Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony
Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony
Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
Waiting for SIPO Anthony Public Inquiry >>
Promoting Human Rights in IrelandHuman Rights in Ireland >>
Why Does Everything in Britain End Up Like An Episode Of Dad?s Army? Tue Sep 02, 2025 09:00 | Guy de la B?doy?re Why does almost nothing get done properly in Britain? It's because they follow one simple law, says Guy de la B?doy?re: every organisation, committee and project will inevitably degenerate into a scene from Dad's Army.
The post Why Does Everything in Britain End Up Like An Episode Of Dad?s Army? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Can the Tories? Junking of Net Zero Be Trusted? Tue Sep 02, 2025 07:00 | Ben Pile It's great that Kemi Badenoch says the Tories will now drill in the North Sea. But can the party that brought us the fracking ban and windfall tax be trusted while its wet-green wing is still at large? asks Ben Pile.
The post Can the Tories’ Junking of Net Zero Be Trusted? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Tue Sep 02, 2025 00:34 | Toby Young A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
?Overwhelmingly White? Countryside Needs More Halal Food, Report Claims Mon Sep 01, 2025 19:52 | Will Jones The British countryside is "overwhelmingly white" and needs more halal food, a report from the University of Leicester?s Centre for Hate Studies on "rural racism" has claimed.
The post “Overwhelmingly White” Countryside Needs More Halal Food, Report Claims appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The End of The Great Disabling Mon Sep 01, 2025 18:09 | Mary Gilleece Is this the beginning of the end of the Great Disabling? Policy Exchange's excellent new report 'Out of Control' nails the reasons why the medicalisation of childhood is so harmful to children, says Mary Gilleece.
The post The End of The Great Disabling appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en
Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en
The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
Was Michael Collins assassinated?
national |
arts and media |
opinion/analysis
Thursday December 19, 2013 23:17 by M Congannon

New book re-opens the case
"The Assassination of Michael Collins: What Happened At Béal na mBláth?" by S M Sigerson (Kindle / Create Space 2013) is a controversial new study about the revolutionary leader's death.
This new work about Michael Collins is generating some fierce arguments in online forums. For those who haven't heard, Collins was a leader of Ireland's War of Independence (1919-21). He's adulated by many as one of the founders of modern guerilla warfare. In any case, he was at the helm when Ireland, after 700 years of trying, finally forced the British to the negotiating table.
In 1922, shortly after signing a controversial treaty with England, he was shot to death. And that's where the debate begins. Was it a simple military action? Was it an assassination? Although my first question is "After ninety years, why doesn't anyone know?"
The more I tried to research whether this book is to be believed, the less I found anyone can tell us about exactly how Collins died. "Accident of war" is the argument which is hotly defended by some. Assassination buffs consider the suspicious factors too many to accept. Writers like Bernadette Devlin have called it "mysterious," even though he was in uniform, with an army convoy, in the midst of the Civil War, at the time,
Bitter wrangling continues as to who was true, who was a traitor, and what role the colonialistic English governours played in it all. Collins has taken a lot of hits by mud-slingers. Was he a martyr or a sell-out? Were his opponents the real revolutionaries? Or back-stabbing turncoats?
This book goes further than any other I've seen in minutely analyzing the evidence. Various witnesses' versions are itemized and cross-referenced. One can get a bit dizzy following the forty pages of "Contradictions and Corroborations" about the twenty-minute ambush. But it makes one point clear enough: someone lied.
The explanation offered as to exactly what did happen certainly contradicts the conventional wisdom. I don't want to give away the climax. But it's definitely different from any previous attempt. Most of what you thought you knew about it will probably be found on the scrap heap under the "Debunking the myths" section.
If nothing else, it's refreshing to hear analysis of Collins by an author who's clearly no stranger to the history of revolutionary struggles. Sigerson places Collins in a wider context of other wars for self-determination, and the dangers they face.
It's a good read. Collins fans will probably enjoy it, and argue about it, from now on.
|
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2The problem here is with the term "assassination". We do not usually apply this term when the forces engaged are above a certain size. Questions like this can perhaps best be addressed by approaching from extremes.
Thus, those leading the forces of A might hope a particular leader of the forces of B might be killed in a attack of an army of A against an army of B where this leader of B can be expected to be present. But we never call such an attack an "assassination attempt".
On the other hand, an attack against the leader of B who at the time is accompanied by only a few body guards we would call an "assassination attempt".
What I am saying here is that we can for the moment leave "intent" out of it and simply consider the size of the groups engaged to determine if the term "assassination" could be applied even if the intent (that Collins got killed) was there. In my opinion, far too large for the term "assassination".
The past is irreversible although re-interpretive. What happened at Beal-na-Blath was a military ambush by the irregulars on the regulars, in a lousy civil war. What happened cannot unhappen. Move on and prepare for the 2014 local elections.