraged them to let off steam during the evenings. He made sure his men and secretaries were fed well, ordering food from Harrods and also there were stories of music and dancing in the house at night. Again, it showed the human side of Collins that he liked to see people he cared about looked after and enjoying themselves. But Collins did not just confine himself to the house in Cadogan Square for his social life while in London. The celebrated portrait artist Sir John Lavery had requested to paint the delegates for posterity.SirJohn was married to Lady Hazel Lavery, who was considered to be the most famous and beautiful society hostess in London. When Collins arrived at the Laverys’ mansion in Kensington to have his portrait painted, he immediately hit it off with the couple. In a very short space of time Collins became very good friends with the
Longford woman Kitty Kiernan. Michael Collins talking to supporters on the streets of Skibbereen, with the post office, which is still in operation today, clearly seen in the background.
RELATIONSHIPSCHALLENGING
Complicated trio: Harry Boland, Michael and Éamon de Valera.
Boland also did not support the Treaty and subsequently was on the opposing side of the civil war from Collins. But with this friendship, affairs of the heart also played a role in driving the two men apart.Both were in love with the same woman – Kitty Kiernan, the well-heeled daughter of a business family from Co Longford. They had both met Kitty while staying at her family’s hotel while campaigning for the 1918 general election.ItwasHarry who was originally smitten with Kitty, and they began ‘courting’. But then Harry had to spend months away in America supporting de Valera. During Harry’s time away, Collins and Kitty became close. When Harry returned, he found his sweetheart was now involved with his best friend. Collins obviously could not help himself from falling in love, but it is an interesting aspect of his personality that he did not consider his best friend’s ‘girl’ off limits.
• Andrew O’Connor is the author of A Great Beauty –the Michael Collins Story, published by Poolbeg (inset).
Conair Mhichíl Uí Choileáin Michael Collins Trail ® Comhairle Contae Chorcaí Cork Count y Council SuíomhBhéalLuíocháinnaBlá Béal na Bláth - Ambush Site Bealach le téama agus comharthaíocht a nascann láithreacha spéisiúla a bhaineann le Ceannaire Réabhlóideach na hÉireann Mícheál Ó Coileáin. A themed and signed route linking locations of interest associated with Irish Revolutionary Leader Michael Collins. Bealaí Conaire Mhichíl Uí Choileáin: Michael Collins Trail Various Routes from 4km-28km
michael collins anniversary supplement Southern Star 9 Laverys to such an extent that there rumours about the nature of his relationship with Hazel. Collins’ friendship with the Laverys shows a very different side to him that was not obvious before. They introduced Collins to high society and he found himself in the company of people like George Bernard Shaw and the author of Peter Pan, JM PerhapsBarrie.people who had known Collins back in Ireland would find it hard to believe that he found himself mixing in this company. It shows that Collins’ personality was not narrow, but was open to meeting people from very different backgrounds from his own. It also shows a growing confidence that he could not only hold his own in any social situation, but could charm those present also.
www.corkcoco.ie/en/visitor/michael-collins-trail
Another great friendship of Collins’s that came crashing down around him was the one he had with Harry Boland. While Collins and de Valera were polar opposites, Collins and Boland were extremely well-matched with their personalities. Again, politics was what the friendship was forged on and politics was what appeared to destroy it.
Historians have made mention that what had happened in their personal lives must have had some impact on Boland and his politics during the civil war. Tragically, it was a war that would cost both former best friends their lives. Friendships certainly played a big part in Michael Collins’ life. Those friendships were as diverse as they were interesting, and still fascinate us a century after his death.
It does also indicate another side to the friendship Collins and Boland had. There appears to have been a certain level of competitiveness between the two men. When Boland returned from America and found his girlfriend and best friend had formed a liaison, his reaction was unusual. He did not hit the roof or fire accusations at either of them. Instead, he seemed to think that Kitty was still committed to him and that they would end up marrying in the end. In fact, Boland spent the night before his return to America with Collins in Dublin and told him that Kitty had agreed to marry him. Whether this was wishful thinking, delusion, or a final attempt to push Collins out of the picture with Kitty, is unknown. It is poignant that this is the last time Collins and Boland spent time together as friends. Within a short period, Collins and Kitty were engaged and then he went to London to negotiate the Treaty. By January 1922 Boland was back in Ireland and declared his opposition to the Treaty, putting the former friends on opposite sides of what would be a very bloody battle.
Fighting for the love of Michael
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W OMEN played a huge part in Michael Collins’ life, from his mother and sisters, to the countless women who helped him in his fight for freedom. Romantically, Michael has been linked to a number of women, most famously, his fiancée Kitty Kiernan, but there are also others, who he may have won over,Whentoo.he was in his early 20s, Susan Killeen is said to have been Michael’s first girlfriend. Originally from Co Clare, she lived in London with Michael’s second cousin, Nancy O’Brien.Sheworked in the savings department at West Kensington where Michael had worked previously, and was active in Irish society where they met each other at social events and dances. After the outbreak of the First World War, Susan returned to Dublin, and although they wrote to each other for some time, their romance tapered off due to the Madelinedistance.Dicker was a spy during the War of Independence. She travelled on the mail boat to and from England, intercepting letters being sent from Dublin Castle to the British establishment, and revealing the names and activities of British intelligence men to Michael. A romance between them is said to have blossomed, with Michael affectionately calling her Dilly, and using her home in Dublin as a safe house when he was back there.
Lady Hazel Lavery was the American wife of painter Sir John Lavery. She had a lot of connections in the UK and brought Michael to meetings and social functions regularly, connecting him with many people. Their friendship is said to have flourished into something more, but this was during the time of the Treaty negotiations and may have been exaggerated by his opponents. After the death of Michael, Lady Lavery’s husband painted a portrait of Michael, titled Love of Ireland, while he was lying in state, dressed in military uniform with the Irish flag draped over him. A few years after Michael’s death, Lady Lavery wrote a letter to a biographer describing Michael as a man of brilliancy and a romantic figure. While it is unknown whether they had a romantic connection, they certainly did have a deep friendship. Moya Llewelyn Davies, formerly Moya O’Connor, was a friend of Michael’s sister Hannie, who lived in London. Michael also became friendly with her, and she assisted As well as being a political giant, Michael Collins is said to have won the hearts of women everywhere he went. Niamh Hayes discovers a long list of women rumoured to have caught his eye
michael collins anniversary supplement Southern Star 11 him as an intelligence agent. Similar to his relationship with Lady Lavery, rumours about a romance between Michael and Moya began to surface around the time of the Treaty negotiations. Moya was back in Dublin at this time and helped Michael by storing guns and giving him another safe house. After his death, rumours surfaced that he had fathered a child with Moya, but there was never any light shed on these. But Moya did write affectionately about Michael in letters written by her after his death, and after buying the letters at an auction over 15 years ago and reading them, Moya’s granddaughter Melissa has described Michael as the love of Moya’s life. Lady Edith Londonderry and her husband Charles lived in Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland. She entertained many guests at her home, including Michael. Rumours of an affair between the two emerged but like Lady Lavery and Moya, these surfaced around the time of the Treaty negotiations, so their relationship was likely exaggerated to benefit his opponents.
Harry was the first to be romantically linked with Kitty but soon after, a love triangle ensued, with Michael winning out, and their relationship became official in October 1921. They were due to get married in October 1922, but Michael’s life was cut short, and so, too, was their life together. Kitty later married Felix Cronin and they called their second son, Michael Collins Cronin. She died in 1945 and had requested that she be buried as close as possible to Michael in Glasnevin Cemetery. In his short life, Michael was linked to many women, but whether he was romantically involved with any of them (other than Kitty) or not, it is clear that he had many close connections to them and was certainly held in high regard amongst them. He was a devoted man, to his work, to his country and to all the women that made an impact on his life.
The love affair that never dies
ON August 28th 1922, Michael Collins was laid to rest at Glasnevin Cemetery. An estimated 500,000 people lined the streets of Dublin for his funeral. His grave remains the most visited one in the cemetery with people coming to pay their respects on a daily basis.
‘He was engaged to Kitty at the time of his assassination, but their romance wasn’t a straightforward one, either’
Michael was, and still is, seen as a romantic leader that left an incredible mark on those who knew him personally, but also people who have learnt about the man over the last 100 years. The tour guides at Glasnevin Cemetery agree that it’s the one grave that gets the most attention, with flowers, gifts, cards and balloons left there by people who adore him, both from Ireland and further afield. His grave has to be cleared regularly due to the sheer volume of items that are left on it. Notes are left throughout the year and Christmas wreaths are laid during the holidays. One French woman, a lecturer at the French National Museum, flies over to visit the grave every year but pays for flowers to be laid on his graveAlthoughweekly.the love is shared all year round, it’s Valentine’s Day that has the biggest draw. Love letters, notes, cards and soft toys are left on Michael’s grave on February 14th each year. The Glasnevin Trust Florist has received orders from all over the world over the years to ensure Michael feels the love on Valentine’s Day. Sir John Lavery’s famous painting of Michael lying in state, with the Irish flags.
The one woman we do romantically associate with Michael is Kitty Kiernan, of course. He was engaged to Kitty at the time of his assassination, but their romance wasn’t a straightforward one, either. Michael met Kitty in 1917 while he and his friend, Harry Boland, were staying in her family’s hotel in Granard in Co Longford.
RUMOURS
ROMANCESAND
Map: Sinead Crowley & Michael Collins Centre Museum, Castleview.
O N August 22nd 1922 Michael Collins set out from Cork city for a tour, deep into the heart of enemy territory in West Cork. Collins felt he knew the people of the area he called home and believed he would be safe as the civil war seemed to be coming to an end. A day visiting Free State National Army posts throughout West Cork and some friends and family was on the itinerary. Little did he know that this would be his last ever visit home. At about 7.30pm on the return to Cork his convoy was ambushed at a then little-known-place near Béal na Bláth and it was here, at just 31 years old, Michael Collins was killed. Collins’ final journey has been the subject of much speculation and intrigue with every known detail examined with scrutiny, while his death has continued to spawn numerous conspiracy theories ever since. But what of the facts? Why was Michael Collins in West Cork? Where did he go and who did he see? What actually happened at Béal na Bláth? To get an understanding of this, we need to understand what was happening with the wider story in 1922. The Irish War of Independence ended in July 1921 after which came the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1922. This divisive agreement allowed for the creation of the Irish Free State, an autonomous government with its own military and police forces but it would remain part of the Commonwealth with the king as the ceremonial head. It was not everything they fought for, but in Michael Collins’
An image from the movie Michael Collins, re-enacting the ambush at Béal na Bláth.
False sense of toCorkmanledsecuritythehisdeath
‘The IRA meeting went ahead where it was agreed to set an ambush, should the Free State convoy return in that direction’ own words it gave Ireland ‘the freedom to achieve freedom’. Others disagreed and wanted to continue to fight for a full republic. The Treaty was ratified by a small majority, but this disagreement would eventually escalate to full civil war between the pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty factions in June 1922. By August 1922 the pro-Treaty Free State forces had taken most of the major towns and cities while the anti-Treaty IRA forces were forced into rural areas and into guerrilla war tactics. One of the last remaining strongholds of anti-Treaty territory was the West Cork and Kerry region. So why did Collins, now acting as commander-in-chief of the Free State forces, choose to visit at this point? Collins felt he knew the area and the people and as ‘one of their own’, regardless of their differences, he would be safe. Still an armed convoy was employed for the tour, consisting of a scout rider on motorbike, a Crossley tender that could carry up to 13 soldiers, a buttercup yellow Leyland touring car and a Rolls Royce ‘Whippet’ armoured car – the Slievenamon (now the Sliabh na mBan) – armed with a Vickers machine gun. On the face of it, Collins was travelling to West Cork to inspect the Free State military posts in the major towns across the county, a morale booster for the final push to end the war. The anti-Treaty forces were scattered and an end to all-out civil war seemed imminent. While in Cork, Collins also met with bank officials in an attempt to secure funds for the new government, the Minister for Finance seemingly continuing his role. Some claim peace was the purpose of his journey. It is possible.Collinsdid meet with individuals that could have been His final journey has been the subject of much speculation and intrigue with Collins’ untimely death continuing to spawn numerous conspiracy theories ever since, writes Jamie Murphy
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michael collins anniversary supplement Southern Star 13 THE FINAL HOURS seen as a middleman or a negotiator but, considering the outcome of the journey, these talks either failed or didn’t take place. Certainly evidence from the IRA command at that time suggests they had no intention of making peace. On August 21st Collins and his party stayed in the Imperial Hotel in Cork City which was serving as the Free State military HQ at the time. The following morning at 6.30am they left for West Cork, first heading westerly towards Coachford and Macroom. From here they travelled via Kilmurry through a little crossroads known as Béal na Bláth. There an anti-Treaty IRA southern command meeting was due to take place in a nearby farmhouse and the large Free State convoy was obviously spotted on passing through, possibly even asking for directions to TheBandon.IRA meeting went ahead where it was agreed to set an ambush, should the Free State convoy return in that direction. Though it was discussed as a possibility, it is was later told by those involved in the decision that the aim wasn’t specifically to kill Michael Collins, but to challenge the enemy passing through their territory as had been done as part of the guerrilla war in years previous. Collins continued on his tour while the trap was set for his convoy – a dray cart was left across the road, a mine hidden in the road and somewhere up to fifty armed men waited in the overlooking hillside. Collins travelled to Newcestown, Bandon, Clonakilty, Rosscarbery and Skibbereen before returning back. On the return, he took a detour to Sam’s Cross where he met with family while the rest of the convoy enjoyed a drink in the Four Alls and finally left home for the last time. After a brief stop-off in Bandon they left for Cork city shortly after 6.30pm. Back at Béal na Bláth the ambushing party had assumed he had returned via a different route and had dispersed.
Collins was a young, handsome and charismatic leader. To lose someone of his stature under such circumstances is hard to Inaccept.some ways the intrigue into his death and the division it creates overshadows his life and his achievements. In the end, the ‘who done it’ element is not important; the outcome is the same. On August 22nd 1922 Ireland lost one of its most influential leaders of the period who helped create the modern Irish State that we know today.
• Jamie Murphy is the general manager of the Michael Collins House museum in Clonakilty. The ambush site above, and below right, at Béal na Bláth, is now part of the Michael Collins tourism trail.
Michael Collins, rear of car, leaving the MunsterArms Hotel in Bandon just hours before his deathin what is believed to be the last ever photograph ofhim alive, on August 22nd, 1922. (Image: courtesy ofMichael Collins House museum, Clonakilty)
Only a handful remained to dismantle the mine and move the blockade when they were surprised by the convoy’s scout rider. Immediately, they opened fire on the convoy as they retreated along a laneway that runs parallel to the main road and overlooked the convoy. With the sound of gunfire it is reported Emmet Dalton, Collins’ aide de camp, an experienced soldier and commander of the convoy, ordered the driver to ‘drive like hell’. Here Collins made a vital mistake and told the driver to stop and get out to fight. The Free State convoy entered cover along the ditch while the armoured car’s machine gun pinned down the anti-Treaty IRACollinsvolunteers.isthought to have moved further down the road and possibly out of cover at this point when the machine gun jammed. This gave the volunteers on the hill the chance to escape and return some fire. Now Collins was left out of position, in open view, without any covering fire. A single gunshot wound to the head and the commander-in-chief fell, dying almost immediately. Many biographers agree Sonny O’Neill was the man who pulled the trigger, though others dispute this. A ricochet bullet, friendly fire, a hidden sniper, a purposeful assassination by any number of different people or groups, are all the theories we hear today. Most likely, there is no hidden agenda and Collins’ death is as it’s told, killed in action in an ambush – beyond conjecture there is little evidence to suggest otherwise.
Another ‘missing’ vehicle connected to the Béal na Bláth ambush is the Crossley Tender. With its registration number 01 8818, the Crossley Tender carried 12 men in the The diaries of Michael Collins that were presented to the State by his familly last November and are now on display in the Michael Collins House museum in Clonakilty. (Photo: Martin Walsh)
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The small simple iron cross was removed in poor condition in 1926 because it was often a target of Anti-Treaty people. In 2006 a white linen handkerchief belonging to Collins fetched €10,000 at Adam’s in Dublin. It came with a handwritten letter addressed to Portobello Barracks General Quartermaster Sean McMahon from Sean Collins, brother of Michael. He wrote ‘for you, this handkerchief which was in Michael’s pocket at the time of hisAtdeath.’thesame auction a sealed envelope of flowers was sold for €500. It came with a letter of information: ‘A posey of flowers removed from the area of Béal na Bláth where Gen Michael Collins was murdered ...’ The letter was written by Sergeant Thomas Cooney, a comrade of Collins. He visited Béal na Bláth, the mouth of the flowers, several days after the ambush, and picked the wildflowers where his Commander in Chief fell. In 2013 Sheppard’s Auction sold cutlery used by Collins for his last meal. The knife, fork and spoon were mounted on a shamrock shaped banner and sold for €2,000. On the 22nd of August 1922 Collins and his convoy stopped in Skibbereen where he dined at the Eldon Hotel. Later that evening he was killed in Béal na Bláth. The cutlery was kept by the hotel manager and later presented to Kitty Kiernan, the famed fiancée of Collins. In 2009 a revolver which Collins had with him at Béal na Bláth sold at Whytes Auction for €72,000. The .455 Webley revolver which was still in its holster was found by Ciss Forde on the floor in the back of the Leyland touring car. The luxury vehicle was abandoned by the Collins convoy in a field at the back of the Kilumney Inn where Miss Forde resided.Thecar had got bogged down on the harrowing return journey to Cork city from Béal na Bláth. While many items connected to the death of Michael Collins have appeared at auction rooms or museums, there are many more items of interest which have yet to surface. The rifle reputedly used by Collins during the Béal na Bláth ambush has never appeared, either in a museum or at auction. Themodel 4 Triumph motorbike which was driven by the convoy scout Lt John Smith was left in a ditch at the scene of the ambush in Béal na Bláth when Smith was grazed in the neck by a bullet. That night after the ambush some of the ambush party went back to the little roadway at Béal na Bláth where they found the motorbike and took it away. No more was heard of it after that.
The price of fame –the business of Collins memorabilia When it comes to auctions of sentimental pieces linked to historic Irish figures, nobody commands more interest that the commander-in-chief from writesClonakilty, Pauline Murphy ‘The cutlery was kept by the hotel manager and later presented to Kitty Kiernan, the famed fiancée of Collins’
N recent years many items connected to Michael Collins have surfaced at auction rooms across the country and many have been sold at eye-watering prices. In 2021 a walking cane which was once owned by Collins was snapped up at an auction in Belfast for £82,000 but, the most sought-after items by collectors and museums are the ones which have a connection to the death of the Big Fella in 1922. A lock of hair belonging to the slain statesman was sold at Belfast’s Bloomfield Auction in 2022 for €21,000. The lock of chestnut brown hair was cut from the head of Collins as he lay in state following his death at Béal na Bláth on August 22nd 1922. At the same auction a handwritten account of the ambush at Béal na Bláth was sold for €11,900. The account was written by General Emmet Dalton who was with Collins throughout his final journey in West Cork. In 2012 nine brass army buttons which were found in the tunic pocket of the dead commander-in-chief were sold for €4,250 at Mealy’s Auction. At the same auction a cotton swab used to clean the body of Collins before he was embalmed at Dublin’s St Vincent Hospital was removed by the vendor before it went to auction.In2010 a cap badge reputed to have been removed from Collins’ vehicle at Shanakiel hospital in Cork city went for auction at Adam’s Auctions in Dublin. It came with a pencilled note by General Sean MacEoin stating it was the badge from Collins cap, but the item was not sold. Following the ambush at Béal na Bláth the Big Fella’s bloodstained cap was picked up on the side of the road by a local. The cap was then buried in a field but not before the badge and chin strap were removed. A year later the cap, by then in bad condition, was dug up and presented to the National Museum in Dublin. One of the last notes Collins wrote before his death was auctioned at Matthews Auction in Meath in 2021. The small military dispatch which was written by Collins just days before his death, was sold for €7,100. An iron cross which was made by locals in 1922 and erected at the site of Collins’ death in Béal na Bláth was sold at Sheppard’s Auction in 2006 for €12,000.
While many items connected to Michael Collins and Béal na Bláth have been sold to private collectors, there are some famous pieces which have remained in public view. The large overcoat Collins wore on the day of his death, along with the rosery beads he carried, are now on public display in the National Museum. The Sliabh na mBan armoured car, which made up part of the Collins convoy, is under the ownership of the Defence Forces and is housed in the Curragh. The historic vehicle makes regular appearances at shows and commemorations across the country for all to see.
michael collins anniversary supplement Southern Star 15 Buttons: €4,250Lock of hair: €21,000 Revolver:Cutlery:€72,000€2,000 Iron cross: €12,000 SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD SOLD Graphic: Star Creative ITEMISING MICHAEL
Collins convoy. After the ambush it continued in use during the civil war as a vehicle for the Free State Army and then faded into history. The Leyland Eight touring car which stood out in its primrose yellow colour was used by British General Neville MacReady. It was given to Collins in August 1922 for his tour of Ireland in his efforts to end the civil w ar. Following the Béal na Bláth ambush the car was collected from where it was abandoned at Kilumney and shipped to the Leyland factory in England for repairs, but not before the dashboard clock was removed from it. The car never returned to Ireland, it was fitted out for big game hunting in east Africa. The clock is now on display in the National Museum.
However, with his every move being watched in London, Collins soon got used to the limelight. Having finally being unveiled to the public, Collins didn’t disappoint. With his matinee idol looks, charisma and charm, the fascination the public held for Collins became even more intense. Whereas during the War of Independence, when he was in hiding, he was often viewed as a myth, now as a fully-fledged public figure, Collins became a real-life legend. What is amazing is that he adapted to his newfound celebrity with such ease. Although his reputation was of a straightforward country boy, Collins showed himself to be at ease with the elite of London – both socially and politically. Perhaps the legendary reputation Collins had was also a contributory factor in his death. His security detail did try to warn him about taking extra precaution, having survived previous assassination attempts. Maybe because he had come to think as himself as invincible, or he did not want to disappoint the public, he continued taking risks – including that fateful last journey to Cork in August 1922.
H ISTORY has many examples of people who, having been cut down in their prime, immediately attain icon status. But long before JFK, Martin Luther King and even Princess Diana – there was Michael Collins. Collins’ untimely and tragic death ensured that 100 years later, he is still revered and is a figure of public fascination. Time did got give Collins the chance to make mistakes, grow old and show he had the same frailties as the rest of us. He is remembered forever as Ireland’s dashing hero and an excellent war tactician. If he had lived a full, long life, would his reputation still be so legendary? We will never know. But even when he was alive, Collins’ reputation was being influenced by circumstances beyond his control. During the War of Independence, Collins led his life on the run, going from one safe house to another. Because he first came to prominence during that war, the public and the British authorities had no prior knowledge of what he was like – or even what he looked like. It seemed at the time as if he were another ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ – continually eluding the British authorities as he waged war on them. As photography was still in its infancy, there were no images available of him from his life before the war. The British authorities only had one, very poor quality, grainy photo of him. So, although it seemed Collins had almost superhuman abilities in managing to evade capture, the reality was he continually slipped through the authorities’ net because they simply had no idea what he looked like. Like any unknown quantity, the public’s imagination then ran wild on what Collins was really like, as he became the most wanted man in the Empire. One example of how Collins’ reputation had become exaggerated was when authorities described him as being 6’4” in height – when in fact he was 5’11’. Not quite a ‘big fellow’ in today’sCollinsterms.was a brilliant military strategist, but his reputation as such was also aided by the fact there was very little experience of guerrilla warfare at the time. The public were shocked that the British army, having just defeated the German empire, were unable to contain Collins’ comparatively small, untrained legion of freedom fighters. The effectiveness of guerrilla warfare and the advantage it can have over a regular army has been proven time and again ever since. But the War of Independence was the first time guerrilla warfare was used to such success and Collins was feted as a military genius. His reputation intensified with the start of the talks that led to the Anglo Irish treaty. When Collins arrived in London for the negotiations in autumn 1919, the public waited with eager anticipation for the unveiling of this enigma. When he stepped from the train at Euston Station there were hordes of people waiting for a glimpse of him, along with a media scrum. Not being able to shake the habit of living in hiding for so long, Collins initially tried to hide his face as he rushed to his awaiting car.
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Separating the man from the myth
Until the Treaty negotiations in London, the official descriptions of the ‘Empire’s most wanted man’ were somewhat wide of the real mark, notes author Andrew O’Connor, who conducted lengthy research on the talks for his book A Great Beauty
Michael’s father was 75 when his son was born. Michael Snr was a member of the republican Fenian movement, but left it and settled down to farming. He died when Michael was just six years old, leaving his wife, Mary Ann, to bring up eight children. Michael Snr was 60 when he married Mary Ann in 1876, while she was just 23.
While Michael was adored by a lot of people, others who knew him thought he was somewhat overbearing. His cousin Nancy described him as the sort of man that women would either take to instinctively or subconsciously wish to put down. Some girls of his own background found him arrogant or overbearing. So maybe the nickname the Big Fella actually referred to his swollen head!
Michael Collins was widely known as the Big Fella, an endearing nickname that followed him throughout his career.
At the 1921 hurling provincial decider between Dublin and Kilkenny at Croke Park, Michael Collins threw in the sliotar at the start of the game. He was there in a dignitary capacity, two months after the truce had been called. He was finally able to step out of the shadows and into the limelight as he was no longer persona non grata in the eyes of the authorities. Spectators got to witness a different side to him as he pucked around with Harry Boland before the game.
Michael’s headstone in Glasnevin Cemetery bears the wrong birth date. A date of October 12th 1890 is inscribed on the stone but Michael was actually born on October 16th. His family plans on making this right this year, in time for the anniversary of his death, by redoing the headstone.
After the 1916 Easter Rising Michael, along with thousands of other rebels, was arrested by British authorities.
Michael was not only admired in Ireland but was held in high esteem across the world. Yitzak Shamir was an Israeli politician who went on to be the Prime Minister of Israel in the 1980s. In 1940 he joined a militant group in Palestine which battled Arabs and launched attacks against the British military. The group drew inspiration from the Irish Republican Army and Shamir’s nom de guerre was Michael, named after his hero Michael Collins.
While it might be assumed that the title referred to his physical appearance, Michael was quite an average height of 5ft 11in. So, rather than the name reflecting his stature, it is thought that it more so referred to his dominant physical presence and ‘big’ personality.
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No matter how much time passes, Michael Collins will always remain a dominant figure in Ireland’s history. We all like to think we know a thing or two about him but there are plenty of lesser-known stories about the enigmatic man from Clon, says Niamh Hayes
Michael’s engagement to Kitty Kiernan wasn’t widely known and it was only when he made the announcement in front of everyone in the Dáil that it became public news. Countess Markievicz joked in the Dáil that Michael was to marry Princess Mary and become ‘Governor General of the Free State’. Michael responded by saying these claims may cause pain to the Princess, as well as his own fiancée! This was the first time many learnt of his engagement.
Michael was always quite athletic and especially enjoyed wrestling. He won a local wrestling championship as a child and continued to enjoy wrestling as he grew older. He also excelled in other sports such as running, jumping and horse-riding. However, his fiery temper often led to a punch-up on whatever field he was on!
know about Michael Collins
Two local West Cork men are said to have inspired Michael’s pride of Irishness. James Santry was a local blacksmith and Denis Lyons was his headmaster at Lisavaird National School. They were both nationalists, with Denis being a member of the IRB and James’ family participating in the rebellions of 1798, 1848 and 1867. Their beliefs and lifestyles had a lasting impact on Michael throughout his life.
Rather than being executed like many of the other uprising’s leaders, he was imprisoned at Frongoch Internment Camp in Wales. The camp became known as the University of Revolution as it gave Michael and those imprisoned an opportunity for networking and training in guerrilla tactics.
michael collins anniversary supplement Southern Star 17 LITTLE-KNOWN FACTSTen things you probably didn’t
Another grand-niece of Michael Collins, Mary Banotti, went into politics shortly after her separation from her ItalianMaryex-husband.Banottiwas unsuccessful in her bid to seek election to the Dáil in a by-election in 1983, and subsequently failed to secure a seat in the Seanad, but she was elected as a Fine Gael MEP in 1984 and held that seat until her retirement in 2004.
Margaret Collins O’Driscoll, Michael’s sister, was the first sitting female TD in Ireland. Photo: Michael Collins House Museum.
Helen Collins, the grandniece of Michael Collins, outlined how formidable were the women in his life.
Mary’s younger sister, Nora Owen, served for a time as a Minister for Justice and once held the distinction of being the deputy leader of Fine Gael. Nora Owen was first elected to Dublin City Council in 1979 and Dáil Eireann in 1981. She lost her seat in 1987, but regained it in 1989, and remained in the Dáil until she was unseated in 2002. Meanwhile, the well-known actress Dervla Kirwan, is the great granddaughter of Margaret Collins O’Driscoll.
Behind every great man ....
Dervla, who is perhaps most famous for her leading roles in Ballykissangel and Goodnight Sweetheart, has most recently appeared on RTÉ in the series Smother It was in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? that was aired in 2010, that Dervla detailed her ancestry and fascinating association with the revolutionary leader, but viewers were just as impressed by the calibre of the women who peopled ‘his story.’
‘Mary Ann raised her family of eight children as a single mother and ran the farm at Woodfield,’ said Helen. ‘She was a great farmer and with the assistance of her eldest son, my grandfather Johnny, she kept the whole show on the road until her death in 1907.’
Historically, though, it was the sister of Michael Collins, Margaret Collins O’Driscoll, who had the distinction of being the first sitting female TD in the Irish Free State government in 1923 – the elected anti-Treaty females having refused to take their seats. A teacher by trade, Margaret had taught in Lisavaird National School and had her teenage brother come to stay with her at Emmet Square in Clonakilty from 1903 to 1905.Margaret went on to become a Cumann na nGaedheal TD between 1923 and 1932, and she served as vicepresident of the party from 1926 to 1932.
Mary Ann O’Brien, Michael’s mother, set the mould, according to Helen Collins, the grand-niece of Michael Collins.‘Shewelcomed her youngest child into the world on October 16th 1890, when she was 38 years of age,’ said Helen, ‘and was 44 when her husband died in 1896.
18 Southern Star michael collins anniversary supplement AN IMPRESSIVE FAMILY
Jackie Keogh delves into the family history to find a long line of strong, and often political, women ‘
FROM LEFT: The actress Dervla Kirwan traced her connections to the Irish revolutionary leader in the TV programme Who Do You Think You Are? which aired in 2020; Grandniece of Michael Collins, former MEP Mary Banotti; Grandniece of Michael Collins, former deputy leader of Fine Gael, Nora Owen.
Helen recalled how her step-grandmother Nancy O’Brien was Michael Collins’ chief spy in the GPO and was a wonderful woman. ‘I loved her very much,’ she said. ‘I loved her telling me about her daring feats during the War of Independence. ‘They were such dynamic women who never gave up,’ she said. It was a trait that was evident in her grandmother Catherine Hurley, too, and her father’s sisters. ‘They were fighters and doers and they were irrepressible,’ said Helen. As a high-profile solicitor and mediator, who played a key role in helping to establish the West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen and the famous Taste of West Cork Food Festival, Helen is regarded as a high achiever and a great advocate for the best that West Cork has to offer.
FIGHTERS, doers, irrepressible’ are just some of the words that were used to describe the characteristics of the strong, intelligent women who form the living legacy of Michael Collins.
BELOW: Liz Lovell from Lyre pictured at the birthplace of Michael Collins in Woodfield, Clonakilty for the visit of the pupils from Ardfield National School in April. Liz’s father Dermie O’Donovan (a local stone mason) and his son (Liz’s brother) Denis built the house. (Photo: Martin Walsh)
LEFT: At the function in Woodfield, Clonakilty to mark the presentation of the diaries of Michael Collins to The State were (left to right): Robert Pierse, Listowel, his grandnephew, Ted Pierse and Sean Pierse, both from Carrignavar, the respective great great grandnephew and great grandnephews of Michael Collins.
(Photo: Martin Walsh)
Collins at the Eldon Hotel in Skibbereen.
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ABOVE: In this now iconic photo of Tom Barry’s wedding party at Vaughan’s Hotel in Dublin on August 22nd, 1921 – exactly a year before Michael’s death – we see Collins (circled) lowering his head to protect his identity. After the highly publicised Treaty talks in London, Michael became a familiar face and was happy to be photographed.
COLLINS ON CAMERA
Take a trip through history on the Michael Collins trail By Kieran O’Mahony B RINGING all the places in West Cork associated with Michael Collins together has always been something that tourists and history buffs alike have relished. Thankfully, the Michael Collins Trail, launched last year and developed with Cork County Council and Fáilte Ireland, at a cost of almost €60,000, has now made it so much easier and cohesive for history fans to visit all the sites associated with The Big Fella. Dotted across West Cork are the specific branded signed routes for the trail which makes following it so much easier andFromuser-friendly.hisbirthplace in Woodfield to the assassination site of Béal na Bláth, the trail has already become a popular attaction for tourists visiting West Cork. And the trail also takes in other places, too, like Kilmurry, which is often overlooked by visitors, but is also key to Collins story. The Michael Collins Trail consists of 140 signs and waypoints throughout West Cork and there are seven routes on the trail.
Clonakilty to Woodfield – 6km STARTING in Clonakilty visitors can begin the trail with a visit to the Michael Collins House museum on Emmet Square.It’san ideal starting point to learn more about Collins and his background, while also reading about the story of the fight for Irish independence. As well as historical artefacts, the museum also boasts audio visuals and interactive displays, which younger visitors might appreciate.
This area of Clonakilty is also significant, as Collins lived in Emmet Square from 1903 to 1905 with his sister, while a statue of him adorns the square and was unveiled in 2002 by actor Liam Neeson, who played him in Neil Jordan’s film Michael Collins. Moving out of Clonakilty towards Woodfield, visitors pass through Lisavaird where Collins attended the local national school. At Woodfield, the remains of the original cottage in which Collins was born is located here on the site of the Collins family farm. The remains of the larger house in which he spent most of his youth, but which was later burned by the Crown Forces, can also be seen. Just up the road is Sam’s Cross, where his maternal grandmother lived. There is also a monument dedicated to him, while The Four Alls bar is where Collins and his men stopped for a drink on that fateful journey towards Béal na Bláth.There is even a recently-launched ‘Big Fella’s Stout’ which is exclusively on sale on tap in the bar.
Clonakilty to Michael Collins Centre – 7km
– 28km
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Before you leave Clonakilty it’s also worth stopping at Clonakilty National School, which Collins attended from 1903 to 1906 and where he studied for the British civil service’s ‘boy clerk’ examination. He subsequently passed his exam and moved to London where he began working in the West Kensington Post Office Bank.
Bandon to Béal na Bláth – 15km
Taking a short journey along the Timoleague road, you will come across the Michael Collins Centre in Castleview. Run by Tim Crowley and his family, visitors can enjoy a comprehensive presentation on the life and times of Collins. There are audio-visuals and live illustrated presentations delivered three times daily during the summer season. The centre also has a varied collection of personal items, artefacts and memorabilia from the War of Independence and Civil War, as well as life size replicas of the vehicles from Béal na Bláth.
As you take the R588 Enniskeane Road from Clonakilty, it is worth looking out for a memorial dedicated to Jeremiah McDonald, a Free State soldier and friend of Michael Collins, who was killed just days before Collins’ death on August 18th 1922. Keep following the Michael Collins Trail signs through the countryside until you reach Béal na Bláth. The site where he was killed has recently been revamped to make it more visitor-friendly with more parking spaces and landscaping.
On that sad day on August 22nd 1922, Collins returned to Bandon having visited Macroom, Clonakilty and Skibbereen earlier in the day. It was outside of Lee’s Hotel (now the Munster Arms in Bandon) that the last known photograph of Michael Collins was taken and has now become an important and iconic picture. While travelling from Bandon to Béal na Bláth that evening, his convoy was last spotted at Farnalough before it was later ambushed at Béal na Bláth.
Clonakilty to Béal na Bláth
Last meal at Eldon ANOTHER place that visitors might like to visit while travelling along the Michael Collins Trail is the familyrun Eldon Hotel in Skibbereen. It is recognised as one of the last places visited by Collins on the day of his assassination and it is widely thought to be the location where he had his last meal. Collins and his team visited the hotel to meet the owners, Mr and Mrs Teddy Quinn because Mr Quinn’s mother, based in Dublin, had often given Collins a safe refuge during the War of Independence
PLEASE NOTE:
• The ceremony will commence at 3pm.
• The Park and Ride will operate from Crookstown village, in the field opposite the Post Office. Gardaí and stewards will be there to direct cars and control parking. It will be well signposted.
• Please dress appropriately for the weather, and bring water.
• Cars from the South and West and those travelling through Macroom, should arrive via Kilmurray and will be directed to parking pitches. Please follow all event signage.
Murragh to Béal na Bláth – 12km
• A Park and Ride facility will be in operation on the day for those travelling from the North and East of the country, via the N22.
A number of roads were closed in the area on the morning of August 22nd which meant that the convoy travelled through Kilmurry instead of Crookstown. Following the ambush at Béal na Bláth, the body of Michael Collins was taken to Crookstown and then onto Cloughduv, where a local priest was summoned. The winding, narrow road leading to Béal na Bláth from Crookstown has not changed much since 1922, and it gives visitors a sense of what the local terrain was like 100 years ago.
RE-TRACING HISTORY
michael collins anniversary supplement Southern Star 21
– IMPORTANT NOTICE –
The centenary commemoration of the death of General Michael Collins will take place at the monument in Béal na Bláth on Sunday, 21st August 2022.
There will be two orations this year, which will be given by Taoiseach Mícheál Martin T.D. and Tánaiste & Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Leo Varadkar T.D.
• Those attending will be required to park in a designated parking area and walk to the monument, a distance of 900m approx.
This 12km route from Murragh – which is located east of Enniskeane and Ballineen – to Béal na Bláth, passes through Newcestown, where Collins had stopped on the morning of August 22nd, while en route from Macroom to Bandon. There were a number of anti-Treaty safe houses in Newcestown and surrounds, including one that catered for a number of gunmen, both before and after the ambush at Béal na Bláth.
BÉAL NA BLÁTH CENTENARY COMMEMORATION
PARKING ARRANGEMENTS:
• A temporary road closure will be in operation on the day. There will be strictly no vehicular access and no parking at the monument, or on any of the approach roads to the monument.
• As parking is limited, we strongly encourage car pooling.
• No seating will be provided.
It was along a 3km stretch of road between Kilmurry and the crossroads at Béal na Bláth that the convoy, which included Michael Collins himself, was first spotted by anti-Treaty forces on the morning of August 22nd 1922. The Kilmurry museum, which was officially opened by President Michael D Higgins in 2016, is certainly worth a visit and contains many artefacts of historical significance.
We appreciate your co-operation on the day, to ensure everyone’s safe enjoyment of the commemoration.
N22 Crookstown to Béal na Bláth – 6km
www.michaelcollinscommemoration.ie & www.twitter.com/BealnaBlath22
Independence Museum Kilmurry to Béal na Bláth – 4km
• It is anticipated that large crowds will attend this year’s commemoration event. As a result, and for your health and safety, a traffic management plan will be activated on the day, in co-operation with An Garda Síochána.
• A live broadcast of commemoration will be on the RTÉ News channel
• All cars must be parked by 1:30pm. We ask you to please adhere to all advice and instructions from Gardaí and stewards, and to follow all signage.
Alan McCarthy on the freedom fighter’s long association with the Irish press, and their love/hate relationship
22 Southern Star michael collins anniversary supplement I N a letter to his fiancée Kitty Kiernan, Michael Collins wrote that ‘newspapermen are inventions of the devil.’ Thrust into the spotlight by the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations in London and subsequent debates surrounding the Treaty’s ratification, Collins may have increasingly come to resent the closer scrutiny he was subjected to, having acted as an underground figure during the War of Independence. It is doubtful if Collins truly believed that newspapermen were nefarious, given the manner in which he engaged with, and utilised, the media throughout his life and career. As a boy, while attending Clonakilty Boys’ National School, he lodged with his sister Margaret and her husband Patrick O’Driscoll who previously owned and edited the West Cork People. O’Driscoll later worked for the Cork Free Press, a paper suppressed by the British authorities in 1916 for reporting on conditions in Frongoch internment camp, which was holding both participants and those suspected of participation in the Easter Rising. Michael Collins’ biographer Tim Pat Coogan believed that he was responsible for the circulation of this information. If this is the case, Patrick O’Driscoll may have served as a conduit for the material’s publication in the Free Press. In 1917, Collins was part of a Sinn Féin consortium that bought and radicalised The Southern Star. Despite the paper being supressed in the run-up to the pivotal General Election of 1918, its preference was clear:
The Star printed the bi-lingual election manifesto of shareholder Collins, who appears in the uniform of the Irish FollowingVolunteers.hisarrestin 1918, Peadar Ó hAnnracháin nominated Michael Collins as his successor to serve on The Southern Star’s board of directors in August. Any plans Collins may have had for the paper would have to be parked when the paper was suppressed once again shortly afterwards. In September 1919 numerous papers across Ireland were to carry advertisements for the Dáil Loan. The publication of the prospectus was part of a wide-ranging publicity campaign orchestrated by Collins which also included the production of a short propaganda film. The resulting widespread suppression by the British administration was to prove hugely counter-productive. Following publication of the Loan prospectus, The Southern Star was again supressed in October while in September The Cork Examiner and its associated papers experienced the Crown’s censorship for the first time.
Several individuals associated with The Southern Star served as loan agents, while Denis O’Connell, a Star contributor who also sent West Cork news items to The Irish Independent, sent a falsified report concerning a Dáil Loan meeting in Dunmanway in August 1919 to the national daily. The piece alleged that Michael Collins (then on the run) was in attendance and that James ‘Barney’ O’Driscoll and Gearóid O’Sullivan (imprisoned in Cork Gaol) had sent cheques. A report on the Dunmanway meeting was sent to Collins dated 2 September 1919 by Joe Ryan. Ryan states that £5310-0 was subscribed at the meeting, £25 of which was sent by Collins himself. Also listed among the contributors was ‘D. O’Connell’ who gave £5. Collins and O’Connell engaged in correspondence between January and May 1920 which touched on issues like the Southern Star, the Dáil Éireann Loan and the Urban District Council elections. This highlights the interest that Collins took in the paper, despite his many other commitments. This is not that surprising, given his well-documented predisposition towards micro-management.
Seán Hayes, editor, was contesting the seat for Cork West, while Thomas Healy, a solicitor and later director at the paper, served as election agent for Michael Collins’ campaign to win a seat in the Cork South constituency.Anotherdirector, cattle-dealer James Duggan, was on Collins’ election committee.
Collins and his dalliances with the ‘devil’ media ‘In 1917, Collins was part of a Sinn Féin consortium that bought and radicalised The Southern Star’
Southern Star staff circa 1910-1917 outside the offices which were then located on Townshend Street in Skibbereen. This premises would be best known as Denis Crowley’s newsagency in more recent years.
In a tense exchange with David Kent in the Dáil who accused him of sanctioning newspaper suppression, Collins thundered that ‘I never did such a thing. I was never responsible for sending men on a job of that kind, or any other disgraceful thing.’
One of the final sightings of Collins was believed to be in MacCarthy’s newsagents in Clonakilty where he stopped to buy newspapers, a fitting finale given his early introduction to the newspaper trade in that town years before. In the following days his death would make headlines around the world.
In 1920 Collins was also in discussion with stakeholders financing, with the paper ultimately relaunched in January 1921 following its latest bout experienced extensive suppression from the British authorities, the IRA also subjected what it viewed as ‘enemy’ newspapers to suppressive actions such as the destruction of machinery or burning
• Alan McCarthy is a historian of modern Ireland. He is the author of Newspapers and Journalism in Cork, 1910-23 (Four Courts Press) and soon to be published history of adult education and lifelong learning at UCC, 1946-2021.
The narrative surrounding the civil war was to be hijacked by the sudden deaths of Collins and Arthur Griffith. The day Collins died he met the editor of the now-closed Skibbereen Eagle, likely with a view to re-starting the paper or acquiring compensation.
Though Collins may have legitimately opposed the destruction of printing machinery, such qualms did not extend to the idea of censorship itself; Piaras Béaslaí, a future biographer of Collins, was made the National army’s publicity director by Eoin O’Duffy on 29 June, the day after the Four Courts shelling began, in practice the chief press censor for the Provisional government. Béaslaí’s censorship was bitterly opposed by anti-Treatyites while he and Collins also appointed a film censor, recognising the influence of this medium.
‘The day Collins died he met the editor of the now-closed SkibbereenEagle, likely with a view to re-starting the paper or acquiring compensation.’
michael collins anniversary supplement Southern Star 23 Seán ‘Johnnie’ Collins, brother of Michael, was said to be ‘interested in the paper’, although he does not appear to have held an official title and perhaps simply reported directly to his brother, though we do know that Seán held shares in the paper.
The significance of Collins’ death was conveyed by The Southern Star which appeared with black borders. The death of Michael Collins at Béal na Bláth, far from ending his relationship with the media, consolidated it and has seen his life and work considered at length across a host of different platforms. In his own lifetime Collins had become the stuff of legend; on 12 February 1921, the Cork Weekly News reported in error that Collins had been shot dead at the Battle of Burgatia House in Rosscarbery. Collins’ contribution to the revolutionary struggle was more about admin than action. In this regard, however, he was acutely aware of the value of the media and the important part it played in cultivating support among the population.
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Former Minister for Justice, Fine Gael MEP Frances Fitzgerald wonders, if Collins had lived on, would the potential of Ireland’s women have taken so long to be recognised
Former Taoiseach and a great mentor and friend of mine, the late Liam Cosgrave described Collins as ‘direct and very blunt … but very practical’ ssc@southernstar.ie 028-21200.
• Frances Fitzgerald is an MEP for Dublin and a former Tánaiste and Minister for Justice.
24 Southern Star michael collins anniversary supplement could, and further. It is purely speculative, of course, to imagine that, had he lived, the future of women, the freeing of women to deliver on their full potential, whether as politicians or as economists, doctors, lawyers or in any other calling, might have been different. But it is fair to speculate that the one man who had built a network of trusted, courageous, smart and savvy intelligence officers who happened to be women, would not – could not – have stood over their retreat, not only from history, for they hardly appeared for 50 years in the history we learned at school, but from key roles in shaping the new state. Without him it took longer than it should have, but the women of Ireland are now shaping Ireland – far too slowly but great progress has been made in recent years. It is important that we also remember that, for Collins, in government, the rule of law was paramount. Fine Gael has always stood for the rule of law, believing that with rights come responsibility – the solemn responsibility of all Irish men and women to respect and adhere to those same laws. For Collins, disagreement was to be cherished, but interference with the people, their safety and their property was unacceptable and was to be clamped down upon. Collins also created what was to become An Garda Síochána, vesting in them the guarding of the peace and the safeguarding of citizens’ freedom: economic freedom; freedom to love and marry who you wish; freedom to build a life in your own country, not to be forced to leave in order to earn your livelihood; freedom to grow old with dignity and the freedom to support and promote what you believe in. As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, grapple with a war on our continent and enter a more turbulent economic period, we must always remember that the damage to the economy may be temporary but it is our values and vision for a better future that drives us forward – much like Collins in 1922. For a man without academic education in my own discipline – social work – or in any economic discipline, Michael Collins had an acute and nuanced view of how the economy must serve the nation. ‘Our object in building up the country economically must not be lost sight of,’ he wrote. ‘That object is not to be able to boast of enormous wealth or of a great volume of trade, for their own sake ... It is not to show a great national balance-sheet, nor to point to a people producing wealth with the self-obliteration of a hive of bees. The real riches of the Irish nation will be the men and women of the Irish nation, the extent to which they are rich in body and mind and character. What we want is the opportunity for everyone to be able to produce sufficient wealth to ensure these advantages for themselves.’ It is the vision of a sate that stands for social justice, for equality of opportunity at every one of the great challenge points of life. It is the vision of a state with a particular care, respect and love for the very young and the very old. It is the vision of a state that can take the toughest of times and emerge buoyantly positive. I believe that is the saddest, yet most instructive virtue Collins’ life teaches us: positivity. His was the politics of optimism, an optimism so demanding, so pragmatic that he sometimes pushed others extraordinarily hard in order to achieve what was possible. Put simply, that is the essence of what we must learn from Michael Collins – that anything is possible.
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Michael Collins, the leader who believed in Ireland’s future, also taught us ... anything is possible
The few who did described him as a man who pushed for them to go as far as they
THIS year marks 100 years since the foundation of the Irish Free State and the death of one of its greatest leaders, Michael Collins. This anniversary provides all of us, regardless of political allegiance, the opportunity to commemorate, to reflect and to learn from a life cut far too short. Collin’s sudden death was shocking, abrupt and brutal – and therein lies a danger - the danger that the manner of a man’s dying might be allowed to define him. That in my opinion would be a sad injustice to his greatness and the statesman he would have so clearly become in the following years and Michaeldecades.Collinshad a life as brief as that of a falling star, but the one thing we know for sure is that he made what he could of it, driving himself and others in a relentless pursuit of the best. At only age 31, he carried life and death duties – not old before his time, but responsible beyond his age. But if we look at the totality of his life, what we see is a man who understood that every section of the emerging nation needed structure, needed planning, needed control, needed measurement. He carried on broad shoulders the responsibility to build statehood out of subservience and subversion. The task was without precedent – and, remember, this was a man who had been part of an insurrection led by men who believed that freedom was enough: that once the shackles of oppression were shattered, Ireland would emerge into the sunlight of liberty whole and entire. Collins’ patriotism was no less idealistic, but it was visionary in a more practical, realisticFormerway.Taoiseach and a great mentor and friend of mine, the late Liam Cosgrave described Collins as ‘direct and very blunt … but very practical’ – what more could one want in a modern politician? It was Collins who set Ireland on the first steps towards statehood, and it was Collins who understood that public administration and economic management go hand in hand with social idealism: that the dreams a nation dreams, and the visions a nation has depend utterly on structure, planning and rigorous controls if they are to be madeThemanifest.reality,as hindsight has taught us, is that freedom is the first step, but safety is the second, and the two are intertwined. A free society is one where it is safe to imagine a different future, where it is safe to disagree, to challenge, to champion a direction unimagined in the past. That intellectual freedom, that capacity to speculate about possibilities unsought by the freedom fighters, is arguably more essential to the development of a mature, confident, world-leading nation than is physical freedom, although of course, one is not possible without the other. He looked to the future and in one significant area, he pulled that future into his present. When he returned to Ireland, as a young and ambitious leader, he saw – as few before him had seen – the potential of the women around him, their determination to contribute to the effort in a real and risky way, and their right to do so. As one of his biographers put it: ‘Neither Collins nor the Volunteers would have survived without the country-wide network of women supporters who acted as intelligence agents, couriers, secretaries, providers of meals, shelter and nursing services.’ Most of those women never talked after the civil war, of what they had done.
