Michael Collins Movie Review

The movie opens with Michael Collins in the closing moments of the General Post Office insurrection staged during Easter Week. In the midst of the British bombardment of the Post office, Collins exchanges gunfire with incoming artillery and small arms fire.

Michael Collins was born in October of1890 in Cork County, the heartland of Ireland. Attending school, Michael’s teachers told stories of Irish patriotism and in such an environment, fueled within Collins a strong sense of pride in Ireland and of all things Irish. At 15, Collins moved to London where he worked for a number of years within the large Irish community within London. Collins and many others in the Irish community felt ostracized from British community. This attitude coupled with Collin’s earlier teachings compelled him to become a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1909. In 1916 Collins returned to Ireland to take part in the failed General Post Office uprising in Dublin. At that time he played a relatively minor role in the organization and as such was not court-martialed then executed as many other leaders of the movement were. After a brief incarceration in an internment camp he was released in December 1916 and immediately went back to Ireland.

Collins came back and was able to revitalize the organization and led a violent campaign against anything that represented British authority in an effort to achieve independence for Ireland, primarily the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). The murder of RIC officers brought a tit-for-tat policy from the British. The more killings and assassinations that were carried out by Collins and the men he led in the newly formed Irish Republican Army (IRA), the more the British responded in kind.

In 1921 Britain finally agreed to treaty talks. De Valera, the president of the organization, sent Collins to London in October 1921 to negotiate a treaty. In December 1921, it was agreed that Ireland should have dominion status within the British Empire; i.e. that Ireland could govern itself but remain within the British Empire. To Collins, the treaty was simply the start of a process that in his eyes would eventually lead to full independence for Ireland. Michael Collins after signing the treaty was reported to say, "I have signed my death warrant." There were many in the south who believed that Collins had betrayed the republican movement. These people, including de Valera, wanted an independent