michael collins

[mohammadk18]

he may have not been a communist, but he IMO is one of the greatest leaders of the last century... incase u dont know him, his name is michael collins and he is a member of the IRA and he was behind the independance of ireland from britain.

id like to know what u people think of him

[Tupac-Amaru]

Some call him a terrorist.

Personnaly i got no opinion on him.

[PRC-UTE]

He was a sellout who got what he deserved. Cheers to the West Cork IRA.

Kind of like a cross between Napoleon and Mao. EDIT: By that I mean he used a People's War to fight the Brits and supported the development of Irish Soviets, but once he came into power he was a British puppet, a man who claimed to be saving Ireland from communism.

[Cal]

If you've any links on the subject mate would love to know a bit more about him.

Cheers in advance.

[sin miedo]

Did he ever claim to be fighting the war in name of communism though? As for an English puppet, he got the Irish more than anyone before him. True it wasn't everything, but what if he had refused the treaty? The brits were ready to engage in a full scale total war against the IRA.

[PRC-UTE]

Did he ever claim to be fighting the war in name of communism though?

No, but as Minister of Finance in the underground Irish governemnt, the Dáil, he claimed to support the Irish Soviets and Cooperatives that were springing up throughout the country. The resistance of Irish workers in the form of general strikes and the forming of soviets was as important as the armed struggled waged by the IRA and the Irish Citizen Army.

Michael Collins also claimed to be a follwer of James Connolly, a Marxist organiser for the IGWTU (and one-time Wobblie). He had even served as Connolly's bodyguard in the Rising of '16. So essentially it was a bait-and-switch. Nowadays we know to expect that sort of thing. Mick was something of 'third positionist'. The Irish Fascist movement, the Blueshirts, were a faction within the party Collins founded, Fine Gael.


As for an English puppet, he got the Irish more than anyone before him.

That's not really the issue, what bothers me is that he opened fire on his own comrades who didn't support the treaty -- using English artillery and armoured cars.

To his credit, he did supply weapons to the IRA units in the north who were fighting to defend themselves from RUC/Loyalist pogroms.


True it wasn't everything, but what if he had refused the treaty? The brits were ready to engage in a full scale total war against the IRA.

In the two most intense areas of the war, Dublin and Cork, the IRA was solidly anti-Treaty. The Marxist red army, the Irish Citizen Army, were not divided but were 100% anti-Treaty. They felt they could keep fighting.

Also, England had launched total war against Republican held territories -- completely burning the centre of Cork and other areas. They were unbowed.

The fact was that, according to the out-going commander of the English forces in Ireland, the Brits would've had to put all Irish civilians in concentration camps, destroy all food, follow a total scorched earth policy, plus saturation bombing to defeat the Irish republicans! These were steps England couldn't take because England was following America's lead.

England couldn't continue a low-intensity conflict, either, as the IRA had completely destroyed their intel when they sacked the Customs House. :lol:

Cal,

This is about the only source I could find that&#39;s not blatant hero-worshipping. <_<

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Collins_(Irish_leader)

For anyone who wants to know more about the conflict from 1916 - 1921, or at least more than what happened in the movie Michael Collins I&#39;d recommend two books above all others: Guerilla Days in Ireland by Tom Barry and On Another Man&#39;s Wounds by Ernie O&#39;Malley.

[Cal]

Cheers buddy, you&#39;re always good for a link ;)

[mohammadk18]

That&#39;s not really the issue, what bothers me is that he opened fire on his own comrades who didn&#39;t support the treaty -- using English artillery and armoured cars.


if anyone it was eamon devalera who did that... michael collins was a man with balls... and without him ireland would have been under british rule maybe til now... hes a gerat man, he was also the man behind the idea to assasinate the 14 english secretary members (whatever they were)... which made the englsih shit their pants. i think he was no less of a hero as che guevara was&#33;

i hate eamon de valera though... hes a self centered sellout IMO