Just Finished Reading: Michael Collins and the Troubles – The Struggle for Irish Freedom 1912-1922 by Ulick O’Connor (FP: 1975) [209pp] 

Tension in Ireland had been building for some time. Periodic rebellions across the island, although more prevalent in the South, had long been a feature of life there. As the 20th century progressed it became obvious, even to the British parliament in London that something needed to be done. The answer it seemed was to give Ireland a form of independence similar to the Dominion status of Canada and Australia within the British Empire. Not everyone, of course, was happy with the idea of Home Rule – both in England and in the north of Ireland specifically – and the passage of the Bill through parliament was far from easy. A further complication arose with the start of the Great War and Home Rule was delayed until after hostilities has ceased. Tensions, however, continued to rise with activists on both sides of the issue starting to arm and train for future conflict both in support of Home Rule (or indeed full Independence) or to fight against it. This culminated in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin and the subsequent brutal British response. With the end of the War in Europe talks began again regarding Home Rule with now three factions arming heavily – those in favour of the Home Rule bill being implemented, those fighting for full Independence from the British Empire and those fighting (in the northern counties) to remain within the Empire. A Civil War was brewing in Ireland and Michael Collins, one of the leaders in the Rising, was at the heart of things. 

This slim volume covered much of the ground I’d read about in various other books regarding this turbulent period in Anglo-Irish history. Despite being necessarily brief, it did manage to cover the Easter Rising in some detail over around 3-4 chapters and I picked up a few more insights into that pivotal event. It was interesting to see how the Rising could have been much more effective (or at least longer lasting) if the plan for a much wider rebellion had managed to go off as expected or if a large arms shipment from Germany had been delivered into Republican hands as planned. But what I took from this book was the importance of some of the leading players in the drama – and not only Collins himself. Although hundreds of men (and women!) took part in the Easter Rising itself and many thousands of others in the subsequent Civil War, it was the big players (mostly men, but with a few notable women too) who directed things for good or ill both in Ireland itself and within the English establishment in London. I’ll definitely be reading more about them going forward. I also wanted to read more about the leaders of the Rising who were arrested afterwards and eventually executed in England for treason.  

England has had a LONG and difficult relationship with its close neighbour to the west, and I’m really only just still scratching the surface of that troubled history. As I get older, I’m becoming more interested in my Irish heritage so want to understand the background to incidents such as this (for one thing I only discovered that Ireland even HAD a Civil War just a few years ago!) so expect more Ireland focused books in the years ahead. Oh, and just one other thing... Although Michael Collins does feature quite a bit in this book – especially in the second half – this isn’t really about him so much as the role he played in things during and after 1916. On the back, the book is classified as a Biography. It isn’t. But, as a well-written and concise look at the 10-year period from 1912-1922 its pretty good. More to come.