Michael Collins

Michael Collins was born on October 16, 1890, in Woodfield, County Cork, where his father was a farmer. He was educated at local schools and moved to London in 1906 to work as a clerk in the Post Office. He became involved in the Irish nationalist movement through the Gaelic League and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He returned to Ireland in 1916 and took part in the Easter Rising, where he fought at the General Post Office. He was arrested and interned in Frongoch, Wales, until December 1916. He then became a leading organizer of the Irish Volunteers and Sinn Féin, and was elected as a member of parliament for South Cork in 1918. He did not take his seat in Westminster, but joined the First Dáil, the Irish parliament that declared independence from Britain. He was appointed as Minister for Finance and Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army. He led a guerrilla campaign against the British forces during the War of Independence, and was responsible for many successful operations, including the killing of British intelligence agents on Bloody Sunday in 1920. He also negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which ended the war and established the Irish Free State as a dominion within the British Empire. However, the treaty was opposed by many republicans, including his former ally Eamon de Valera, who rejected the partition of Ireland and the oath of allegiance to the British crown. This led to the outbreak of the Civil War in 1922, where Collins sided with the pro-treaty forces. He became the Chairman of the Provisional Government and the Commander-in-Chief of the National Army. He tried to end the conflict by seeking a compromise with the anti-treaty side, but he was killed in an ambush at Béal na Bláth, County Cork, on August 22, 1922. He was 31 years old. He was buried with full military honors at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Irish history, and a symbol of the struggle for independence.