MICHAEL COLLINS

In Michael Collins, I found the embodiment of that Irish virtue and tragedy. Michael Collins remains one of the most obscure and controversial heroes in Irish history. A survivor of the disastrous 1916 Easter Rising, Collins forged the fragments of the revolutionary movement into a ruthless underground army that compelled the British to sue for peace. Reluctantly serving as a treaty negotiator under the orders of the Irish president, Éamon de Valera, Collins returned in 1921 with …

…the Sinn Fein revolutionary parliament and served as finance minister. From 1919 to 1921 Collins organized the guerrilla warfare that succeeded in forcing Great Britain to sue for peace. Collins represented Ireland in London and signed the peace treaty that brought the Irish Free State into existence. Later he was appointed commander in chief of the Irish Free State forces. On August 22, 1922, he was assassinated by members of Sinn Fein who were opposed to the peace treaty.