Did Michael Collins have to go to West Cork? Diplomacy and provisional governments

Michael Collins with Arthur Griffith outside 10 Downing Street, London negotiations 1921

If Commander-in-Chief Collins were negotiating peace when he was shot, that is directly connected with the fact that he didn’t have a nice, quiet 10 Downing Street at which to hold his conference with anti-Treaty leaders in the Irish Civil War. Nor could his conferees have come there: as men on the run, at war with government.

In  The Lost Leader, M Forester intelligently observed that “A Commander-in-Chief does not fling himself on his stomach behind a ditch with a rifle to take pot shots at the enemy. Nor, for that matter, do heads of [state].”

However, she erred in comparing Collins to British leaders: secure in the enjoyment of a firm and wealthy dynasty, backed by centuries of relative stability, with the happiness to be free from armed conflict, on the steps of their own offices. A young provisional government, guerrillas only yesterday, faced very different obligations and challenges. Struggling to emerge from a violent military occupation, their society was turned upside down, their civil institutions in flux or non-existent, fraught by enemies within and without.

In such contexts, a Salvador Allende might find that the Presidential Palace (where certain death awaited) was perhaps precisely the place he had to be. It can likewise be seen that Collins, both in his role as C-in-C, and as erstwhile head of the Provisional Government, was fulfilling his appropriate role: pursuing diplomacy and negotiating peace.

Collins rode in a Leyland straight 8 touring car

Maybe the only way to make that happen, the only way to prevent imminent national disaster, was to take his life in his hands, into the wild back roads of West Cork; now. As it happened, perhaps that very place, at that moment, was where he was obliged to appear: because no one else had the authority, as well as the credibility, in addition to the will, and the power, to negotiate this peace, with these forces.

And, lest we forget, assassination en route to peace parlays, has historically been an occupational hazard for Gaelic leaders, who venture to negotiate with London.

R E A D    M O R E
on Irish History / Irish Civil War:
“The Assassination of Michael Collins:
What Happened At Béal na mBláth?”

by S M Sigerson
Paperback or Kindle edition here:
www.amazon.com/dp/1493784714

All other e-reader formats:
www.smashwords.com/books/view/433954

Read reviews:
http://www.rabidreaders.com/2014/12/03/assassination-michael-collins-s-m-sigerson-2/

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Was Michael Collins the difference? 1920s Irish Volunteers vis-a-vis 1970s Provisional IRA

Commander-in-Chief Michael Collins, centre, facing camera

How were latter-day Irish insurgents in Northern Ireland’s “Troubles” (1969 – 1997) connected with the “Old IRA” (aka “Irish Volunteers”) of the Anglo-Irish War 1919-1921? (aka War of Independence / Tan War) Have they lived up to the 1916 Proclamation’s invocation, praying to keep Ireland’s arms free from “inhumanity or rapine”? If some of their actions have earned censure, what, if anything, has that to do with Michael Collins? Is there any basis for laying part of such wrongs at his door?

The perverting impact of the Troubles upon Irish history and historiography since 1969 is but an example of the axiom that truth is the first casualty of war. Thus arch-revisionism at its most extreme insists that nothing must be said or written about the effective use of violence in the Irish past, in case it gives comfort to those who use violence in the Irish present.
– Ronan Fanning

Irish Volunteers – Hogan’s Flying Column

In Michael Collins, Ireland had a masterful, humane guerrilla leader who avoided civilian causalities. During the Anglo-Irish War, British authorities who tried to pursue random indiscriminate slaughter of civilians with impunity, swiftly won mutiny from their men, & execution by the Irish Volunteers.  However that is not to say that all Collins’ colleagues agreed on this.

“You’ll get none of my men for that,” said Collins.
“That’s alright Mister Collins, … I’ll get men of my own.”

This famous exchange was reportedly occasioned by a plan put forward by Cathal Brugha and DeValera, to machine gun civilians queuing at cinemas in England.

Still, the 26-county Republic of Ireland went on to build a peaceful, democratic state. At the same time, in Northern Ireland’s Stormont apartheid regime (ostensibly created to protect unionist Protestants from deadly anarchy they expected, should the Irish ever be allowed to govern themselves!) random killing of civilians became policy for the next 50 years; while Dublin & London silently sat on their hands.

But the targeting of civilians ran rampant only over Michael Collins’ dead body, and those of other key officers of the Volunteers; only after the Irish Civil War shattered the band of brothers (and sisters) which had forced London to the negotiating table.

McMahon family murders, Belfast, Northern Ireland 1922

By the same token, in 1972, Northern Ireland had a strong, peaceful civil rights movement; (largely inspired by that which had been championed by Martin Luther King in the USA.) But that didn’t suit London; or their loyalist representatives in Stormont. So the British Army shot the peaceful demonstrators off the Derry streets, in January 1972’s “Bloody Sunday” massacre.

Next day people queued up to joined the IRA. But it was an IRA with no Michael Collins

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.
– President John F Kennedy

The Provisional IRA sprang up under British and loyalist military assaults on civilians in Northern Ireland, in the 1970s. Called “Provisional” because, although an Irish Republican Army executive did exist at the time, it was not active in the North; and did not authorize in advance any re-commencement of armed resistance there. The Provisionals sprang up as a defensive force, among an embattled people, literally fighting for their lives. Self-defense being a universally recognized human right.

As to any of their actions which targeted civilians, these should not be considered without reference to the fact that, in this, the Provisional IRA were shooting back. Their actions were retaliatory. British / unionist authorities of the Stormont apartheid regime set the rules of engagement.

However, British brutality there was only a drop in the bucket of that Empire’s global regime of torture, inhumanity, and rapine. Their thousands of victims around the world, over centuries, dwarf the casualties in all Northern Ireland’s Troubles, and in all the IRA’s actions since 1919. Crimes of Britain

Ireland was not the only country where the British Empire used famine as a genocidal weapon against colonized peoples.

Yet Britain’s genocidal crimes in the name of Empire are rarely discussed. Few are even aware of their existence. Recent controversial legislation at Westminster aims expressly to prevent such discussion: or any investigation into crimes committed by British forces in Northern Ireland.  Apparently some have much to fear from a full accounting.

The past must be buried quickly and completely.
– Graham Greene “Our Man in Havana”

Is it an inevitable effect of gravity, that the least powerful are most blamed; while the actions of the great often go unquestioned? Or is it the inevitable by-product of any struggle between voiceless colonized people versus sophisticated imperialists and their public relations departments? Are we guilty of any unconscious tendency to excuse crimes commited in the name of government? Or do governments simply have the power to control the narrative, the information, the courts, and historical records?

 

Mau Mau uprising Kenya 1957

“I don’t lead terrorists. I lead Africans who want their self-government and land. God did not intend that one nation be ruled by another for ever.“
– Dedan Kimathi
executed leader of Kenya’s Mau Mau rebellion

As for the millions once “members” of the British Empire… none ever wanted to stay in it. Every nation has wanted out. After its debacles in Ireland and India, at length London began to realize what time it was. The Empire has since leaned toward a policy of gracefully bowing out, when the signs on the wall become unmistakeable. With the odd bloody exception, such as the Falkland Islands or… Northern Ireland.

How does the IRA compare with other armies?
An army is a problematic possession, for any country. Is there a blameless one anywhere?  Some would go as far as to say that all wars are wars on civilians, on women and children. 

Those who served in, for instance, the US or British armies in World War II are admired, eulogized. No one suggests they’ve anything to be ashamed of. Yet, in a close inquiry into which war was more just, which forces more free from inhumanity or rapine… the IRA would win hands down.

Peace process & truth commissions
It’s to be hoped that, in future, all parties will prefer peaceful revolutions. As has been official IRA policy since decommissionings connected with the 1997 Good Friday Agreement (aka Belfast Agreement.) .

Truth commissions are also an important part of peace processes. They should function freely, with the full cooperation of all parties.

R E A D    M O R E
on Irish History / Irish Civil War:
“The Assassination of Michael Collins:
What Happened At Béal na mBláth?”

by S M Sigerson
Paperback or Kindle edition here:
www.amazon.com/dp/1493784714

All other e-reader formats:
www.smashwords.com/books/view/433954

Read reviews:
http://www.rabidreaders.com/2014/12/03/assassination-michael-collins-s-m-sigerson-2/

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Why did Michael Collins travel to rebel-held West Cork at that time?

Collins went to Cork for something which was worth risking his life to get. He went for something which could not wait: which he had to do everything in his power to realize without delay, at all cost. He went to avert the Civil War’s bloodbath; and its legacy of lasting, crippling national division, which he could see was coming, if it were not stopped in time.

This is corroborated by many reliable witnesses from both sides, abundantly documented in related correspondence, recorded in his private conversations; and is thoroughly consistent with his character, behavior and priorities throughout the period.

It is easy to understand the urgency expressed in his many comments, on that journey. Up until the C-in-C’s assassination, the general damage incurred had been relatively minimal. “The [anti-Treaty] moderate wing … even at this stage was anxious to and hopeful of ending the clash with some honour.” 200 Collins felt deeply the death of his intimate friend Harry Boland, and was determined to prevent the loss of more comrades. It must be remembered, that he knew most all of the key military leaders of the independence movement. Many were personal friends, 201 having served together in 1916, in Frongach prison camp, and in the IRB.

The Civil War was never strictly black and white. Throughout the fighting, there were profoundly mixed feelings, in some of its leading players. There were both hotter and cooler heads on both sides. Efforts broke out continually to achieve a settlement. There were frequent conferences among prominent anti-Treaty officers, debating the wisdom and/or practicality of continued resistance. “I want no rancor.” Collins was particularly anxious to avoid any lasting animosity. He understood that, to avoid it, his former (and, as he hoped, future) comrades would need terms which they could accept as honorable.

John M Feehan observed that the IRA had no motive nor desire to assassinate Collins; that, on the contrary, they were well aware that he was their “only hope” in the Free State government. If so, in view of the holocaust which ensued after his death, they were right.

It cannot be over-emphasized that the Civil War before Collins’ death and the Civil War after Collins’ death were two entirely different animals. And that it was his pivotal leadership presence which made the difference.

R E A D    M O R E
“The Assassination of Michael Collins:
What Happened At Béal na mBláth?” by S M Sigerson
Paperback or Kindle edition here:
www.amazon.com/dp/1493784714

All other e-reader formats:
www.smashwords.com/books/view/433954

Read reviews:
http://www.rabidreaders.com/2014/12/03/assassination-michael-collins-s-m-sigerson-2/

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Was the Irish Civil War the counter-revolution? Reconciliation and the Irish Civil War – Part III

Revolution – 
Advanced Class
Did either side in the Irish Civil War escape manipulation into the course which most profited the British Empire? Ireland’s struggles, triumphs, and tragedies hold unique, invaluable and particularly vivid lessons for every nation

(Also see linked posts:
“Reconciliation and the Irish Civil War” Pt I & Pt II )

In the Revolutionary Decade 1913-1923, the Irish Civil War was a few months: one cataclysm, which accomplished what the British were powerless to do, with all the king’s horses and all the king’s men: it stopped the revolution in its tracks, and wiped out much of its top leadership, who’d made it all possible.

For what chance ever have the brave left captainless – what fate
but to be trampled down by the fools and cowards?
– Standish O’Grady “The Gael” 1903

The Treaty talks of 1921 were the first between Ireland and England since the 1690s. Decades of negotiation, thankfully, followed. No one today would be called a traitor for not bringing back a 32-county republic, on their first trip to London. Nor on their tenth. Even in the most radical circles, everyone knows that would be wildly unrealistic.

We have the experience of 1922 to learn from. But the amazing achievements of Ireland’s Revolutionary Decade were won by people who had never seen a functioning democracy (as we think of it.) They wanted a republic; but had never actually done democracy. (Some might argue that the world has yet to see true democracy still.)

 

Michael Collins

While it was perfectly justifiable for any body of Irishmen, however small, to rise up
… against [Ireland’s] enemy… it is not justifiable for a minority to oppose
..the majority of their own countrymen, except by constitutional means.
– Michael Collins

It’s safe to say that no one expected the kind of success that Ireland won, when London sought a Truce in 1921. So no one prepared for it. Or could think out in advance how to handle it.

Cumann na mBan (Irish Volunteers women’s organization)

We didn’t think we were going to win,
and we didn’t think we were going to lose.
We just wanted to have a go.
– Vinne Byrne of The Squad
The Squad

These diverse Volunteers, ordinary men and women of all ages and backgrounds, who’d held together so valiantly in the teeth of the enemy, then fell apart at the touch of a bit of success. They let an imperfect success spoil it all. They let the enemy divide them, and were conquered. They fell to squabbling in the presence of the enemy. That dismayed Ireland, but delighted British imperialists.

 

These men, who nobly and successfully strove against
sea, storm, and disease, all forces beyond their control, were
ultimately overwhelmed by forces they could have,
but failed to control: their [passions].
– Captain Bligh and the Mutiny on the Bounty

Thus, in the wake of their unexpected victory, in forcing the British to the negotiating table, Ireland’s heroic insurgents tragically failed their first test as a democracy. Anti-Treaty partisans, when voted down in the June 1922 Pact Elections, refused to lay down their arms, submit to the will of the majority, and participate in the new Dublin establishment as a minority opposition, as agreed in advance, in the Collins-DeValera Pact agreement.

Would they have done so, if not for the unexpected Assassination of Sir Henry Wilson  and ensuing bombardment of the Four Courts?  History will never know. By then, too many risks had already been taken with Ireland’s unity. The powder keg and fuse were in place, so that any spark could set it off; even as the two sides were perhaps on their way to defuse it.

Was it entirely their fault? Collins didn’t even blame them. He knew this could happen. It’s a headly atmosphere, with no rule book. Who among us could have done better, with the same tools, knowledge, in the same time and place?

Nothing really worthwhile can be achieved in just one generation. – Thomas Cahill
“How the Irish Saved Civilisation”

It may be said that revolution, like other quixotic ventures, requires immersing oneself in a kind of unreality. For seven hundred years, Ireland had upheld the tradition of a rising in each generation. What did it take: to keep nationhood alive, through hopeless centuries of forced vassalge to a violent foreign occupation force? Through ages of famine and slavery?

Two kinds of courage enabled the nation to struggle out of bondage – the patient, enduring courage that willed survival in the long years of defeat; and the flashing, buoyant courage that struck manfully, challenging fortune.
– Florence O’Donoghue

IRA 1922 Macroom, County Cork

Know your Enemy: the far right, far left, and revolutionary failures
For the shopkeepers and farmers and clerks who made up the Irish Volunteers, this was new territory. But British Imperialists learned it all as boys, in their old-school-ties. One need only read “The Twelve Caesers” to get a clue of the arsenal of political chicanery at their command. They were the inheritors of a thousand years‘ practice in putting down popular revolts; and eliminating great popular leaders.

Likewise, the pages of revolutionary history around the world, repeatedly record the downfall of revolution arising from factions furthest to the left. Extremists, mouthing the most violently more-radical-than-thou ideology, have often enough overturned revolution, as the far right tried, but could only dream of doing.

Many in the discussion of this history might be familiar with postures today, leaning furthest to the left, and clinging to the anti-Treaty side. Some to the extent of continued rejection of any Dublin government subsequent to the Second Dail, of a hundred years ago.

Proponents of that outlook may consider themselves (not without some justice) more republican, more incisively sophisticated in their penetrating critique of British imperial policy toward Ireland, than those who accept the “official story” version of Irish history, favored by the FF-FG Dublin establishment.

At the same time, those with practical experience of anything like revolutionary struggle, (the two being not always synonymous,) may realize… that leftists with powerful opponents cannot afford to engage in loud, ugly, public quarrells among themselves. Such altercations create prime opportunities for assailants to shoot them down (figuratively or literally); and set up comrades to take the blame (if not actual bullets.)

A leader must not be unmindful of the implications of his words,
especially when speaking to people just emerging
from a great national struggle, with their outlook
and their emotions not in a normal state.
Michael Collins, 1922 – “Free St or Chaos”
“Free State or Chaos” – Michael Collins on the Treaty

A small nation, which has just victoriously beaten all odds, in an uneven struggle against vastly superior forces of a world-class imperialist war machine… cannot maintain its success by splitting in two, and taking arms against comrades; with the battle for independence only half-won.

Remember that a …fluke of politics… may fling the enthusiast Into the bosom
of the opposite party to the one which he has served all his life.
– Stendahl

British cavalry leaving Dublin 1922

The Treaty was not the disaster. The way comrades treated each other over it was the disaster.

I’d rather have one Tom Hales with me, than twelve other men.  –   Michael Collins
(Praising Hales, who later led the ambush where Collins died.)

It is an injustice to the memory of revolutionary Ireland’s astounding unity, in the teeth of the world’s biggest empire, that any of their descendants should immortalize their worst error: by remaining frozen in it.

The Civil War had only begun when initiatives started to bring it to an end.
– Liam Deasy, Officer Commanding, anti-Treaty Southern Division

Surely they never intended that their most questionable decisions, in their weakest moment, should be extolled as some kind of inviolable gospel, for a hundred years after! What could more break their hearts, than to see future generations rigidly adhere to the single most disastrous error, in all their stunning achievements for Ireland?

Don’t let your past dictate your future.

“A conflict of comrades.. would leave Ireland broken for generations…”
When he fell, Michael Collins was touring the country, engaging in direct, secret talks with IRA units in every region; with the express purpose of pulling the Irish Volunteers back together again. Treaty or no Treaty.

His death ended those efforts. His erstwhile comrades on the anti-Treaty side, who had been persuaded to reject the leadership which had brought them so far; who’d decided that they could do as well without him… found that they were wrong.

In 1919, Ireland’s abstention from Westminster laid the foundation for independence. But anti-Treaty abstention from Irish government, from 1922, deprived their adherents of a voice in Dublin institutions for decades after. In this, had they no part in allowing the country to be dominated, throughout its crucial formative decades, by elements who took no action to recover the partitioned North; won not a single millimeter of Irish soil from British control; sunk Ireland in one hundred years of economic and moral morass and corruption? Becoming, over the dead bodies of Michael Collins, Arthur Griffith, and so many others, everything the anti-Treaty side said they were.

In short, proving James Connolly’s prophecy too true, that taking down the Union Jack and raising the Tricolor, in itself, solved none of Ireland’s problems. Dublin’s dominant political establishment has earned characterization as belonging to “those who did well out of the famine, and were determined to do even better out of the Republic.” (- J J Lee)

At the same time, credit where credit is due must be accorded the 26 county Republic of Ireland: for 100 years of massive development in flourishing, unique Irish culture, industry, education, freedoms, which would have been impossible under British rule. Dublin’s role in negotiations that ultimately brought about the Good Friday Agreement, opened the road to a more just society in all Ireland’s 32 counties; including the chance to address the unfinished business of Irish independence.

 

It seems easier to get the Republic from a government
working in Ireland by Irishmen than from
an Ireland under British rule.
– Jenny Wyse Power, 1922

Neither side is just black or white. It’s time to end the Civil War, as its combattants would surely have wished us to do by now. Praise the accomplishments and critique the wrongs on all sides, past, present, and in future; free from inhibition by any my-side-right-or-wrong mentality of armed camps. So that Ireland can more freely explore who we are, where we are, and where we could go from here.

R E A D    M O R E
on Irish History / Irish Civil War:
“The Assassination of Michael Collins:
What Happened At Béal na mBláth?” by S M Sigerson
Paperback or Kindle edition here:
www.amazon.com/dp/1493784714

All other e-reader formats:
www.smashwords.com/books/view/433954

Read reviews:
http://www.rabidreaders.com/2014/12/03/assassination-michael-collins-s-m-sigerson-2/

OR ASK AT YOUR LOCAL BOOK SHOP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RECONCILIATION and The Irish Civil War Centenary 1922-2022

 

We will never tell anyone who we are until we know who we are.
We will never get anywhere until we know where we are.
– Malcolm X

The Civil War Centenary can hardly be a celebratory commemoration; yet neither dare we forget. Nor is it enough to repeat by rote time-worn rhetoric handed down from that day to this; depending on which side our forebears embraced; or on the political expedience of the moment.

(Also see linked posts: “Reconciliation and the Irish Civil War” Part II and Part III on this blog site.).

Like the Centenary of the Easter Rising, this is a priceless opportunity for deepening our understanding of who we are, where we’ve come from, and where we might go from here. A chance to re-examine the meaning of independence, patriotism, history; the meaning of Ireland itself.

It is offered that there can be no better means to commemorate that generation’s achievements & hardships, than a fearless moral inventory, and unsparing scrutiny of the Civil War in all its aspects, on all sides.

How could anyone more substantially express respect for their good intentions, reverence for their sacrifices, gratitude for the very same combattants’ immense achievements in the Tan War / War of Independence of 1919-1921?

The Civil War divide
As in any country which has suffered the tragedy of civil war, personal feelings or factional outlook may color Irish views. Bitter recriminations continue to resound over it, to this day.

At the same time, reconciliation has become a cornerstone of astounding achievements in Ireland wp.me/p43KWx-9z It’s been at the core of policies & dialogue which, in our lifetime, helped free Northern Ireland from the violent Troubles, which once seemed eternal & insoluble.

Courgeous people do not fear forgiving for the sake of peace.
– Nelson Mandela

Yet for all the amazing work done on reconciliation between Catholics & Protestants, between Nationalists & Unionists… never has anything been heard about reconciliation within Ireland, over the Civil War split, now a hundred years old.

There can be no reconciliation where there is no open warfare.
– M E Braddon

There remain those in Ireland for whom the clock stopped with the Second Dail (1922): who still refuse to accept the legitimacy of any subsequent Dublin government. On the opposite extreme are those who abhor the memory of any war with Britain, who objected to the commemoration of the Easter Rising, & even would seem to sigh for a return to the British Crown!

It’s said that truth is the first casualty of war. Truth recovery must therefore be both the first step and ultimate goal in any responsible remembrance: the alpha and the omega.

For the Civil War Centenary, this will require partisans of both sides to acknowledge not only what our side says happened: but also to listen to what patriots on the other side say happened. Not only to celebrate those whom we look on as the heroes of the day, not only to lament the wrongs they sustained; but also to hear heartfelt tributes and greviances from the other persuasion.

To hear that heroes of the independence struggle were shot by former comrades; others shot by former British soldiers in green uniforms, some by firing squads, and some by secret service assassins. Some were beaten and died in Free State custody. Some fell to anti-Treaty mines. Yes, and to hear that some elements in leadership, as history has taught us to expect, perhaps sold out the popular victory for a piece of London’s pie.

Now two Russias will be facing each other.
Those who were sent to prison. And those who sent them there.
– Anna Akhmatova

The Republic and the republican movement today have suffered from these flaws in their foundations. A lot of politics and policy have been based on fallout from the Civil War.

Yet, as Michael Collins’ story itself demonstrates, that period remains so controversial, that there is still a great deal of confusion about what in fact actually did happen. wp.me/p43KWx-7o That child-bed of the nation was so recent, so chaotic and volatile, that public discussion and public record about it has been distorted: both in flawed institutions of the south, in republican rhetoric of the north... and, dare we add, in British versions (so as not to say “coverups”.)

Eighty years of institutionalized inhibition of historical research often left the public with little but oral traditions to judge by. Without access to reliable, scholarly analysis, it has been all but impossible to make an accurate assessment of that era, or of its meaning for subsequent generations.

This has sometimes allowed mistaken analysis, misfired arguments, rumour, or open wounds to stand in the place of history. Such errors have in some quarters been carried on and enshrined like some sacred scroll; as Ireland wandered through the wilderness of the 20th century. Since the 1970s, new generations, wrestling with these legacies, have brought new hope, new conflicts, tragedies, and victories.

We are only beginning to unravel that story now. Perhaps the first lesson here is that the lessons of the Civil War have not yet been fully learned.  

Margaret Skinnider fought in the Easter Rising and served the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War

 

Our debt to the past
To those who lived through that crucible of fire, because it was the only path they could see to Ireland’s independence… we owe a great debt. We owe it to them to ferret out the painful truths of that crippling wound in the national psyche; or we’ll never get beyond it. Or their suffering would truly have been in vain.

Certainly such reassessment will not be possible without constructive, realistic criticism of the actors in those events.

I admired the men and the women [engaged in the Easter Rising]… I admire Connolly… Tom Clarke & [Sean] MacDiarmada… They have died nobly at the hands of the firing squads.

But at the same time… the actions of the leaders should not pass without comment… On the whole I think the Rising was bungled terribly, costing many a good life. It seemed at first to be well organised, but afterwards became subjected to panic decisions and a great lack of very essential organisation and cooperation.
– Michael Collins (private letter)

Can this generation well afford to do less by the Civil War, which continues to haunt, and even control, so many aspects of national life, than Collins did here for the Easter Rising? Is it not the duty of the survivors to learn all that can be learned, not only from the successes but also from the failures of those who went before?

Were there really any heroes in the Civil War? Certainly none who are universally revered. One side’s patriotic martyrs may still be regarded by descendants of the other persuasion as enemies of Irish freedom.

Whatever heroism there may have been in that hell paved with the good intentions of some of Ireland’s best and brightest… the Civil War certainly had no winners.

Is it time for all persuasions to openly acknowledge that this was a failed strategy, for both sides? Could this be a fertile occasion for facing up to its catastrophic consequences, which Ireland is still living with today? To candidly discuss who we are, where we’ve been, and where we might go from here, together.

May your choices reflect your hopes not your fears
– Nelson Mandela

This post includes excerpts from:
“The Assassination of Michael Collins:
What Happened At Béal na mBláth?” by S M Sigerson
Paperback or Kindle edition here:
www.amazon.com/dp/1493784714

All other e-reader formats:
www.smashwords.com/books/view/433954

Read reviews:
http://www.rabidreaders.com/2014/12/03/assassination-michael-collins-s-m-sigerson-2/

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“The Murder of Michael Collins” gets the Paddy Cullivan treatment

“The Murder of Michael Collins” is an online video by Paddy Cullivan; as well as a live performance piece. See www.paddycullivan.com for details, tickets, links, and itinerary. While this writer cannot completely concur with his analysis in every point, his presentation is extraordinary, in every sense of the word; and merits extraordinary notice.

If you want to tell people the truth, you’d better
make them laugh, or they’ll kill you.
– George Bernard Shaw

For those familiar with musical satirist Paddy Cullivan’s unique approach to Irish history, he needs no introduction; and… the very idea of the death of Collins in his hands is rather mind-boggling… fascinating… if not frightening! Still, quintessentially Irish, in his wry determination to stare down the bottomless travesties there, until they yield their reducto ad absurdum. Cullivan uses tears of laughter like a magic prism, enabling us to explore these agonies & ecstasies, triumphs & tragedies to new depths. Which perhaps we might never reach, without the liberating and envigorating tonic of humour.

My own book, The Assassination of Michael Collins: What Happened at Béal na mBláth?, www.amazon.com/dp/1493784714 was the first on this subject since John M Feehan’s landmark edition of 1991 (The Shooting of Micheal Collins: Murder or Accident?) My highest ambition, in writing it, was to build on Feehan’s work: like him, not to “sell” any one theory, but to help people study the case. To enable the public and future researchers to better examine the evidence fully, for themselves.

Since publishing it, I’ve waited, sometimes breathlessly, for the appearance of other new works on the topic to follow; especially as the 2022 Centenary of Collins’ death wp.me/p43KWx-96 drew nearer.

I hoped to see other works take up the tale in the same spirit; which would be penetrating, disinterested, disciplined, and illuminating.

Well, many are called, but few are chosen. Down the ages, discoveries of note have sometimes emerged from surprising places. I confess I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find more research of value, and more interesting analysis, in Cullivan’s persuasive pastiche of lecture, lampoon, & song, than can hardly be found in any work on the death of Collins to appear since my own. All of this richly illustrated with rare visuals from the period; including copies of orginal historical documents; some aired here for the first time.

Let me write a nation’s songs, and I care not who writes its laws. – Daniel O’Connell

Cullivan’s original songs for the show, and masterful music production, deserve air play of their own. I hope music radio is listening. In Ireland, his catchy pop broadside “Béal na Blah Blah Blah” https://youtu.be/Z9CvohYT-b0 could and should go right up the charts; especially for the 2022 Centenary year. Cullivan is a first-class musician, well-known (in Ireland) as vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, & producer. (Glad I’ve lived to see the day when performing artists can have their work in other fields taken seriously, such as in literature or politics.)

Cullivan manages also to make his video a kind of bibliography on the topic, giving on-screen space to a crowded bookshelf of sources. (While his particular comments on The Assassination of Michael Collins: What Happened at Béal na mBláth?, www.amazon.com/dp/1493784714 far exceed expectations, they could never win from the author any praise for Cullivan’s work, but that most richly deserved.)

Who IS Paddy Cullivan…?

History is a scholarly pursuit, but not an exact science. Proper academic researchers have been known to protest the popularity of mere mortals, with no letters after their names, poaching on their domains, so to speak. Raising the inevitable question:

Who IS Paddy Cullivan to dare trespass where academics have feared to tread in this history?

The truth is, institutions often fail us. Nowhere more spectacularly than in the death of Michael Collins.

That doesn’t mean we can do without them. Institutions are necessary. Expertise is necessary. The public needs protection from critical decisions & information affecting society being handed out by any Joe Blow, whether they have a clue or not.

At the same time, institutions are made by humans, run by humans; and therefore subject to all the usual human frailties. They cannot be treated like infallible deities.

Institutions are created to serve, not rule, humanity. Therefore they must continually satisfy the public that they’re doing their jobs. Admittedly, this can be problematic: how does the public judge experts’ performance, in areas where they have less expertise than the experts whom they must monitor? Not only in academic studies, but in such critical organs as law, government, medicine, science? These epistemological questions are at the heart of countless current controversies, as we speak.

Thankfully, experts’ work must be subject to constant peer review; as well as the universal tribunal of common sense. While these, too, can err, it’s the best we can do. Human society & human institutions are subject to these eternal margins of error, which we must all bear in mind.

This is precisely why the voice of Joe Blow is not without its place and value. Just as the innocent, uninitiated, uninformed may sometimes be the only one to step forward and candidly exclaim, “Look! The Emperor has no clothes!”

History is a field particularly vulnerable to such pot-shots from the peanut gallery of inquiry, so to speak. It is a field in which we are all swimming, all immersed; which we are all living with the profoundest consequences of, every day. It’s an area of study in which innovative, multi-disciplinary approaches may prove remarkably effective; especially where an “official story” regime has managed to stifle institutions.

I challenge any academic researcher to take in Cullivan’s work, to excel it, or even… to avoid relying on it!

But above all to explain how and why academics have managed to so completely fail and neglect the elephant in the room of modern Irish history: the death of Commander-in-Chief Michael Collins, erstwhile Chairman of Dublin’s first native Provisional Government… So as to leave it to be unearthed by the likes of your humble servant; and by such as the inimitable Paddy Cullivan… who at this time stands in serious danger of… becoming an Historian!

Look out for his personal appearances, bringing the live version of “The Murder of Michael Collins“, and other shows, to a venue near you.

Read more
“The Assassination of Michael Collins:
What Happened At Béal na mBláth?”

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1493784714

by S M Sigerson

Paperback or Kindle edition here:
www.amazon.com/dp/1493784714

All other e-reader formats:
www.smashwords.com/books/view/433954

Read reviews:
http://www.rabidreaders.com/2014/12/03/assassination-michael-collins-s-m-sigerson-2/

Or ask at your local book shop

The coverup of Michael Collins’ assassination continues

courtesy of Collins Press

Like myths, books can either illuminate facts, or obscure them.  In the run-up to the Centenaries of Ireland’s War of Independence (1919-1921) & Civil War (1922-1923), the battle of ideas has begun.
Are some new books part of the same old coverup? How to tell good books from other kinds? S M Sigerson, author of “The Assassination of Michael Coliins: What Happened at Béal na mBláth?” (and of this blog) asks and answers these questions; and talks about the experience of chronicling the death of Collins.

Writing about Michael Collins tends to fall into three categories: The first (and best) is by authors whose aim is to enable the public, and future historians, to better understand what happened: by providing information, perspective, analysis, and other investigative tools. Such authors present their own opinions on the case in this context, as opinions, while encouraging further research and critique.

The second category would be by authors whose chief purpose is to focus on their own particular theory of what happened; who aim to persuade us that their theory is the right one. Whether it is or not, they, too, often unearth valuable research and raise important issues.

Within the second is a third, more suspect group, such as often crops up where politics are concerned: written with intent to discredit an individual, a political movement, etc. Created, that is, in order to obscure the facts. These may come disguised, to attract an unsuspecting public: proclaiming themselves as fearless exposés; and/or masking their intent with dulcet language of objectivity, scientific method, etc.  Some have even come decorated by academic credentials from lofty institutions.

As we approach the 2022 Centenary of Michael Collins’ death, this third type of commentary has begun to rear its ugly head. Much in the style of “fake news” and outrageous fabrications with which powerful and dangerous elements have lately bombarded the public, from the highest places, such sprurious studies aim to create general confusion. Confusion which, in turn, disarms criticism and resistance. Resistance to … most questionable proceedings indeed.

Such works and the writers thereof, being otherwise beneath our notice, shall remain nameless here.

Writing about the death of Collins

What I here make public has, after a long and scrupulous inquiry, seemed to me evidently true … Whether it be so or no, I am content the reader should impartially examine.      – George Berkeley

This writer came to Michael Collins’ story with a mind as nearly completely open as could be found, in anyone who cares enough to write about it at all. Not having grown up in Ireland, there was no pressure of Civil War loyalties to either side, in my background.

Nor had I any preconception whatever as to how he died. At first, I accepted the sketchy standard version which appears in most biographies of him. As my interest and acquaintance with the topic grew deeper, I gradually became dissatisfied with that version. Initially, only a little dissatisfied; until at last I grew convinced that his death had not been adequately investigated; neither at the time it happened, nor subsequently by historians.

It also became clear that Collins’ end can only be discussed intelligently, with a working understanding of both sides in the Civil War. In my own writing, I sought to present both sides, in a style digestible not only for general readers, but also for enthusiasts who might sympathize with either the pro-Treaty or anti-Treaty viewpoints: trying to give equal time to both, and letting them speak for themselves in their own words, as much as possible.

It is the practice of some more cynical commentators (described above,) to attack anyone who tries to do so, as a dangerous, wild-eyed partisan; that is, anyone who does not participate in silencing one side of the discussion.

People in Ireland are well-used to this technique; with which they have been sadly acquainted ad nauseum throughout The Troubles of the 20th century; and in the surrounding debate, ever since.

S M Sigerson’s work, obviously written from the heart, is a valuable contribution to the literature on Michael Collins and should be available in any self-respecting Irish library.             – Tim Pat Coogan

I trust in the public, in future generations, and in the passage of time, to ultimately sort true from false, among conflicting claims about the life and death of Michael Collins.

I call for a full catalog and compendium of Collins’ own letters and writings, which are infinitely more valuable to history than anything that subsequent writers can say about him. Looking forward to the 2022 Centenary, I again urge all individuals and institutions holding such materials, to cooperate in realizing this, with speed.

I also repeat my call for an independent forensic examination of his remains; which could conclusively answer many points now debated in theory.

I encourage those with an interest to examine all writings about Michael Collins.
Then, you be the judge.

Read more:
“The Assassination of Michael Collins:
What Happened At Béal na mBláth?”

by
S M Sigerson

Paperback or Kindle edition here:
www.amazon.com/dp/1493784714

All other e-reader formats:
www.smashwords.com/books/view/433954

Read reviews:
http://www.rabidreaders.com/2014/12/03/assassination-michael-collins-s-m-sigerson-2/

Or ask at your local book shop

Also see:
“Studying the death of Michael Collins:
Deception, evasion, and perception”
www.academia.edu/34795377/Studying_the_death_of_Michael_Collins_1890_-_1922_.rtf

 

2022 Michael Collins Centenary: What happened at Béal na mBláth?

 

Michael Collins’ 2022 Centenary will offer unprecedented opportunities to examine, celebrate, and reflect on the meaning of his life and death.
How should it be observed?

Ireland’s “Decade of Centenaries” marches on, with much to explore, celebrate, and remember; ultimately culminating in 2022: the 100th anniversary of Collins’ death.

The 2016 Rising Centenary brought to light a wealth of original materials, records, testimony, which had long languished unexamined, inaccessible to the public. It opened a vast, new, fertile debate in Ireland, on the Rising’s meaning, causes, effects. How successful was that revolution? Is Ireland truly independent today? Has it ever been? Can Ireland yet be called independent while the UK still claims dominion over six counties in the North? Was violent conflict unavoidable? Did taking down the Union Jack & raising the Tricolor, as James Connolly warned us, in itself, solve none of Ireland’s problems?

The study of this period has thereby been greatly enriched, on countless levels; which may never be understood in our lifetime.

The Rising, while it was neither the beginning nor the end of the Revolutionary Era, would always be important in itself, even if it were a stand-alone event.

Its greatest significance, however, is in those who survived it: who went forth from it to organize and carry on the cause of independence, in the amazing achievements of 1919-1921 (The War of Independence / Tan War.)

In this there is much to be learned: about what happened to the dream and promise of the 1916 Proclamation, and those who fought for it.

These are questions still debated today. Most of us, inside & outside of Ireland, recognize the establishment of the Dáil & Dublin government, the conclusive departure of the British Army and British colonial administration from 26 of 32 counties, as a tremendous achievement; as Collins (a Rising veteran) himself said, “…beyond our wildest dreams in 1916.”

Most are likewise painfuly aware that the unfinished business of Irish independence, whether behind a northern border, or in the corridors of Dublin government, is the challenging legacy left for this and future generations to resolve. wp.me/p43KWx-9z

Between now and 2022, we’ll have a chance to celebrate the achievements of those who survived the Rising: to raise the siege which forced the British to the negotiating table (a development considered unthinkable in 1916.)

In the big picture of Michael Collins & his story, 2022 is not merely a once-in-a-lifetime chance. It’s not only the chance of a century. His 100th anniversary will happen just once ever, period. One time only will this particular, most uncommon generation gather for a new in-depth review of his life & death, from this unique vantage point: when the smoke of those conflicts is just clearing, while his deeds still ring in living memory, among generations who were reared by those who knew him personally. Generations who have been revolutionary, in their own ways. In short, perhaps better equipped to discover, explore, understand what happened to him; with a vital role to play, which no future generation might be able for.

To ponder his death and his life eternally

Now is the time to fulfill two fundamental needs, which have inhibited our understanding of Collins, and of Ireland’s history:
– a complete, authoritative catalogue of all his writings and correspondence; and
– a forensic examination of his remains: to right the wrong done by the 1922 Dublin governement’s failure, neglect, and refusal to hold an enquiry into his death.

Short of a united Ireland, what better way to honour his memory?

Read more
“The Assassination of Michael Collins:
What Happened At Béal na mBláth?”
by S M Sigerson
Paperback or Kindle edition here:
www.amazon.com/dp/1493784714

All other e-reader formats:
www.smashwords.com/books/view/433954 

Read reviews: 
http://www.rabidreaders.com/2014/12/03/assassination-michael-collins-s-m-sigerson-2/ 

https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/the-assassination-of-michael-collins

Or ask at your local book shop