Their Volunteer Company Including Michael Collins example essay topic

Michael Collins 1. On the 16th October 1890 Michael Collins was born in West Cork near Sam's Cross, named after Sam Wallace, a local highwayman. Michael was born to father Michael Senior and mother Marianne O'Brien. Even though there was a 52-year age difference it did not stop them from making Michael the youngest of 8 children.

Collins' father, Michael Senior, said on his deathbed 'Mind that child', pointing to his six-year-old son. 'He " ll be a great man yet, he " ll do great things for Ireland". His elderly father's words were to be thought of as a hollow prophecy, but there was still much modeling and learning for the young Collins to go through before he would emerge as a central figure in the uprising of Irish independence for the first time in 750 years. Two figures were very influential to Collins growing up was local schoolmaster, Denis Lyons, and blacksmith, James San try. Both instilled an acute sense of history and nationalism in the bright and lively young boy. As a child, Collins was fiercely competitive and was enraged at defeat in any form.

At school he excelled and at the age of 15 passed the Boy Clerkship for the British Post Office. So he packed his things and moved. Collins lived with another Post Office employee, which happened to be his sister H annie, in West Kensington. Collins through his sister, mixed with London society fitting in well. Although he was known to Address face to face anyone making a derogatory remark about Ireland.

Joining the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) - a group that promoted Irish culture and language - and the Gaelic Athletic League (GAL) where he played football and hurling furthered his nationalism. What he lacked in skill in these games, he more than made up for with his natural aggression and willingness to win. 2. It was in November 1909 when nationalism really began to be favored when being sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) at Barns bury Hall. At the age of 19 Collins had little time for the Irish Parliamentary Party.

He did admire, however, Arthur Griffith and his political party that Sinn Fein, founded in 1905. By 1910, Collins had begun work in a stock broking firm, Horne and Co, and picked up bookkeeping skills, which were to prove useless later on in life as he collected a national loan for the Republican movement. By mid-1914, Collins had enrolled as an Irish Volunteer - a poorly armed force formed to counter the formation of the Ulster Volunteers - in the No. 1 Company in King's Cross. Early in 1916 he received word that there was to be a Rising in Ireland. Collins informed his employers that he was leaving to join his unit.

His employers naturally assumed he meant the British Army and was given a raise and a great send-off. In Dublin, he soon found work with an accountancy firm and moved into lodgings at 44 Mountjoy St and began the preparations for a Rising. 3. It was Easter, Monday, April 24, 1916.

Dublin City had been bathed in sunlight over the weekend and the holiday atmosphere remained as many traveled to the beaches and hundreds of British soldiers had been given leave to attend a race in Co Kildare. It was expected to be quiet day yet at that moment, Patrick Pearce and James Connolly led their Volunteer Company, including Michael Collins, to take possession of the imposing General Post Office building on Sackville St. They would strike against the Empire 'in full confidence of victory', according to the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. The reality however, was a little bleaker. By January of 1916, The Supreme Council of the IRB had decided that a Rising was to take place on Easter Sunday.

By this stage the Irish Volunteers had split into two groups: the larger group (170,000 men) stayed loyal to John Redmond's Irish Parliamentary Party who fought for Britain in World War I in an attempt to gain home rule for Ireland. The other and smaller group (10,000 men) came under the command of Eoin MacNeill. These men were regarded by the IRB as essential to the Rising. 4. On Easter Monday, 1916, 26-year-old Michael Collins marched towards the GPO as aide to James Connolly, head of the Irish Citizen Army, by now associated with the Irish Volunteers. Both men first met when Connolly was kidnapped by the IRB.

And so Collins was at Connolly's side in the GPO when the leader was shot in the ankle and thigh, and later when he was brought to the Rotunda hospital to surrender. On the Easter Monday, Patrick Pearce had read out the proclamation of the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic to amazed onlookers in the porch of the GPO. While other volunteer Companies secured other strategic buildings around the city. Later that evening, the British Army arrived on the scene. When four were killed in a volley of shots, the remainder dispersed. The next day 2,500 British troops mobilized in the city, reinforced by a further 2,000 who landed from England and a gun-boat, The Helga, on the Tuesday.

The gunboat bombarded Sackville St, destroying most of the buildings and injuring and killing hundreds of civilians. 5. While the Rising was a military disaster, an isolated rebellion in Ashbourne, on the same day was to change the nature of warfare against the British. A small column of Volunteers had attacked a much larger RIC forces and succeeded in forcing the group to surrender. Two Volunteers were killed compared to ten RIC members. The success of this guerilla-type warfare had not gone unnoticed by Collins and his Followers.

Open pitched battles against numerically superior forces were foolhardy - from now on Collins was to adopt this guerilla warfare and tailor it to an urban setting with deadly consequences. 6. The site chosen for the ambush was south of the Beal na Blath crossroads, which overlooked the main road along which the convoy was to pass. Three mines were laid along the road. Armed Republicans were allotted ambush positions in the area. They settled down to wait beneath a sultry sun until Collins would return.

However, as light began to fade at 7: 30 pm, the men wondered if Collins was to pass again that evening. Commander D easy thought that the convoy might had stopped at a barracks for the night, so he ordered that the mines be disconnected and the party disperse. Meanwhile Collins's convoy was returning from the journey westwards. His presence in the towns caused a sensation with people turning out to wave and cheer for him. Before leaving for the return journey back to Cork, he was warned twice that an ambush party lay in wait in the Beal na Blath area. As one local postman surmised: 'Collins is gone west, but he won't go east'.

Collins typically dismissed, laughed, and shrugged off the warnings. By eight o'clock light was fading and a veil of mist shrouded the evening as the convoy of vehicles neared the valley of Beal na Blath. The scout rider, Lt Smith, led the convoy and as they entered the valley flanked by overgrown trees, and ditches. As the sound of motor vehicles rattled the air, shots broke out from the few remaining Republicans in the valley. Dalton was experienced in ambush situations. As Republicans scurried up a lane way, Collins yelled: 'Stop!

Jump out and we " ll fight them. ' With little experience of rural ambushes, Collins's orders was naive, impulsive and, as it turned out, fatal. The Republicans were in disarray. The scattering of men who were not equipped, it seemed to take on a convoy, which included an armored car and men of the caliber. Meanwhile, the armoured car moved up and down the road several times, passing over the harmless disconnected mines. Gunner Jock Mc Peak kept up a heavy fire with the Vickers machine gun at the largely invisible enemy along the elevated lane way.

The ambushers at this stage were not by any means out for victory, but were anxious that the convoy be intimidated into moving on. 7. For most of the convoy, Collins had been using the cover of the Crossly tender with Republicans firing from the surrounding hills in front and behind him. The convoy was under fire by this stage for about 35 minutes. A lull in the firing hung in the air, but as some Republican gunfire broke the silence, Collins saw them retreating up from the site. Collins reloaded his gun, jumped up abruptly shouting to his comrades: 'Come on boys, there they are, running up the road'.

At this point Collins was in the open roadway with no cover, surrounded by some of the most experienced flying men in the country. As he moved backwards to get a better view of the retreating men, a single shot rang out across the valley lacerating Michael Collins's head at the base of the skull behind the right ear. As he fell awkwardly to the ground, firmly gripping his rifle. Off the elevated lane way, to the back of Collins, Republican Sonny O'Neill - an ex-British army marksman - made off into the darkness. He had lingered for a last shot and instinctively felt he might have hit the tall officer. Meanwhile, on the road light and life were fading fast as Sean O'Connell dragged Collins to shelter under the covering fire of Dalton.

Realizing he was beyond human aid, both knelt beside the dying leader. As O'Connell whispered the Act of Contrition into his ear, Collins responded with a slight pressure of the hand. Dalton attempted to cover the gaping wound. As he later recounted, 'I had not completed my grievous task when the big eyes quickly closed and the cold pallor of death overspread the General's face. ' The Commander-in-Chief of the National Forces, Michael Collins, was dead. 8.

On August 24, as the remains of Michael Collins lie in a decorative oak coffin, it was slowly brought to Glas nevin Cemetery, while a nation mourned. The shooting has caused the history of Ireland to be changed forever. With talk of peace, Collins's violent death had shattered all hopes of reconciliation between the Free State forces and the Republicans. The real tragedy of Collins's death was that it took place during a Civil War, between former comrades-in-arms. Michael Collins's attempts to end this bitter struggle cost him his life and robbed a fledgling state of a promising founding father.

Bibliography

Web Pages web Michael Collins and the Troubles: The Struggle for Irish Freedom 1912-1922 Author: U lick O'Connor Publisher: W.
W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393316459; Reprint edition (November 1996) Title: The Big Fellow: Michael Collins and the Irish Revolution Author: Frank O'Connor Publisher: St.
Martin's Press, Inc. (February 1998) Newspaper Articles Paper: New Statesman Title of Article: Ulster's First Minister waits to see if Gerry Adams turns out to be Eamon de Valera or Michael Collins.
Author: John Lloyd. (1996) August 28, 1998 vs.
127 n 4400 p 10 (2) Paper: U.S. News & World Report Title of Article: Recalling Ireland's pragmatic hero. (Remembering Michael Collins in Northern Ireland) Author: Tim Zimmerman. Sept 8, 1997 vs.