Michael Collins assassination to get ‘Cold Case’ treatment in RTÉ probe
A COLD case investigation of the asssassination of Michael Collins in Béal na Blath in 1922 and a film focusing on the impact Terence McSwiney’s 74 day hunger strike had on him and his wife and sisters are among among the documentary ideas to be given significant funding by the Broadcast Authority of Ireland in its annual round of funding.
The 75 minute documentary to be broadcast on RTE 1 is to be made by a Dublin based production company, Loose Horses Ltd, which has been awarded €220,000 from the Sound and Vision Fund, a fund which is made up of licence fee payments.
The cold case investigation is modelled on the successful US TV series, Cold Case, which reopens long dormant unsolved cases and reexamines in light of current detection techniques.
No-one from Loose Horses Ltd was available to shed any light on their approach to the still controversial killing of the leader of the Free State army in an ambush by anti-treaty forces at Béal na Blath. Many theories have been advanced regarding who fired the fatal shot, some pointing the finger at certain named IRA men and others alleging that the shot was fired from a revolver held by one of Collins’ own men. No conclusive proof regarding any theory has yet been uncovered.
Another documentary to be commissioned under the Sound & Vision scheme which will also be of interest to Cork viewers – 74 Days, Inside Terence McSwiney’s Hunger Strike – was awarded €106,000. It will be produced by Cork company, Forefront Productions and directed by Ciara Hyland, the same team who recently produced the Dev in America series on TG4.
According to the director, the documentary, which is to be broadcast on RTÉ 1, will focus on the physical and psyshological impact of a 74 hunger strike on McSwiney, who was elected as Mid Cork MP in the historic 1918 General Election.
It will also delve into the effect this had on the relationships Cork’s former Lord Mayor had with his wife and sisters.
“Muriel, his wife, a member of the Murphy’s Brewery family who disowned Muriel when she married McSweeney, and his sisters, Mary and Annie, who ran a school, Scoil Ite, in Cork for years, were by his side for all of the 74 days,” said Ciara.
“Presumably the British authorities thought by having his family by his side would lead to McSwiney having doubts about his course of action but the exact opposite proved the case – despite their own private torments about the probable loss of Terence, they supported him throughout.”
Food was often placed near him to persuade him to give up the hunger-strike. Attempts at force-feeding MacSwiney were undertaken in the final days of his strike.
On October 20, 1920, he fell into a coma and died five days later in the 74th day of his fast.
His body lay in St George’s Cathedral in Southwark, London where 30,000 people filed past it.[10] Fearing large-scale demonstrations in Dublin, the authorities diverted his coffin directly to Cork, and his funeral in the Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne on October 31 attracted huge crowds. Terence MacSwiney is buried in the Republican plot in Saint Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork. Arthur Griffith gave the funeral oration.