Michael Collins

“Michael Collins the Man Who Made Ireland”

“Michael Collins the Man Who Made Ireland” is a biography written by Tim Pat Coogan. Tim Pat Coogan is a famous author who was asked to write the biography by his former teacher Fr Michael O’Carroll. During the author’s childhood he was not told anything about Michael Collins. He learned it was a name that either people admired or hated. The reason for this was that some people think of Michael Collins as the man who gained Ireland’s independence, while others did not like it when he signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December, 1921, allowing the British to keep Northern Ireland and were against him for betraying Northern Ireland. When Coogan began his research he discovered that Collins was the founder of modern guerrilla warfare. Also, rulers, such a Mao Tse Tsung of China, had studied Collins tactics. Collins started out with just a small force of eleven men but managed, with all odds against him, to make one of the most powerful empires agree to Ireland’s independence.

This book is all history and is very accurate in its telling of Michael Collins life. The book is so precise and it mentions so many people’s names it almost hard to keep track of who they are. This book has helped people learn more about the fight for the independence of Ireland and about a national hero who should never be forgotten. In my opinion this book was great and I learned many interesting facts. I would only recommend this book to people who are interested in learning about the fight for Irish Independence and Michael Collins. The reason is because the author at times gives too much detail that is not essential to the story and that makes the book a little boring. The most memorable part of the book is the way that Collins fought the British with so few men and supplies. Most of the men only had revolvers and pistols. His squads had eleven men or fewer yet they went up against much larger numbers of troops that were heavily armed. I was amazed with the intelligence network Michael Collins set up to spy on the British. He used the information from his network to plan where and whom his assignation squads would hit.

The difference between De Valera and Michael Collins was very interesting to me because of the way it played out.