Customer Reviews

Michael Collins: A Biography

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

One cannot understand modern Ireland with no knowledge of Michael Collins. Known as the "Big Fellow" Collins was the brains and driving force behind Ireland's triumphal revolution of 1916-1921. That struggle led directly to the formation of the Irish Free State and eventually the Irish Republic of today. One has to be careful how he phrases that statement, for Ireland has a long list of her heroes and martyrs. Collins is but one of them but Collins was different! So many others died in vain and became legends in song and story. The Big Fellow was icily prevailing. There are 4 main elements to MC: The first was Collins stunning use of intelligence to thwart the British at their own game. He was always a step ahead of the Brits. He was the most wanted man in Ireland but continually slipped through the hands of his foe. He literally hid in plain sight. The British had no picture of him and didn't know what he looked like! The second was his fearless use of selected assassination. In one night in 1920, his men (the aptly named 12 Apostles) took out 19 British agents! The demised were known as "the Cairo Gang'. The third is his uncomfortable role in the thorny peace negotiations with Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. The fourth is the most tragic: The Big Fellow, a "Free Stater", wanted to accept England's peace offer of a partitioned Ireland as a stepping stone to full independence. The so- called "Republicans"; led by the devious Eamon de Valera wanted immediate full independence. A Civil War ensued and the Big Fellow was assassinated. One could argue that author Coogan has a pro-Collins bias. Has Ireland been the same since? MC is a long story, rich in detail. This review has NOT done it justice. This is only a thumbnail's sketch! MC must be patiently read to be fully appreciated. The discipline the reader invests will be rewarded at the conclusion. Most Irish Americans, it is safe to write, have little or no knowledge of their country. If the curious learn of nothing else, they should learn of the one man who made their homeland independent. There have been so many well- intentioned statesmen, poets and martyrs who fell victim to England's treachery and gallows. The curious should read about the one man who really did get the "Brits Out" of 26/32 of that troubled island.

Michael Collins was an extraordinary man, the inventor, it is said, of modern urban guerilla warfare; the man who led the war to end 700 years of British occupation of Ireland. Here was a man that was not a cog in in some vast socio-economic machine, whose only desire is "to just get along." He was one of those who didn't experience the benefits of the coexistence of two cultures in one land, because one of them was politically and economically savaging the other.

He did not have as his primary goal in life to accumulate the accouterments of a materialistic civilization for himself, nor did he ever have a mortgage to pay. He never owned a car. He never formed a family. He never knew such idiots who populate the safety committees of the industrial organizations in our own time, nor the phonies who infest our academies, longing for tenure. He loved his culture, as it was, and resented outsiders who had only scorn for it.

He was a leader of men, a man of action, a stickler for detail, who always knew what he wanted to accomplish. His physical courage was unimaginable to most men, even to those of his own time and place. His outstanding political skills and ability to do what was required to achieve the achievable was unmatched by any of the politicos and hotheads who surrounded him.

His primary task in the rebellion was in counter-intelligence, which he came to see required the assassination of informants and torturers, detectives and G-men, and the higher-ups of the British intelligence services who directed it all and placed a price on his head. This culminated in a "Bloody Sunday" in which his men attacked the "Cairo Gang" in their lodgings, some still in their beds, killing 19 of them. The Brits retaliated with a massacre of unarmed spectators at a football match, but ultimately it resulted in the opening of negotiations. Incredibly, Collins was chosen to lead the negotiating team, and wound up across the table from Lloyd George, Austen Chamberlin, and Winston Churchill. He brought home an agreement for the Free State.

Coogan tells his tale very thoroughly, at length, and with a satisfying balance of an attention to fact, considered speculation, and telling anecdote. He is an accomplished historian who knows his subject intimately. The author has written on the order of a dozen books on the modern history of Ireland, and is widely recognized for his authority, but not necessarily for an "objectivity" that belies the need for drawing lessons that should be the goal of any historian.

The book is at times, perhaps, a little too detailed for the general reader, but it is something of a "definitive biography", so I can forgive him for this. It is over 500 pages long with a very good bibliography, footnotes, and a terrific index. The 17 pictures are glossy and clear and add a lot to the story.

One of the most rewarding of things about reading this book is that it led me, I think, to a greater understanding of the events in Iraq, also suffering under an occupation by a hostile power, being fought by patriots and coreligionists in an urban setting, whose enemies from another land and religion label them terrorists and murderers.

Tim Pat Coogan's Michael Collins is an excellent biography of the man who ran the day to day war for Irish independence. Collins orchestrated the "direct force" strategy against British rule, that, after several years of bloodshed, led to a settlement that rendered most of Ireland free. For his efforts in achieving more than any Irishman had achieved in 500 years, including legendary figures such as O'Connell and Parnell, Collins was assassinated by his allies, who felt that the peace treaty with Britain and freedom for the south were just not good enough.

Coogan does an excellent job detailing the man as well as his accomplishments; he has a host of anecdotes about Collins's youth and the years he lived under constant risk of death while carrying out the guerilla war. The book, despite its rather grim subject matter, is also not without its moments of humor -- the stories of many of Collins's narrow escapes from his British pursuers and his incredible luck also lighten the story.

Coogan does an excellent job outlining the divisions that formed within the IRA, the IRB, Sinn Fein, and the Catholic church throughout the struggle, and explains clearly the politics behind Collins's assassination. He makes clear what other historians with a lesser grasp of the subject only manage to make a muddle of.

Highly recommended.

The book is difficult but not tedious. It's a pity that Tim Coogan didn't supply a little background on Irish History, just to put the events he describes in context. Without that, it becomes a little difficult if you have no idea who or what he is referring to. When he gets into the main subject of this history, one tends to get lost in a maze of characters, and their various alliegences. Nevertheless it offers a very complete treatment of the Anglo-Irish War, the negotiation of the Treaty, and the subsequent Irish Civil War. The ugliness and brutality of the war with the British is upsetting, and may well leave you feeling very angry. Finally let me say that Michael Collins emerges from this story as an extrordinary young man of enormous ability in so many ways, who with a little help from his friends did manage to get the British out of Ireland, or at least out of the twenty-six counties. The absurdity of it all, is that he was killed by his own people when he was little more than thirty years old.

Although the pages and the sophisticated writing style might intimidate one, if you stick to it and read the book to the end, you will NOT regret it. It was my first book in Irish History and I have learned so much from reading it. This book is amazing beyond words. If you buy it, you won't reget it.

Tim Pat Coogan brings Michael Collins alive in this thoroughly researched and thoroughly enjoyable biography. Coogan details the life of Collins with painstaking research and plenty of first-hand accounts of those who knew him. In a new, and controversial, addition to previous Collins biographies, Coogan details the evidence as to Collins's assasination and names the likely culprit in the Irish leader's murder. A must read.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants an intense indepth study of Collins and Ireland of his time. This is easy to read and full of interesting information about the man and those around him. Collins was a genius who shaped the fate of modern Ireland and did so with an acute sense of how far he wcould go to achieve what he wanted.

It really makes me wonder how much better off Ireland would have been if he had not best lost so early in his life.

This is an extarodinary book about an extraordinary man. It is well wriiten, it is exciting and easy to read. It gives a wonderful insight into the life and times of Ireland during this remarkable time

this is not for the casual reader. coogan's scholarly work goes far beyond biography in this brilliantly detailed book to explain not only collins' accomplishments & failures in his 31 years but to unravel the twisted relationships between himself and devalera, lloyd-george, churchill and other historic figures of the era. playing a prominent role in every key event in irish history from 1916 rebellion to black n tan war to truce to treaty to partition to civil war. the absolute difinitive book on collins & the era 1916 - 1923 in ireland.

This is an excellent book on Michael Collins, the Irish freedom struggle, and what Michael Collins did for Ireland. If you are interested in Irish history this is a book I would highly recommend. It gives great details on the extraordinary life of Michael Collins and the times he lived in. There is no other book on Michael Collins that is comparable to this book.