The Late Mr. Michael Collins

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 35, 7 September 1922, Page 19

The Late Mr. Michael Collins

THE BURIAL: DUBLIN IN MOURNING. A cable message under date August 28, to .the daily press, conveyed the following details of the funeral of the famous Irish leader ' • Mr,. Michael Collins’s funeral was the greatest demonstration of mourning ever seen in Dublin. Full' military and civic honors were accorded him. Immense numbers lined the route, which was four miles long, embracing most of the principal Dublin thoroughfares. x - _ A Requiem Mass was celebrated at the Pro-Cathedral in the morning, at which foreign consuls and distinguished military and civic leaders were present. Mr. Lloyd George and Mr, Winston Churchill were represented." The procession was headed by an escort of cavalry and 1000 soldiers on foot (the pick of the National Army), followed by a gun carriage. Six bands-played funeral music, including national dirges by Irish pipers. At the graveside a detachment of Dublin Guards formed the firing party. Mr. Collins was buried in the centre of a plot specially • reserved for soldiers of _ the National , Army", so' that the dead chief lies among His old comrades. Thousands of workers from Londonderry arranged picnics at Buncrana to-day, but the Free State authorities banned it out of .respect for Mr. Collins. THE LATE LEADER’S CAREER. The late Mr. Michael Collins, deader of the Free State Government, was easily , the • most dramatic figure in the events which culminated in the concession of, Irish selfgovernment. He was born in •1890, and educated at Clonakilty and King’s College, London. He is said to have been at one time a sorter at the General Post Office, and afterwards a clerk in a Dublin firm of accountants. Captured and imprisoned for his share in the Easter rebellion, he was released in the amnesty. Afterwards he became celebrated for the number and « ingenuity •of his escapes and disguises while “on the run,” ; He was organiser and adjutant of the : Irish Volunteers, and was generally regarded as one of the ablest of the Sinn Fein leaders. He was elected unopposed for South Cork County in 1918, and as Finance Minister of the Sinn Fein Government was one of the delegates to London who signed the Treaty. At this year’s election he headed the poll for,, Cork, with 10,000 votes above the next number. ; “To those ; of us who. came in contact with Michael Collins during the days when he had a 50,000d0l price on his head,” wrote Joseph W. Grigg in the Baltimore Sun, , there is nothing surprising in the fact that he has become the greatest peace man in the Sinn Fein ranks.” Mr. Grigg noted in passing that, although do Valera was in America during the worst days while Collins was in Ireland, it turned out that Collins was able more easily to put aside his memory of those days than was the Republican chieftain. The correspondent continued: “Collins was, the . most-hunted man in. Ireland for more than a year, on the 1 assumption that he was the actual head- of the’Re- ; publican army. But Collins was ■ perhaps the chief n- : strument -in holding the ; political structure, of Sinn Fein H. together in the days of greatest, pressure upon it. Collins • himself has given the best reason for supporting the AngloIrishagreement.lt, is that it offers a starting point for the new Ireland. De Valera, on the whole, would risk the structure of Irish independence, because ; •he J. objects -to

some of the stones in the foundation. Mr. Collins is, therefore, showing himself to be the very practical man , that those who were acquainted with him during Ireland’s darkest days knew him to be. ; / “He was even practical in his method of escape. On one occasion when the ■ “Black-and-Tans” were close upon his trail lie stood outside the building which was being raided and watched the search, and to ascertain where they would go afterward. He took chances, practical chances, as it always turned out, though on one occasion when I happened to be in the Irish capital Collins delayed; his getaway a bit too long, and had to leave his . headquarters scantily clothed. And Collins,: just for the sake of words, or faults in some of the foundations, is taking no, chance on Irish peace. - / : . ■ * - “There was another outstanding' evidence of his practical judgment during the days when the Crown forces came nearest to destroying the Sinn Fein machine. ’ Collins knew that to keep the Crown forces on his trail, even at the risk of his own life,, would be to keep them off the trail of men who were actively directing military operations. Only one who had first-handed experience of the intensified raiding conducted to find Collins realises how much effort was thus wasted. I saw Collins board a street car one afternoon when not a block away a young .army was engaged in combing half a mile of Dublin streets and houses to nab him.” , —