Big Fella’s fame
MICHAEL COLLINS BOOK PUTS IRISH
At launch of the Irish Free State in 1922 In London for Treaty talks Marconi invented the telegraph. “Each contributed to his fame,” write Dolan and Murphy. “By the time he travelled to London for the negotiations in October 1921, his name was sufficiently famous, or notorious, that he was the one the press and the public wanted to see.”
In May 1921, after the British forces failed to capture him yet again, he wrote: “It was the most providential escape yet. It will probably have the effect of making them think that I am even more mysterious than they At election address Collins believe me to be, and that is saying a good deal.”
An integral part of the image Collins seemingly tried to cultivate was that of a plain soldier, but he spent a much larger portion of his time in key organisational and strategic roles, based in Dublin offices throughout 1920 and 1921, rather than as a foot soldier.
And it is not as a soldier that Collins was more influential, but as Minister for Finance in the newly-elected Dail Eireann, the authors argue.
“It was as Minister for Finance in Dail Eireann’s cabinet he became one of the most influential, and admit-