Michael Collins - Ireland in Schools

‘Ireland in Schools’ Blackpool Pilot Scheme Learning & Achievement, CYPD
National Secondary Strategy - Thinking Skills/Leading in Learning
Michael Collins
A fortune line
by
Alison Montgomery, Collegiate High School, Sports College
Contents
About this unit
Sequence of activities
Glossary
Fortune line
Cards for sorting
Plenary - what, and how, have we learned?
Note for teachers: The Anglo-Irish war
For more resources on the Anglo-Irish war, please go to
http://journals.aol.co.uk/iis04/trials/entries/896
Watermarks
Front page: Michael Collins, 1921
Page 3: Neal Jordan directs Liam Neeson
in the filming of Michael Collins.

About this unit
‘Fortune line’ or ‘Impact line’
This unit of work revisits a strategy used earlier in this suite of materials.
The fortune line in ‘Tudor Ireland’ sets out
• to sequence events in the lives of Elizabeth I and Grace O'Malley;
• assess the effects that events had on their lives; and then
• compare the two life stories for relative fortune and misfortune.
In this case, the ‘fortune' line becomes an ‘impact’ line. The issue here is not how events
impact on individuals, but how individuals can influence events.
The activity becomes a tool for framing an argument, as it addresses a range of viewpoints
about the overall impact that Michael Collins had on events in Irish history. It enables
pupils to come to an informed conclusion, which they should be able to justify.
‘Moving debate’
The unit also revisits the strategy of the 'moving debate', which was used in the materials
for 'Cromwell in Ireland'.
Pupils are asked to place themselves on a continuum between two points in the room
according to how far they agree or disagree with a judgmental statement (in this case:
‘Michael Collins put Ireland on the road to independence’).
There is a point in the middle for those who cannot come to a conclusion.
All responses are acceptable, as long as they can justify their positions according to what
they have learned.
After a sample of justifications, pupils are asked to reconsider their position based on how
they have been persuaded by the arguments given.
Preparation for GCSE
The tasks in this unit should provide some preparation for the skills required at GCSE. It
is therefore likely that it will appear towards the end of Key Stage 3, though there is
nothing to prevent it being taught earlier.
Blackpool, Fortune line - Michael Collins, 2

Sequence of activities
1. Using the fortune line on page 3 and the cards on pages 4 and 5,
a. put the story of Michael Collins in chronological order.
b. identify the high points in his career and justify your opinions.
c. identify the low points and justify your opinions.
2. How has Michael Collins influenced Irish History?
Why do you think his influence grew so quickly?
3. ‘Michael Collins put Ireland on the road to independence.’
Using all the information in the activity, explain how far you agree or disagree with
this statement?
Start this task with a ‘moving debate’.
Glossary
Boycott
Constitution
Dáil (doyle)
Dominion
IRA
Loyalist
Nationalist
Republican
Royalist
Sinn Fein
Unionist
Refusal to deal with a person or institution.
A written document setting out principles on which a country is founded and
the rights its people enjoy.
Irish parliament.
Self-governing independent state within the British Empire.
Irish Republican Army.
Person who is loyal to the crown of the United Kingdom; an extreme unionist.
Person who is loyal or passionately devoted to his or her own country.
Extreme Irish nationalist who favours an independent 32-county republic,
achieved by violence if necessary.
Person who believes in government by monarchy, with a king or queen as head
of state.
An organisation that wanted to re-establish full political, economic and cultural
independence of Ireland from Britain through a policy of non-cooperation,
including a boycott of parliament.
Someone who believes in the union of Ireland with Britain.
Blackpool, Fortune line - Michael Collins, 3

Fortune line
High
Impact
Low
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
Blackpool, Fortune line - Michael Collins, 4

Cards for sorting
Michael Collins was born on the 16th October 1890 in County Cork.
His first influences were his teacher Denis Lyons who belonged to the Irish Republican
Brotherhood (IRB) and the village blacksmith, James Santry, who was a Fenian. He was
told stories of Irish Patriotism. He grew up with a strong sense of pride in Ireland and
in being Irish.
At 15 Michael Collins moved to London. He worked as a clerk for the Post Office and he
lived in a large Irish Community in London. He joined Sinn Fein and the Gaelic League, and
in 1909 became a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB)
In 1916 he returned to Ireland to take part in the Easter Rising. He received a
Volunteer's uniform as Captain Michael Collins. He played a minor role in the Rising but
his sense of duty and clear-headedness were remembered.
Following the Rising he was made a prisoner of war and was sent to Richmond Barracks
and later Frongoch internment camp in Wales.
He was released in December of the same year and went back to Ireland.
His goal was to revitalise the campaign to get Independence for Ireland.
During the Period between 1917 –1918, his activities included:
• Creating an intelligence network
• Organising a national loan to fund a rebellion
• Creating an assassination squad (‘The Twelve Apostles').
Within 3 years of creating an intelligence network, Michael Collins was wanted by the
British and had a price on his head.
January 1919, the Anglo-Irish War began. The Royal Irish Constabulary became the
target of a Sinn Fein terror campaign, which was arranged by Collins. He thought there
was much to gain by provoking England to war.
Blackpool, Fortune line - Michael Collins, 5

During the Anglo-Irish War Michael Collins had been made President of the IRB. At the
same time he was made Minister of Finance in the Dail government and commander of
the IRA.
On 21st November 1920 Michael Collins' squad assassinated 14 British officers,
destroying the British Secret Service in Ireland.
In retaliation for this assassination the British (Black and Tans) fired on a crowd
watching a football match at Croke Park. 12 people were killed. The day became known as
Bloody Sunday.
During this period Collins fell in love with a woman called Catherine Brigid Kiernan,
commonly known as Kitty. From 1921 until his death they exchanged 300 letters. They
became engaged at the end of 1921.
In October 1921 Collins was sent to London to negotiate a treaty. They were difficult
negotiations and took 3 months before Collins and Arthur Griffith agreed that Ireland
should have dominion status within the British Empire (meaning that Ireland could
govern itself but remain within the British Empire).
Collins simply saw the treaty as the start of a process that in his eyes would lead to full
independence for what was now the Irish Free State. It is said that when he signed the
treaty he said, ‘I tell you, I have signed my death warrant’.
Some believed that Collins had sold out to the British government.
Those that did not support the treaty fell into violence and a civil war broke out. Many
followed Collins in accepting the treaty, and were known as ‘Regulars’. Those that didn't
support the treaty were called ‘Irregulars’. He made every effort to avoid civil war. He
drafted a new constitution, which he hoped would be acceptable to the republicans.
Never a desk commander, on 22nd August 1922, Collins journeyed to County Cork. He
was due to meet troops of the new Irish Army. His car was ambushed at a place called
Beal na mblath and Collins was shot dead. To this day, no one is completely sure what
happened or who killed him. No one else was killed in the ambush.
Blackpool, Fortune line - Michael Collins, 6

Plenary - what, and how, have we learned?
Working in pairs, consider the following types of thinking:
Information processing skills
Reasoning skills
Enquiry skills
Creative thinking skills
Evaluation skills
Suggest what you think each of these types of thinking require you to do.
Which of these types of thinking do you think you have most used in this task?
Explain why you have decided this.
In which other subjects have you used this type of thinking?
Explain what, when and how you have used it.
Which life skills could this type of thinking prepare you for?
Blackpool, Fortune line - Michael Collins, 7

Note for teachers: the Anglo-Irish War
Adapted from The Oxford Companion of Irish History, edited by S.J. Connolly, OUP, 0-19866-240-8, pp 15-16, 47
Republican campaign
The Irish Volunteers, now increasingly known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA), mounted an armed campaign, now called
the Anglo-Irish war, against government forces in Ireland to defend the Irish Republic established in 1916. The campaign is
conventionally dated from 21 January 1919, when nine Volunteers, including Dan Breen and Sean Treacy, killed two
policemen in an ambush at Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary. It continued until a truce on 11 July 1921 opened the way for the
negotiation of the Anglo-Irish treaty, concluded on 6 December 1921.
Guerrilla warfare
The development of a highly effective form of guerrilla warfare, wholly different from the tactics of the rising of 1916 or
earlier insurrections, represented a gradual adaptation to practical necessity, dependent more on local initiative than on
central planning. IRA activity during 1919 consisted mainly of arms seizures and attacks on individual policemen. A
successful attack on the police barracks at Carrigtwohill, Co. Cork, on 2 January 1920, marked the commencement of more
ambitious raids and ambushes. By June the IRA had killed 55 police. Sixteen occupied barracks had been destroyed in
attacks, and hundreds of others abandoned as indefensible. In Dublin members of a squad directed by Michael Collins had
begun systematically killing off detectives from the political division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police.
British response
In response to this challenge the government deployed regular troops and created two new forces, the Black and Tans 1 and
Auxiliaries, to reinforce the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). The Restoration of Order in Ireland Act continued and extended
the emergency powers created by the wartime Defence of the Realm Acts. But the draconian security policy alienated the
civilian population without suppressing IRA activity. The events of late 1920, notably ‘Bloody Sunday’ (21 Nov) and the
killing of fifteen Auxiliaries in an ambush at Kilmichael, Co. Cork (28 Nov), marked a sharp escalation in violence. The
same period saw the appearance of ‘flying columns’, bodies of IRA men permanently under arms of the kind led by Tom
Barry in Co. Cork and responsible for the Kilmichael ambush. Continued violence in the first half of 1921 brought the total
death toll for the period to 405 police, 150 military, and an estimated 750 IRA and civilians.
IRA’s war
The term ‘Anglo-Irish War’, like the older ‘War of Independence’, raises complex issues. IRA activists and leadership
determinedly employed the vocabulary of conventional warfare to assert their status as combatants in a national conflict. In
doing so they glossed over the sporadic, hit-and-run character of most operations, the limited scale of the violence prior to
late 1920, and the predominance among the early victims of the IRA of the locally recruited, and predominantly Catholic,
RIC.
British government’s police action
The government was equally determined to deny the ‘murder gang’ the legitimacy of belligerent status. It condoned reprisals,
including the widespread destruction of property in such incidents as the Black and Tan raid on Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, on
20 September 1920, and the ‘sack’ of Cork city by Auxiliaries and Black and Tans on 11-12 December 1920. It also ignored
the assassination, clearly by security force members, of several republican activists. But Lloyd George’s insistence that ‘you
do not declare war on rebels’ meant that the military never got a really free hand, and that authority remained confusingly
divided between police and army.
Status of IRA
Assessment of the IRA’s claim to represent the popular will is also difficult. Modern historians, reacting against an earlier
tradition of uncritical glorification, have emphasized the extent to which violence was deliberately employed by a militant
minority to block any possibility of a compromise settlement, and the ruthless action, shading into a more general
intimidation, against ‘informers’ and ‘collaborators’. IRA activity was geographically uneven, high levels of activity in the
western counties of Munster and part of the midlands contrasting sharply with relative tranquillity elsewhere. Although the
Dail had declared as early as January 1919 that a state of war existed between Britain and Ireland, a section of Sinn Fein was
known to be unhappy with the bloodshed. IRA activists for their part demonstrated a reluctance to submit to the authority
either of Volunteer GHQ or of the ‘politicians’ of Dail Eireann. These divisions were later to contribute to the Civil War of
1922-3. But for the moment what was remarkable was the success with which differences were concealed in the face of a
common enemy.
1 Black and Tans
The failure of the Royal Irish Constabulary to combat IRA raids in 1919 convinced the government that the police needed to be reinforced. From January 1920
British ex-soldiers and sailors were recruited and, by November 1921, some 9,500 such men had joined the RIC. A shortage of RIC uniforms meant that recruits
were issued with khaki military trousers and dark green police tunics. Although full RIC uniforms were soon substituted, this mixed dress gave rise to the new
policemen’s distinctive sobriquet, the Black and Tans. Hurriedly and inadequately trained, recruits were posted to RIC barracks, mainly in Munster, west Connacht,
and Dublin. Thus strengthened, the RIC from mid-1920 was encouraged to pursue the IRA more vigorously. The government, at first tacitly and then openly,
condoned reprisals by the police. The leading role of the Black and Tans in some of these incidents may have been exaggerated, as British-born and Irish-born
policemen were difficult, when in full uniform, to tell apart. Nevertheless, the Black and Tans gained a fearsome reputation for brutality, which only helped alienate
the population from the RIC as a whole. Of policemen recruited in 1920–1 over one-third died, were dismissed or discharged, or resigned: a very high wastage rate
indeed, attesting both to the difficulties of service and to the inadequacies of recruits. But 63 per cent went on to secure government pensions when the RIC was
disbanded in 1922.
‘Ireland in Schools’, 19 Woodlands Road, Liverpool L17 0AJ. Email: iis02@aol.com. Internet: http://iisresource.org