Michael Collins

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 40, 12 October 1922, Page 23

Michael Collins

When Dail Eireann was debating, the Treaty a notable I figure in the . public part of the . hall was a stout and ■ somewhat florid woman of. middle age (says the Manchester \\ Guardian). She" sat near the reporters’ tables and ' murmured approval of all ■ that Michael Collins said. She. . devoured him with her eyes, but she was never seen to ■ speak to him or embarrass him.- in those tense moments of work. It . was his sister. ; She had left somewhere in the country a large family of small children and had come up to Dublin to see a splendid brother in a moment 'of destiny. , , ( . - It was symptomatic. So far as one knew there was ... no other of the protagonists in that grea£ v drama watched over in this way. There were lots of • political theorists who had come to hear Mr. Erskine Childers expound the tables of the law, to warm a doubting faith at- the white fire of Mr. de Valera’s fanaticism, to get confirmed in political faith by listening to Arthur Griffith’s quiet common sense. But this was not any of these things: this was a great affection for a person, not an adherence to a '' creed. '. • ' ' , How much of Michael Collins’s power in Ireland was founded upon affection It is said that he died saying “Forgive them,” and those words would come appropriately as the last ones from his lips. A great power and a great kindliness met in his face. He was the only Dail -leader having the supreme gift of youth, and if something of youth’s intolerance'now and then darkened his face and stiffened his jaw; the sudden and irresponsible generosity of youth .was his, too. .How shall one forget that tumuli'.. tuous scene when ,the Treaty was approved! It was a ■ bitter j January \ night without, . and little crowds were • gathered .in the murky street waiting , to know, the result. In the hall the atmosphere was .heavily... overcharged, physically ‘.and emotionally. Then the figures were announced. The'room filled with ■ a confused hubbub of excited voices. : Mr. , do. Valera rose., and tried to speak. He - broke down half-way through a sentence, cast his arms despairingly on his desk, and buried his face in them. ‘ His shoulders shook. • A Gesture of Reconciliation, - s Then Michael Collins’s colossal form rose and dominated the assembly. His good-humored face -was grave in that supreme moment, and his commanding voice made itself heard above the uproar, proposing measures for the safety of the State. And then, with the swift transition of affectionate youth, his face changed. He looked at the prostrate form of his old comrade-in-arms and putting matters of State to one side he paid a beautiful tribute to Mr. de Valera and protested his unchanged affection. The offered hand was dashed aside by . Miss MacSwiney. This was “soft talk” from .a traitor, she said. Looking back, one sees it now as the,one movement which contained just the possibility of N healing the breach, of preventing ML the lamentable things' that have come since. Michael /Hollins was the only man who made a'■gesture of that sort. The unforgiving minute passed. The other Michael Collins came up. His face hardened-again, - / ' ■ His enemies recognised how tremendous to Collins was the asset he held in this affectionate regard. It was against this invulnerable point in the armor that Mr. Charles Burgess directed his venomous invective. ’ Collins was a man of traditionalmost a figure of legend—-a- merry hero, dear to the Hearts of all young Irishmen. To. shake ' this reputation was Mr. Burgess’s task, and with the Treaty trembling in' the balance' he went on with it, The speech tilted that trembling balance over to the side of the Treaty. An attack on opinions is one thing; this was an attack on the ; personal character of a man held in deep affection; and the result was defeat to the cause of the man who made the speech.; • "v . ..... In those hot and troubled days Collins „was in a real sense, of the word a heroic and romantic figure. There was about him! something more romantic than fewness of years. Mr. Chesterton .once sang of the -Gaels that come , from Ireland that they>tfre' “the ‘mem that God, made mad,’-’ ”, " / - ! ’ : * For all their ‘wars are merry, . - -i. - ; - ' 1 ’ - And all r their songs . are sad. ;

. T vr;:c v .. A High-Hearted Leader.; S RvCollins did not impress one as a man of song, he looked at all events a man of high heart who would wage a merry war. .He had .the. masterly physique 'that; young men love in a hero. ' His body was big and burly, and the massive head, set squarely on, broad shoulders, was adorned with plentiful hair as black as the traditional raven’s wing. When he was ; in' a ‘ temper, ' which was rarely, his eyes flashed .and his hand contracted, its. restless* prehensible. fingers into a mighty,- fist- that hammered emphasis into his / words with blows like • a smith’s anvil beats. He sat always in the Dail 'at Arthur Griffith’s' side, with the air of a very large nephew being protective to a shy, small uncle. ’• ' - v v ■ • - Next to : his power of giving and claiming^^affection; one thinks of his boundless energy. He did not' speak he shouted. He did not walk; he bounded.' He emphasised his words.not with a nod or a wink but with a tremendous shake of the head that brought his. black mane tumbling down over his dark eyes. And 'then the hand, at once strong and nervous, would be pushing it back again. It is harder to think of - that : abounding vitality being cut off suddenly than it s to think of the passing of Arthur Griffith or Cathal Brugha.' How they are passing, those who in the winter nights. fought over the body of Ireland! ' -A' .