Collins, Michael

Irish nationalist. He was a Sinn Fein leader, a founder and director of intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1919, a minister in the provisional government of the Irish Free State in 1922 (see Ireland, Republic of), commander of the Free State forces in the civil war, and for ten days head of state before being killed by Irish republicans.

Born in County Cork, Collins joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood while working in London, and in 1916 returned to Ireland to fight in the Easter Rising. Following his release from prison in December 1916, he became a leading republican organizer and in 1918 was elected Sinn Fein member to the Dáil (Irish parliament). Appointed minister of home affairs and then minister for finance, he continued to maintain a dominant position in the Irish Volunteers (later the IRA) as a director of organization and intelligence. During the Anglo-Irish War (1919–21) he was noted for his skilful infiltration of the British intelligence system in Ireland and ruthless assassination of its operatives. In 1921 Collins helped vice-president Arthur Griffith to negotiate the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and encouraged the support of key IRA figures. He became chairman of the pro-treaty provisional government and, during the ensuing civil war, commander-in-chief of the national army which crushed the opposition in Dublin and the large towns within a few months. When Griffith died on 12 August 1922, Collins became head of state but was ambushed and killed near Cork on 22 August.