MICHAEL COLLINS
1890–1922
A revolutionary, soldier, and politician, Michael Collins was a leading figure in Ireland’s struggle for independence from the British and, ultimately, the creation of the Irish Free State in 1921.
Collins was born in County Cork, southern Ireland, on October 16, 1890. He left school at 15 and moved to London, where he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and the republican political party Sinn Féin. Collins returned to Ireland in 1916 and took part in an armed attempt by Republicans to end British rule—the Easter Rising—and was briefly imprisoned.
During the UK’s general election of December 1918, he won a seat in Parliament to represent Sinn Féin but did not take it. Collins was a key strategist in the resistance to British rule known as the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921). When he signed an Anglo-Irish treaty in December 1921, civil war broke out in Ireland, but he did not live long enough to see it resolved. He was shot by anti-treaty forces on August 22, 1922, in an ambush.
“We have to learn that freedom imposes responsibilities.”
Michael Collins, 1922
Collins attended the funeral of Sinn Féin’s founder, Arthur Griffith, on August 16, 1922.
MILESTONES
Democratic success
Wins seat in general election for Sinn Féin, 1918, party attains a majority in Ireland.
violent rebellion
Heads republican killings of nine British officers, 1920; in response, British kill 14 Irish civilians.
agrees to peace
Signs Anglo-Irish treaty, in order to end fighting for Irish independence, December 1921.
Provokes war
Orders first attack against anti-treaty republicans that sparks the Irish civil war, 1922.