In Memory of "The Big Fella", Michael Collins (d. 22 August 1922) [UPDATED]

The Laughing Boy
by Brendan Behan

T'was on an August morning, all in the dawning hours,
I went to take the warming air, all in the Mouth of Flowers,
And there I saw a maiden, and mournful was her cry,
'Ah what will mend my broken heart, I've lost my Laughing Boy.

So strong, so wild and brave he was, I'll mourn his loss too sore,
When thinking that I'll hear the laugh or springing step no more.
Ah, cure the times and sad the loss my heart to crucify,
That an Irish son with a rebel gun shot down my Laughing Boy.

Oh had he died by Pearse's side or in the GPO,
Killed by an English bullet from the rifle of the foe,
Or forcibly fed with Ashe lay dead in the dungeons of Mountjoy,
I'd have cried with pride for the way he died, my own dear Laughing Boy.

My princely love, can ageless love do more than tell to you,
Go raibh maith agat for all you tried to do,
For all you did, and would have done, my enemies to destroy,
I'll mourn your name and praise your fame, forever, my Laughing Boy.



Michael Collins assassination scene from the movie "Michael Collins"


The death of Michael Collins from "Shadow of Béal na mBláth"
(music by Sinead O'Connor from the "Michael Collins" soundtrack)


The bark of a dog breaks the silence like a bitter last hurrah
And a raven spreads it's wings for flight over fields near Beál Na mBláth
With a rifle still clasped to his breast, but hanging low his head
A black August day in the County Cork, Michael Collins is dead

Hang out your brightest colours, his memory now recall
Each one wants a part of him but no-one wants it all

~ "The Ballad of Michael Collins" by Brendan O'Reilly



Tom Barry describes the scene in Kilmainham Jail
where he witnessed hundreds of Republican prisoners
on their knees praying for Michael Collins
after hearing the news he had been killed during the Civil War.


Historical footage of the funeral of Michael Collins
set to "Wrap the Green Flag 'Round Me" by The Wolfe Tones


Oh long will old Ireland be seeking in vain
Ere we find a new leader to match the man slain
A true son of Grainne his name long will shine
O gallant Mick Collins cut off in his prime

~ "Michael Collins" by The Wolfe Tones




“We bend today over the grave of a man not more than thirty years of age, who took to himself the gospel of toil for Ireland, and of sacrifice for their good, and who has made himself a hero and a legend that will stand in the pages of our history with any bright page that was ever written there. Pages have been written by him in the hearts of our people that will never find a place in print. But we lived, some of us with these intimate pages; and those pages that will reach history, meagre though they be, will do good to our country and will inspire us through many a dark hour. Our weaknesses cry out to us, 'Michael Collins was too brave.' Michael Collins was not too brave. Every day and every hour he lived he lived it to the full extent of that bravery which God gave to him, and it is for us to be brave as he was—brave before danger, brave before those who lie, brave even to that very great bravery that our weaknesses complained of in him.”

~ Richard Mulcahy, IRA Chief of Staff (and Collins' superior) during the War of Independence, who succeeded Collins as commander-in-chief of the Free State Irish Army, in his oration at Collins' funeral.


“. . . So tear up your mourning and hang up your brightest colours in his honour; and let us all praise God that he had not to die weakened by age and saddened by the disappointments that would have attended his work had he lived.”

~ Dublin-born playwright George Bernard Shaw in a letter of condolence to Collins' sister




‘‘He was the man whose matchless energy, whose indomitable will, carried Ireland through the terrible crisis; and though I have not now, and never had, an ambition about either political affairs or history, if my name is to go down in history I want it to be associated with the name of Michael Collins.’’

~ Arthur Griffith
Founder and leader of the original Sinn Féin (not its modern Marxist namesake) and President of Dáil Éireann (the Irish parliament), whose work with Collins on negotiating the Treaty to end the Irish War of Independence, and whose untimely death at the age of 50 from either a heart attack or stroke just 10 days prior to Collins' assassination (thus depriving Ireland of yet another key leader in its political infancy) ensured that his name would, indeed, go down in history associated with that of Michael Collins


Michael Collins' brother, Johnny, at the rededication
of the Collins gravesite at Glasnevin Cemetery in 1939.
According to Collins and De Valera biographer, Tim Pat Coogan:
"It is a matter of record that for years Johnny Collins,
a civil servant, and thus very much at de Valera's mercy,
strove unsuccessfully to have a fitting memorial erected
over his brother, who, as the first Commander-in-Chief of
the Irish Army, lay in a military grave... Finally,
de Valera called Johnny in and stipulated that the cost
of the memorial should not exceed £300, and it should be
in limestone, not marble. He prescribed a formula of words
he wanted used on the cross and ordered that there be no
English on the front of it. The cemetery records show, that,
on July 31st, 1939, a few weeks before the world went to war,
Taoiseach de Valera took time out to sign personally the
certificate of authorisation for the design and erection of
the memorial cross over his old adversary... What the
certification does not show is the fact that de Valera forbade
Johnny to allow attendance at the dedication ceremony, either
by the press, the public, or by any member of the Collins family
apart from Johnny himself. Only the officiating priest and an
altar boy were permitted to be present. Had an outraged off-duty
gravedigger, who tended Collins's grave, not accidentally come
across the melancholy little ceremony and hailed a passing tourist
with a camera, there would have been no pictorial record of Johnny
standing alone, apart from the gravedigger, at his famous brother's graveside."

‘‘It is my considered opinion that, in the fullness of time, history will record the greatness of Michael Collins, and it will be recorded at my expense.’’

~ Eamon de Valera

UPDATE
See G. Thomas Fitzpatrick's tribute to Michael Collins at Recta Ratio, which includes a reflection on a personal connection between The Big Fella and his grandfather.


For more on Michael Collins, see

General Michael Collins (website of the Collins 22 Society, of which I am a member)

Michael Collins - The Lost Leader

The Michael Collins Centre

The Michael Collins Web Page

An excellent and very comprehensive Michael Collins Site

A Man Against An Empire - History Net

Michael Collins Irish Leader - Economic Expert

Michael Collins - Military History Online

Michael Collins - University College Cork

The "Michael Collins" Official Movie Site

MICHAEL COLLINS - A Musical Drama

Michael Collins Irish Whiskey

Recommended Reading:

The Path to Freedom by Michael Collins

Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland by Tim Pat Coogan

Michael Collins: A Life by James MacKay

The Big Fellow: Michael Collins & the Irish Revolution by Frank O'Connor

Michael Collins : The Lost Leader by Margery Forester

Illustrated Life of Michael Collins by Colm Connolly

Michael Collins - A Life in Pictures by Chrissy Osborne

Michael Collins and the Troubles: The Struggle for Irish Freedom 1912-1922 by Ulick O'Connor

Michael Collins's Intelligence War: The Struggle Between the British and the IRA 1919-1921 by Michael T. Foy

The Squad: and the intelligence operations of Michael Collins by T. Ryle Dwyer

Michael Collins and the Making of the Irish State by Gabriel Doherty (Author), Dermot Keogh (Editor)

"Michael Collins' Ireland: Following In The Footsteps Of The Big Fellow From Dublin To County Cork", Chicago Tribune, March 7, 1999

Recommended Viewing:

"Michael Collins"
(1996 Neil Jordan film starring Liam Neeson in the title role - can be purchased via Amazon.com)

"The Treaty"
(1991 RTE/BBC production starring Brendan Gleeson as Michael Collins, in a much better portrayal of The Big Fella than that of Neeson - difficult to find, but a DVD copy can be purchased here)

"The Shadow of Béalnabláth"
(1991 documentary on the life and death of Collins by Colm Connolly - used VHS copies available on Amazon.com)

"Hang Up Your Brightest Colours"
(1973 documentary on the life and death of Collins by Kenneth Griffith; banned for many years in both England and Ireland - a DVD copy can be purchased here)

"The Wind That Shakes the Barley"
(2006 Ken Loach film is a fictionalized drama focusing on the War of Independence and the ensuing Irish Civil War in Collins' native Cork - can be purchased via Amazon.com)

Shake Hands with the Devil
(1959 film is a fictionalized drama starring James Cagney, Michael Redgrave, and Don Murray as members of the IRA battling the "Black and Tans" in 1921 during the War of Independence - can be purchased via Amazon.com)

Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
85th Anniversary of the Death of "The Big Fella", Michael Collins