Michael Collins Irish Revolutionary

Michael Collins was an integral part of the Irish Independence struggle with Arthur Griffith going as far as to call him "the man who won the War". Collins had joined the IRB, a secret society dedicated to establishing an independent Irish Republic, at the age of 19. He fought in the 1916 Rising and was later interned. During the War of Independence Collins held multiple roles, being simultaneously, the Minister for Finance and Director of Intelligence of the Army. Collins was also the on the delegation that negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty and later became the Head of the Provisional Government. At the Time of his death he was the Commander-in-chief of the Irish Free State Army.

Today is the 85th anniversary of Collins death in an ambush so I thought I would start this thread to see what people here thought of him.


 

Our entire nation owes a due to Michael Collins.

Ah, he was, under the 'definition' of the term terrorist, a terrorist, but just not in the modern sense of the word..Which is in fact disputed highly..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of_terrorism

Originally posted by Dolphin Ah, he was, under the 'definition' of the term terrorist, a terrorist, but just not in the modern sense of the word..Which is in fact disputed highly..   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of_terrorism What's that saying, one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter..

Actually no you can't call Collins a terrorist, unless that is, you are going to use a definition so simplistic it would include practically every person who has ever used violence, thus making the calling of Collins a pointless and cosmetic action.

Adding mindless cliches would reinforce that pointlessness tbh.

Collins was not a lovely man but still one of the most important in Irelands modern history with say, Charles Parnell and Gerry Adams. A reminder of times when the IRA and assorted company weren't just crooks waving a patriotic flag whilst kneecapping their countrymen.

@Parnell- the use of air strikes is a bitch. Either the US does things like the Indians in Kashmir (i.e. maximum use of infantry, little to no civilian casualties), losing a lot of men, and gets slated in the press or they save lives, bomb everyone and get slated in the press. Not that I'm defending civilians, just saying they are screwed every which way. One of the other reasons is that SOF teams are under equipped to take on big Taliban groups requiring the use of numerous air  strikes.