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The Path to Freedom

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It is difficult to top a book on Michael Collins composed primarily of his own words. After all, what better way to peek into his brilliant mind than by reading his words? This book was indeed published to coincide with the release of Neil Jordan's film in 1996, ostensibly to give curious moviegoers a way to better understand Collins before or after viewing the biopic. Tim Pat Coogan's foreword to the book is excellent and shows him in his usual top form. The book's chapters are "Advance and Use Our Liberties," "Alternative to the Treaty," "The Proof of Success," "Four Historic Years," "Collapse of the Terror," "Partition Act's Failure," "Why Britain Sought Irish Peace," "Distinctive Culture," "Building up Ireland," and "Freedom within Grasp." This book sheds light on how articulate, well read, historically aware and insightful Collins actually was. It is too often thought that Collins was a country bumpkin whose knowledge of anything beyond 'murder and mayhem' was quite limited. This simply isn't the case and it becomes apparent almost immediately into the book that Collins was a more than capable thinker. Collins discusses Ireland's tumultuous history, the accomplishments of the Easter Rising, the political events of 1914-1918, the many aspects of British rule, the potential resources of Ireland, and the work of Sinn Féin.

If you are looking for a traditional biography on Collins, this is probably not the right selection for you. _Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland_, the book Tim Pat Coogan excerpted his foreword from, would be a much better fit for that need. If you are already basically familiar with the life and times of Collins, this book will give you a much richer sense of how his mind worked.

These essays or articles are engrossing reading for the insight they provide into the mind of one of the most fascinating revolutionary leaders in modern history. Thought of by many during his time and even now as a 'terrorist' or gunman, these writings reveal Collins to be a thoughtful, intelligent leader with a far-ranging interest in all aspects of the present and future of his country. Had he lived it seems very clear that the quality of his mind and the compassionate concern he had for his people would have made him as formidible a leader in peacetime as he was in war. His death was Ireland's great loss but he left an impressive legacy.

"Of all the words/ Of tongue or pen/ the saddest are these/
'It might have been'/". Such go the words of a poet that I cannot identify. But they adequately encapsulate
the emotions intended to be evoked
by this finely-edited collection of various writings by Michael Collins,
the Irish patriot, hero, and martyr (or traitor depending on one's perspective) who led his country's successful war of independence betwen 1919 and 1921.
Assassinated during the Irish Civil War of 1922-1923
because of his role in setting up an Irish government not sufficently
independent of Britain nor sufficiently encompassing the whole island to satisfy many of his former comrades
in the struggle, he never got to be tested as a peacetime leader. Path To Freedom allows
us to see the man through his own writings where he emerges as far more than a warrior.
Keenly interested in economics and culture, well-informed and articulate on
virtually every issue of state, foreign or domestic, Collins' legacy to the reader is to make him/her wonder what would the history of Ireland (North and South) be like -- even the history of Europe
itself in the time of a coming Depression and Age of Dictators -- had Collins survived. The renowned
modern Irish scholar-journalist Tim Pat Coogan provides a good introduction which
is mostly lifted verbatim from his earlier biography of Collins.

A great read, . To read how Michael Collins thought about things in the times he was in, just great.

Ireland has never recovered from the loss of Mick Collins. Here is the only book published under his name and is really a collection of essays. A truly tragic window into what might have been.

Published in 2010, several years after the first paperback version of it, "A Path To Freedom" dates all the way back to 1922, when the Irish had just managed to get the British out of most of the country and Michael Collins, "The Big Fella", was dealing with the beginnings of the Irish Civil War. Because he was killed before the war's end, Collins refers to the newly-established Irish Free State's disagreements as an ongoing problem, and is obviously unable to comment on anything that happened later in the war or afterwards. That, however, is really just a footnote, and in no way does it make "A Path To Freedom" not worth reading.

This is one of the shortest books I've ever read, of any kind. A mere 80 pages long, "A Path To Freedom" is the same kind of book as General George S. Patton III's "War As I Knew It". In both cases, you are reading an unfinished and unpolished but nonetheless excellent work, constantly giving you hints of what it could have been if its author had lived to refine and perfect it. Both books are "a diamond in the rough", as I believe the saying goes. Unfinished, but the diamond's brilliance shines through nonetheless.

And that brilliance does shine through. Reading through these eighty pages, you will surely begin to realize something- this is an intelligent man you're dealing with, here. Not the uneducated, rude and crude country bumpkin that some would have you believe he was, but an exceptionally well-informed and intelligent self-made soldier and statesman. Collins writes about the British invasion and occupation of Ireland, their extensive efforts at what basically amounts to terrorist campaigns against the Irish people and a genocidal effort towards anything Irish. He details how many Irish saw World War I and the role of Germany, Britain, and the United States in it. Collins clearly saw the British as hypocrites and wished for the world to brand them as such- they boasted to be fighting for the freedom of smaller nations, while denying Ireland that very thing. WWI presented an opportunity for the Irish to rise up while Britain's strength was occupied elsewhere- thus, the 1916 Easter Rising occurred. Collins comments that while the battle was a loss, it showed both Britain and Ireland that freedom was something many Irish wanted to have and were willing to fight for.

Elsewhere in the book, Collins describes the IRA's campaign to run the British out of Ireland and his hopes to retake the six counties of Northern Ireland as well. His plans to that effect were, ironically, cancelled by the Anti-Treaty Republicans starting the Irish Civil War and their killing of The Big Fella. And speaking of the Republicans- Michael Collins addresses their, and in particular, Eamon De Valera's arguments against the Treaty and their own ideas on what should take its place. He addresses and refutes Document No. 2 clause by clause. In closing he says of it, "It merely attaches a fresh label to the same parcel, or, rather, a label written, on purpose, illegibly in the hope of making belief that the parcel is other than it is."

Michael Collins believed fully in the IRA and its original mission. He believed, without a doubt, in the Treaty and the Irish Free State- because, to him, those were the most Ireland could have got from the British at the time, and that giving in to the Anti-Treaty Republicans' demands would have been madness. The thing that impressed me even more than Collins' intelligence was how clearly he was nothing other than an Irish patriot. People who think he was a traitor to Ireland obviously never knew him.

This is one of the shortest, and yet one of the very best, books I've ever read. It tells a great deal about who Michael Collins was and how he viewed the politics of his time. The hardcover version is very nicely done- the only thing that isn't a fine Irish green is the black lettering of the title, a small part of the image of Michael Collins on the front, and the white of the interior pages. To be honest, green was not the color I had expected the hardcover to be- the cover image slipped my mind, I guess- but now that I think about it, no other color would have been appropriate.

Michael Collins own words provide a clear and insightful look at life in Ireland circa 1921, delving into the social conditions and circumstance that led to the infamous Black and Tan War. This book helped me see that enormous importance of the independence movement of the time, how Ireland was not even recognized as its own country, and what it meant to finally achieve that status. I could not picture a world without a free, seperate Ireland, its amazing to me that this was the case up until well into this century. Micheal Colins here is addressing the people directly, so you get a head-on view of the realities of the times without a lot of historical or sociological analysis. Thats good, because its better to encounter his words personally, to understand the case he is making in all its simplicity: The Irish people are, now and forever, Free!

Tim Pat Coogan's account of the life of Michael Collins is full of information. The time and people come alive, and you are left knowing a lot more then you started with. This is the definitive biography of Mick.