Sir, – Diarmaid Ferriter’s assessment of Michael Collins and the interpretations that later generations have grafted on to the man and his motivations is most interesting (Weekend Review, August 18th) However, the view that he wanted a short war is debatable.
Whilst still unproven, it is generally accepted that Collins was organising the supply of arms to the IRA in the nascent Northern Ireland and that he ordered the shooting of Field Marshal Wilson. All this during his tenure as commander in chief of the Free State Army. He was playing a very dangerous game.
There is no doubt that the course of our nation’s history was changed irrevocably by the premature death of this brilliant, charismatic young man. Was it changed for the worse? We shall never know. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – In his article (Weekend Review, August 18th), Prof Diarmaid Ferriter asserts, using a quotation attributed to Michael Hopkinson, “there is little evidence that Collins had any great breadth of economic and social vision”.
Collins’s record, in The Path to Freedom, a collection of articles and speeches by Michael Collins, cited by Prof Ferriter, contains a piece, “Building up Ireland – Resources to be Developed”. In this, Collins provides his universal economic and social vision: “The growing wealth of Ireland will, we hope, be diffused through all our people, all sharing in the growing prosperity, each receiving according to what each contributes in the making of that prosperity, so that the weal [welfare] of all is assured.
“How are we to increase the wealth of Ireland and ensure that all producing it shall share in it? That is the question which . . . will engage the attention of the new Government.”
Prof Ferriter’s work in The Transformation of Modern Ireland is important and insightful, but his assertion is at odds with Collins’ clear welfare strategy and is, it seems to me, inaccurate. – Yours, etc,