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Mercier Press, Unit 3b, Oak House, Bessboro Rd, Blackrock, Cork, Ireland



MERCIER PRESS

3B Oak House, Bessboro Rd

Blackrock, Cork, Ireland.


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First published in hardback by Mercier Press


This edition © Estate of Iosold Ní Dheirg, 2017

© Front cover: Stella Macdonald, 2017


ISBN: 978 1 78117 491 3

Epub ISBN: 978 1 78117 596 5

Mobi ISBN: 978 1 78117 597 2


This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

A West Cork Boyhood

Though he was only thirty-two years of age when he died, Michael Collins had become in his short life the first Irishman the English feared since Eoghan Rua Ó Néill.

He was born in West Cork, which is not only one of the loveliest parts of Ireland, it is also remarkable for the way in which it has kept its strong Irish traditions. Its people suffered all the horrors of the Great Famine, yet their spirit was unbroken. The slavishness and sense of inferiority only too common in other parts of our country were less evident there. For West Cork was the country of that ‘unconquered and unconquerable man’, O’Donovan Rossa, whose monument stands today in St Stephen’s Green, in Dublin.

The monument to Michael Collins stands beside his mother’s home at Sam’s Cross, a few miles from Clonakilty. He himself was born nearby at Woodfield (or Pál Beag in Irish) on 16 October 1890. His father, Michael, was a man of many talents. A farmer, he was also skilled in building and carpentry. He had received an exceptional education from a hedge-schoolmaster, Diarmuid Ó Súilleabháin, who taught him Greek, Latin, French and Mathematics. He knew both Irish and English, and read all the books he could find.

His wife, Mary O’Brien, bore him eight children, of whom Michael was the youngest – and the pet of the family.

In due course Michael went to school at Lisavaird. The schoolmaster, Denis Lyons, was a forceful personality, and strongly influenced the little boy, who often spoke of him with respect in later years. Lyons, who was a Fenian and a member of the IRB – the Irish Republican Brotherhood – was one of the first to foster the spirit of nationality in Michael.

Of course, there were other people who influenced him, too. The little boy, who excelled at lessons and sport, liked nothing better than to hear tales of olden days from the older people of the district. In particular, there was the local blacksmith, James Santry, himself the son of a smith who had forged pikes for the risings of 1848 and 1867, and whose father before him had been out in 1798. It was in this way that the traditions of Irish nationality were fostered and handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation by an intelligent, though often unlettered, people.

The spread of primary education brought educational benefits. Unfortunately, it had one grave flaw: it tended to destroy what remained of the national language and the national culture. The aim was to make Irish children into law-abiding British citizens, loyal to the British throne. Only the influence of courageous individual teachers combined with parental influence could, and often did, redress the balance.

Next in importance was the influence of books. Fortunately for Michael, all his family were fond of reading, and so he also became a great reader, as can be judged by the fact that at twelve years old he was already studying the writings of Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Féin and a journalist of great ability. Griffith’s was the voice to which all that was young and generous in Ireland listened in those days. Little did Michael think that one day he would work with Griffith in the cause of Irish nationality.

When Michael was thirteen years old, it was decided that he should prepare for the entrance examination for the British Postal Service. Many young people from West Cork joined the British civil service each year, having first attended the civil service class in Clonakilty. Michael joined the class and passed the examination for a post boy clerkship. In 1906, when he was fifteen, he went to London, where his sister Johanna was already working. He took up his first job as a boy clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank in West Kensington.

The Gate of Opportunity

Michael Collins was never a person to waste time. In later life, when he had to bear the responsibility for several important posts, he was noted for his efficiency. The foundation had been laid when he was young. Much of his free time was devoted to acquiring useful skills and improving his general education. During his stay in Clonakilty, he taught himself typewriting. He even learned rudimentary sewing, as he believed that even a man should know how to sew on a button!

So it will be seen that working in London had many advantages for him. It enabled him to attend courses which helped to better his position at work. His elder sister Johanna helped him to complete his education, and took a great interest in his study and his work. It was in London also that he met other young Irishmen, many of whom, like Joe O’Reilly, were to work with him in the cause of Irish freedom.

The Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletic Association were then flourishing in London as well as in Ireland. Among those associated with the Gaelic League in London in the first ten years of the century were the writers Micheál Breathnach of Cois Fharraige and Pádraic Ó Conaire who, with P. H. Pearse, were to be the founders of the school of modern Irish literature.

It is strange to us today that Michael, whose parents were Irish speakers, had to wait until he went to London before getting an opportunity to learn the language of his ancestors. The deliberate exclusion of the language from the National School programme led a great number of Irishmen to believe that Irish was the language of poverty and backwardness. It is one of the many strange contradictions in Irish history that the rediscovery of the Irish language and its literature by the educated classes took place when it was being discarded in favour of English by the Irish-speaking majority. You could only ‘get on’ in those days by using the language of the conqueror.

It is rare for the first generation of English-speaking children anywhere to return to the language of their fathers. Michael Collins was an exception in this as in many other ways. He saw that Irishmen worthy of the name should know Irish. That the English conquest of Ireland must be ended was recognised by many of his countrymen; few saw that their English speech set the seal on that conquest.

With his usual thoroughness, Michael started to learn Irish. In later years, his political activities left him little time to perfect his knowledge. He intended to retire to the West Cork Gaeltacht and master the language properly once the war with England was over. Unfortunately, he did not live to do so.

Many Irish boys in London joined the Gaelic Athletic Association. Michael played both hurling and football. He joined the Geraldine Football and Hurling Club and later became its secretary. His interest in Irish sports lasted all his life.

In 1909 he took the fateful step of joining the IRB. In a very short time he was promoted, becoming treasurer of London and the south of England in 1914. Earlier, he had left the Post Office Savings Bank and secured a position in a firm of stockbrokers, where he remained until 1914. After the outbreak of the First World War, he took up a position in an American firm, the Guaranty Trust Company of New York. The experience of international finance gained during this period was to prove invaluable to him when he became Ireland’s first minister of finance.

The assistant manager of the company said of Michael later: ‘his duties were simply those of an ordinary bank clerk, but he was recognised as a man of considerable ability. It is conceivable that during his employment with the company he would have many interests outside those by which he earned his daily bread, but if he had, there was no indication of them in his habits and he was never unwilling to do his share of late work, which at this time was continuous. Only on very rare occasions did his sunny smile disappear, and this was usually the result of one of his fellow clerks making some disparaging and, probably, unthinking remark about his beloved Ireland. Then he would look as if he might prove a dangerous enemy.’

For some time, Michael had been thinking of going to America, where better opportunities existed for able and intelligent young men. But when he left, it was to go to Ireland in answer to the call of Seán Mac Diarmada of the IRB, which was now engaged in organising a rising against British rule.

The commissionaire of the Guaranty Trust was an ex-serviceman of the British Army who believed that all men of military age should be at the front, fighting for Britain and the freedom of small nations – Ireland alone excepted. He was delighted when Michael came to say goodbye: ‘So you’re joining up at last?’

‘Yes.’

‘The best of British luck to you, my boy,’ said the commissionaire.

‘Thank you,’ said Michael quietly. And he smiled as he walked away, knowing that he was answering the call not of the British king but of An Sean Bhean Bhocht.

‘They Gave Me of Their Best’

At noon on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, the Irish Volunteers and the Citizen Army marched from Liberty Hall to the General Post Office (GPO). At the head of the column were the three leaders: P. H. Pearse, James Connolly and Joseph Plunkett. Just behind marched Plunkett’s aide-de-camp, young Michael Collins, a soldierly figure in his staff captain’s uniform, tall and light of foot.