In this completely revised and updated book, T. Ryle Dwyer, offers a fresh perspective on Collins' activities. With new information about his role in organising the IRB in London in his youth right through to his death in 1922, Dwyer's analysis supports the case for Collins as the chief architect of the Irish victory over the British Empire. Michael Collins co-ordinated the sweeping Sinn Féin election victory of 1918 and put structure on the organisation of the IRA. He was the prototype of the urban terrorist and the architect of the war against the Black and Tans. While many have questioned whether Collins ever fired a shot at an enemy of Ireland, he did order the deaths of people standing in his way, and he even advocated kidnapping a US President.

When President of the Irish Republic Michael Collins signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, he remarked to Lord Birkenhead, 'I may have signed my actual death warrant.' In August 1922 during the Irish Civil War, that prophecy came true – Collins was shot and killed by a fellow Irishman in a shocking political assassination. So ended the life of the greatest of all Irish nationalists, but his visions and legacy lived on. This authorative and comprehensive biography presents the life of a man who became a legend in his own lifetime, whose idealistic vigour and determination were matched only by his political realism and supreme organisational abilities. Coogan's biography provides a fascinating insight into a great political leader, whilst vividly portraying the political unrest in a divided Ireland, that can help to shape our understanding of Ireland's recent tumultuous socio-political history.

This is a unique collection of photographs that catalogue the life of Michael Collins. The photos follow Collins from his childhood and into the political turbulence of the era. The book includes many illustrations of the buildings and locations he would have known in Ireland and Britain but as they are today.

'It was the most providential escape yet. It will probably have the effect of making them think that I am even more mysterious than they believe me to be, and that is saying a good deal.' Michael Collins knew the power of his persona, and capitalised on what people wanted to believe. The image we have of him comes filtered through a sensational lens, exaggerated out of all proportion. We see what we have come to expect: 'the man who won the war', the centre of a web of intelligence that 'brought the British Empire to its knees'. He comes to us as a mixture of truth and lies, propaganda and misunderstanding. The willingness to see him as the sum of the Irish revolution, and in turn reduce him to a caricature of his many parts, clouds our view of both the man and the revolution. Drawing on archives in Ireland, Britain and the United States, the authors question our traditional assumptions about Collins. Was he the man of his age, or was he just luckier, more brazen, more written about and more photographed than the rest? Despite the pictures of him in uniform during the last weeks of his life, Collins saw very little of the actual fight. He was chiefly an organiser and a strategist. Should we remember him as a master of the mundane rather than the romantic figure of the blockbuster film? The eight thematic, highly illustrated chapters scrutinise different aspects of Collins' life: origins, work, war, politics, celebrity, beliefs, death and afterlives. Approaching him through the eyes of contemporaries and historians, friends and enemies, this provocative book reveals new insights, challenging what we think we know about him and, in turn, what we think we know about the Irish revolution.

Michael Collins was a pivotal figure in the Irish struggle for independence and his legacy has resonated ever since. Whilst Collins’ role as a guerrilla leader and intelligence operative is well documented, his actions as the clandestine Irish government Minister of Finance have been less studied. The book analyses how funds were raised and transferred in order that the IRA could initiate and sustain the military struggle, and lay the financial foundations of an Irish state. Nicholas Ridley examines the legacy of these actions by comparing Collins’ modus operandi for raising and transferring clandestine funds to those of more modern groups engaged in political violence, as well as the laying of foundations for Irish financial and fiscal regulation.

'Michael Collins, Himself' focuses on the man behind the mask. Not the soldier, statesman or guerrilla, but the real, human Michael Collins. This unique approach offers insights into Collins' personal life and the crucial role women had to play in it; his likes, dislikes, interests and personality; and includes the memories and anecdotes of members of his family and descendants of those who knew him. The book is accompanied by photographs of the man himself at all ages, as well as places and people associated with him.

An account of John A. Pinkman's childhood in Liverpool's Irish community and his involvement in the IRA and the civil war in Ireland. He presents an eyewitness account of the fighting in Kilkenny, Dublin and Munster, and supplies information on the deaths of Cathal Brugha and Michael Collins.

An evaluation of the contribution made by Michael Collins to the making of the Irish state. A series of specially commissioned essays, written by some of Ireland's leading historians (academic and popular), on the contribution made by Michael Collins to the making of the Irish state. This is a professional evaluation of Michael Collins which brings to light his multi-faceted and complex character. The contributors examine Collins as Minister for Finance, his role in intelligence, his policy towards the north, his career as Commander-in-Chief, the origins of the Civil War, his relationship w.

In print continuously for more than thirty years, this book is long established as a reliable and affectionate portrait of Michael Collins. First, published in 1971, its great strength is that the author was able to interview Collins' surviving contemporaries and was offered unrestricted access to personal and family material. Michael Collins: The Lost Leader has been praised by authorities such as Robert Kee and Maurice Manning and remains compulsive reading even today.