Michael Collins (1996)

michael collinsMichael Collins is an American motion picture, directed by Neil Jordan and released in 1996. It stars Liam Neeson as Michael Collins, Alan Rickman as Éamon de Valera, Aidan Quinn as Harry Boland and Julia Roberts as Kitty Kiernan. As the title suggests it is a biopic of Irish Republican Army (IRA) commander Michael Collins, depicting the period between 1916 and Collins’ death in 1922. The movie opens with 25-year-old Collins participating in the 1916 Easter Rising. The rebels are overwhelmed by the British military and captured. Many such as James Connolly and Patrick Pearse are executed but Collins, along with Harry Boland and Éamon de Valera, are interned. Collins realises that Republicans will never expel the British from Ireland using conventional warfare. Instead, they must utilise military tactics that furnish them with an advantage.

After his release Collins travels to England, where he smuggles de Valera out of prison. When de Valera travels to the United States to seek recognition for an Irish republic, Collins becomes the de facto leader of the Republican movement. He begins mobilising and arming the IRA for the Irish War of Independence. Collins orders the execution of 14 British agents, an operation that triggers the first Bloody Sunday (1920). De Valera’s return to Ireland forces Collins to change tactics, a shift that brings disastrous results. With the IRA on the verge of collapse, the British agree to a ceasefire. Collins, against his wishes, is sent to London to negotiate the Anglo-Irish Treaty. De Valera and his supporters oppose the Treaty, objecting to any form of British sovereignty. Ireland falls into a state of civil war and the IRA splits into two factions, one in favour of the Treaty and the other against it. This internecine fighting exasperates Collins, particularly after his friend Harry Boland is killed during street fighting in Dublin. Collins himself is killed by Anti-Treaty IRA, apparently while trying to broker peace between the warring factions.

Michael Collins is an engaging depiction of the Irish Republican leader and the birth of a free Ireland. Its glowing portrayal of Collins was well received in Ireland, where he is remembered as both a hero and a martyr. It proved more controversial in Britain, where many still consider Collins an unreformed terrorist. Historians have taken issue with the film’s errors and anachronisms (such as the IRA using car bombs in the early 1920s, something they did not do). Critics have also noted several glaring omissions, such as Collins’ involvement in the 1921 treaty negotiations, which are not shown at all. Some have criticised Rickman’s portrayal of Éamon de Valera as deceitful and untrustworthy. The film suggests that de Valera betrayed Collins and became his nemesis, though the reality of their relationship was more complex. It also implies that Collins, had he lived, might have led Ireland toward reform and peaceful unification, thus circumventing the Troubles. That is an ambitious implication that fails to account for Ulster Loyalism, something barely seen in the movie. Michael Collins has much to offer as a portrayal of early Irish Republicanism, so long as its perspectives and shortcomings are acknowledged.


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J. Llewellyn and S. Thompson, “Michael Collins (1996)”, Alpha History, accessed [today’s date], https://alphahistory.com/northernireland/michael-collins-1996/.