ARTHUR GRIFFITH MICHAEL COLLINS

PRINTED IN IRELAND.

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MARTIN LESTER, LTD., DUBLIN. Wo] ARTHUR GRIFFITH, [Keogh, Dublin. BORN MARCH 31st, 1872. DIED AUGUST 12th, 1922. Photo) I Hogan, Dublin3 GENERAL MICHAEL COLLINS. BORN 16th OCTOBER, 1890. DIED 22nd AUGUST, 1922. ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

ARTHUR GRIFFITH,

By SEAN GHALL.

T he death of Parnell left Ireland in a very historical, literary, and political essays— in broken state. The succeeding years saw her prose and verse— replete with recondite lore, drift from bad to worse. Her political centre of essays that amazed grey-headed scholars whose gravity lay in Westminster. More than a half- lives had been devoted to the story of Ireland’s dozen contending factions created a roaring past. I remember how John O’Leary, the sea of hatred, discord, and slander, from end Grand Old Man of Fenianism, used repeat, to end of the land. Her people were besotted whenever we met: “ William Rooney and by their leaders, with a brazen-voiced, insincere Griffith are marvels ! I have been through ’48 rhetoric, and bemused with foggy ideas as to and ’67, yet their articles tell me much that their National duty. Even Fenianism gloried I did not know, or had forgotten, about my in loud boastful words, divorced from deeds. contemporaries.” Rooney killed himself with Insincerity and Make-Believe were lords of all. overwork. Almost single-handed, for a period, Men, sensible men, in town and country, would Griffith wrote and in part set up the type of tell you, with naive simplicity, that when Home his paper, week by week. It was a herculean Rule arrived no one would have to work ! Some toil, but Griffith did it joyously. Reading unexplained agency was to create wealth for his then work to-day, admiration at his them, to cram their pockets with it, the versatility makes you mute: biting, brilliant Golden Age was to be on tap. “ Every man comment, surcharged with humour, on current was to live like a gentleman.” To achieve this politics; a heavy archaeological article; a bright, happy result they had but “ to trust Gladstone,” popular exposition of a forgotten page of our Campbell-Bannerman, or whatever other history; a rollicking topical ballad; a farcical English Minister was in power, and to sub­ Fashion Column, with a deep vein of satire on scribe to the Party Funds. To-day it is hard denationalised women; a sound, reasoned to realise how far we have advanced on the exposition of a phase of National economics; road to National Self-Confidence and National an expert exposure, crammed with statistics, Freedom in less than two generations. The on the weakness of our banking system— all Ireland that could pull itself out of such a from his own pen. Griffith took immense pains Slough of Despond ought become again, what to obtain accuracy in all he wrote, buying books she once was, a Light to the World. (often at the price of his scanty meals) and On a gross capital of less than £35, Arthur haunting libraries with that end in view. Later Griffith, William Rooney, and a few others the journal became a literary treat as well as a launched The United Irishman on storehouse the of information, a well-spring of centenary of the Rebellion of 1798. It was in inspiration, a light to our feet. Almost all no sense a newspaper, rather a channel for the ablest pens in creative literature in conveying to the mind of the country the Ireland contributed to its pages— W . B. Yeats, forgotten glories of the past, a trumpet call to George Russell (7E), Padraic Colum, “ John Young Ireland to remember its duty to the Eglington,” Padraic Pearse, to mention but a land that bore it, and to the men and women few. Poets, politicians, political economists, who loved, worked, and died for it, and made historians, biographers, bibliographers, literary it possible for it to lift up its head with pride artists— all had their place. So long as their and dignity. Your own salvation, your theme was Ireland and its betterment Griffith country’s salvation, depends upon yourself gave them “ the cream of kindly welcome and alone. Week by week The United Irishman the core of cordiality.” But as he seldom had had poured into it a wonderful succession of money to pay his contributors, he had,

6 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. necessarily, to perform an Atlas-feat most our own. He used no measured words, no weeks. He attracted all this gratuitous service gentle language, in condemning Foreignism in because men and women saw in him a soul as any avenue of our National life. Arthur sincere as sincerity itself, because he forgot would but see Ireland first, last, and all the himself and his most elementary needs, so that time, and could see nothing better, higher, his country would one day take her place among holier. the nations of the earth. When Douglas Hyde founded the Gaelic He saw his nation’s life steadily, and he saw League Griffith was his doughtiest warrior. it whole. Every artery of economic, social, The re-awakening of the long-slumbering soul intellectual, and of spiritual life, he tried to of |±ire would be the re-birth of . self- pulse with the rich blood of individual consciousness and self-respect; from them endeavour. He reminded us that the normal would spring self-reliance. “ Win self-reliance human being is made up of spirit and of matter. and self'discipline, and Freedom is yours for The body without the spirit is dead. If the the taking.” The necessity of Irish historical corporeal existence is not maintained with study was urgent: “ He who knows not the food, warmth, and clothing, the soul flees. The story of the past cannot judge the present, nor truly wise man gives each its need and care, wisely plan for the future.” He made Irish its just equipoise. The body is composed of an obligatory subject in the National University many members, each having its own distinct in the very teeth of a fierce opposition from and definite duties to perform. You cannot many of the most prominent Gaelic Leaguers. neglect or injure any one of them without Turn over, at random, a file of any one of his hurting the human constitution as a whole. numerous papers. Here are moving appeals, When Griffith applied these elementary truths written with expert knowledge, on the need of to the body politic he was greeted with a afforesting our one-time “ Isle of W oods.” hurricane o f hilarious ridicule by the shepherds There a scholar, week by week, justifies that of the people. John Redmond’s famous declara­ title by valuable lists of Gaelic place-names. tion, that the control of our own Customs and Now an Engineer throws needed light on our Excise— a main artery of financial health— neglected mineral resources; then Irish building “ was impossible and undesirable,” was stones, cement, and timber find moving acclaimed in the Press as the wisdom of advocate in a noted Architect resident in Solomon. Griffith’s rejoinder was as pitiless England. Another anonymous exile, a high in its literalness, as corroding in its scorn, as official, exposes the secret means by which anything Swift put into “ Gulliver’s Travels.” Irish money was being filched to beautify the “ Without economic independence there can be streets of London. The valuable reports of no real political freedom.” This was a startling Mgr. Persico, which redeemed the fine gospel to a people taught to depend on fife- character of a cruelly slandered friend of and-drum bands, flag-waving, and British Ireland, are placed in his hands now; again ministers’ promises for their salvation. From London is horrified when it reads in his papers a hundred platforms he was denounced as a the secret courtmartial proceedings on the “ sordid materialist.” It was not enough for outrages committed on Boer women and John Bull to unloosen his hold of Eire’s throat, children. The Confessional did not conceal a he should take his hand out of her pockets also. confided secret more effectually than Arthur “ But if Ireland had her political and economic Griffith. His stoic fortitude and gladsome independence to-morrow,” he wrote in 1902, heroism could make merry over the British “ and had lost her language, her native Government’s efforts to stifle his voice by suppressing his journal. When an edict went literature, and her cultural heritage, she forth from Dublin Castle that that particular would, like Esau, have sold her birthright for organ of opinion must appear no more, Griffith a mess of pottage.” The cult of foreign Saints merely re-baptised it, and continued his work in the Irish Catholic Calendar to the neglect of educating his beloved people. W e used of those of the Gael was as hateful to him as to style him “ Dan the Irrepressible.” the culture of alien tongues to the neglect of ( Continued on page 9.)

7 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

O die daily, even hourly, for your T country ; to dwell in the slums when you might have lived in the light, laughing places of the world ; to go clad as the very poor are clad when purple and fine linen might have been yours ; to eat dry bread, and not much of that, when you might have feasted full; to act thus not for one year nor for ten, but for more than a generation — that is a heroism of which few but God’s Great are capable, and that was the heroism of Arthur Griffith.”

Photo] Arthur Griffith. [Walsh, Dublin.

“ Collins is dead. He has passed to the Immortals. He has joined Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and Emmett and Parnell, and all the tragic hosts who have died for Ireland.”

Photo] General Michael Collins [Walsh,Dublin* at President Griffith’s Funeral a week before t he was himself struck down. 8 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

Photo] MR. GRIFFITH ARRIVING FOR DAIL MEETING. [Hogan, Dublin. His usual method of Conveyance was a Hackney Car.

When Arthur Griffith commenced to plan cannot win her independence without the how Ireland was to be rescued from the pit world’s sympathy; that sympathy can be won into which England had thrust her, forgotten by telling the truth about ourselves and by and despised by the world, he had no illusions countering British Propaganda.” These were as to the magnitude of the task. Round that audacious ideas a generation ago. He was 3. pit, to quote Dr. Henebery’s phrase, made Fenian, like most of his co-workers. But, like famous by Arthur, she had built a wall of all great Idealists, he knew the horizon paper, inside of which she wrote what she separating the Possible and the Impossible. In wished us to think of the world; on the outside 1904, when expounding his Hungarian Policy, what she desired it to think of us. He pierced he expressed his opinions with his usual lucidity that paper wall. On the day that the elected and force. The Separatist Ideal is necessary representatives of Ireland refused to sit in the if we are to preserve the country from dry-rot. London Parliament she was recognised as a But it is not to take the place of constructive distinct Nationality. The Publicity Depart­ National work. “ Ten men well armed will ment was born in those far-away days, though readily subdue a single man in his shirt.” W e it took long years to function. “ Ireland cannot win our freedom by the revolver alone.

9 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

He suckled Fenianism with his mother’s milk. sounding chord of patriotism, or of passion, Though he wrote strongly against “ the pathos or of spirituality, in contemporary life.” of a pike-head and the logic of a blow,” he “ You are mistaken, sir. But I am not con­ retained the confidence and support of the cerned about to-day. The morrow will be ours. Republican Brotherhood to the end, because it It has its backers already among men and knew he was with them in soul, even though he women of Faith and Vision, and among the could not agree with its aims in practical politics. Intellectuals. Their opinions will infilter the Arthur Griffith had a sublime, a touching masses of the nation in time.” Dr. Mark faith, in his own people. In his darkest hours thought the proposed removal of the Irish that faith never grew cold. I well remember members an unwise one, as did John O ’Leary. the summer of 1904 when we met John O’Leary I interjected : “ Michael Davitt expressed the and Dr. Mark Ryan, by appointment, in the same view to me last week in London. I Gresham Hotel. Arthur was then propounding answered him that it would need the baptism his Hungarian policy of passive resistance. of blood to make it prevail.” “ Yes, to that I “ You have too lofty an opinion of the people’s assent,” continued O’Leary. “ Let it be fibre, Mr. Griffith. They have been too long crucified on the Nation’s Altar by England and in slavery to exhibit the moral courage your it will conquer. Blood alone will sanctify.” policy demands,” remarked the Grand Old “ I have counted on that, sir. The spirit of Man of Fenianism. “ I have an unshaken Fenianism, the soul of the historic Irish Nation, faith in the innate strength of our people’s will respond at the right moment; it never soul, sir.” “ Don’t you think it cannot move failed yet,” was Arthur’s just verdict. It did the crowd, since it makes no noisy appeal to on blessed Easter Week, more than a decade feeling or prejudice? It touches no loud- later. Ironically enough, I know but one man,

Photo] MR. GRIFFITH WITH STAFF AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE Dublin. DELEGATION TO THE PEACE CONFERENCE IN LONDON. Taken on arrival at Holyhead. ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. living to-day, who was a Republican Brother, than a generation ago Dublin Castle had prominent in the Irish-Ireland movement for a proclaimed him “ England’s most powerful foe generation, who is to-day an opponent of the since the Union.” When the wide-flung net Treaty. gathered into prison so many hundreds of our John O’Leary believed that Physical Force gallant boys, after Easter Week, Griffith failed because of the informers. Griffith was among the number. Ere the smoke asserted that “ it could not succeed, weaponed had disappeared from the rifles of the firing as it was, without an economic background, a squad, that had made a holocaust of our constructive National policy, and because it peerless heroes, the officials had made a lacked the quick-hearted, active support of the prolonged study of every printed word o f his people as a whole.” Republican Brother as he since the beginning of his public career. We was, he cited, with approval, these fine words have it on the authority of Dublin Castle’s own of Standish O’Grady: “ The digger and Voice that England thirsted for his blood. ditcher, hewer and stitcher, are as human Nothing could be found treasonable enough to as the soldier, and only hang a death warrant to boys, novel readers, on. Yet it was a pity, and sham statesmen is for “ He was the most the rifle a whit more malignant journalist in UNITED IRISHMAN heroic than the spade. A H&TiOUAl, WSfcKI.Y 4 the British Empire and The purpose is the England’s most relent­ grand thing, and when less foe.” Later, when the spade shines for a 1 sinn % pern I showed him the noble end, it out-glitters cutting containing these the flashing of a sword, words, he laughed and the spade-man will 1 smn e pern ' heartily : “ I never knew obey you, conquering I was so important.” back this island as no In Ulster and Munster, sword-man ever feared i T ^ I a h D C C 1SSORS in Leinster and- Con­ and obeyed any Geral­ j a e l A n g i 5 # p a s t l nacht, his papers were dine or O’Neill in the passionately sought for, old fighting days.” even scraps of them, Arthur Griffith’s in­ and carried to Dublin I NATIONALITYEDITED BY ARTHUR GRIFFITH. J YOUNG1 VVI1II IHIR . fluence was out of all fun Castle. proportion to the circu­ Arthur Griffith con­ lation of his papers. Block lent by] G riffith ’s Newspapers. ["eme 0 5 .” secrated his life to In the newspaper Ireland. I know of no sense they were never other public man in the “ popular.” He would not flatter the masses, world’s history who strangled Self that his whom he loved, nor make appeal to their country might live. The son of a poor man, prejudices, nor speak comfortable words to he remained poor to the end of his days. I them. The truth, only the truth, as he saw it, was present in 17 Fownes Street in 1903 when he preached, and scattered precepts that would a big American newspaper magnate offered redeem the land. Hence all pure-hearted him £1,000 a year in advance, and a guarantee Idealists, nearly all the Separatists, were his of an additional thousand, if he would but go passionate followers. His constructive pro­ to the United States of America. Arthur gramme on Trade and Commerce, in turned down the offer instantly. He was Economics, in Banking, obtained him the making an uncertain weekly wage, fluctuating adhesion of men to whom his politics were between 25 and 30 shillings. He was often anathema. Gaelic Leaguers, Poets, Dramatists, hungry; but place, power, m oney: all were and Scholars gathered round him who had few mere dross to him. Ireland craved his genius, opinions in common: love of Ireland was the his toil, his love; he gave her all he had lien that held them to the Central Good. More joyously, unsparingly. Edmund Spenser, a

11 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. sixteenth century Englishman, truly called our for the night were over, and the door closed people “ great scorners of death.” In a spirit on us, the Senor, with tears in his eyes, said: of exaltation, in the spiritual knowledge that “ Sean Ghall, your ‘ Dan ’ is the greatest soul the individual is but a link in the long chain I have met in my world’s wandering. Go of our noble race’s destiny, men have turned the down on your knees, boy, in love and admira­ scaffold into an altar, with God’s light shining tion of the most serene, the humblest, and the upon it; hence they have faced death with a most selfless of the great.” smile and a song. Many have acted as though He had an extraordinarily humble opinion of the firing squad himself and of his were a band of work. To the end liberating angels. he reputed himself But to die daily, as nothing. He, even hourly, for the Master of us your country; to all, was always dwell in the slums looking for a when you might leader for Sinn have lived in the Fein ! As a school­ light, laughing boy he detested places of the being head in class world; to go clad or in games. Last as the very poor year when selected are clad when as President, he purple and fine was comically linen might have pathetic in the way been yours; to eat he ridiculed him­ dry bread, and not self, with all his much of that, when accustomed drol­ you might have lery, by my sick feasted full; to act bedside. “ Think thus not for one of me as Chief, year, nor for ten, O Sean ! Let the but for more than rafters ring with a generation— that your laughter at is heroism of the comedy o f i t ! ” which few but He had a genius God’s Great are for friendship. In capable, and that an Eastern tale was the heroism of the well of pure, Arthur Griffith. cold water in the The simple majesty desert was covered of this man’s by a huge rock, apostolic life was which could be evident to all his Photo] Mr. G riffith with Sean McKeon, [Hogan, Dublin. moved only by the the famous guerilla chief, whose heroism and chivalry during intimate friends. the Black and Tan regime won world-wide admiration. elect. Griffith’s When Senor mask of impas­ William Bulfin, whom Griffith had designed as sivity was as that stone to the world the Man to lead the Van of Sinn Fein, came external. Those who had the privilege of from Buenos Ayres, we three spent many making it roll away came in touch with as happy days together. The first night after we rare, as beautiful a soul as ever dwelt in a had visited Arthur in his poor room— save for habitation of clay. He exuded innocent Irish piles of books, as bare as a hermit’s cell— in a fun, roguish pranks, and an ebullition of spirits, tenement house, after our farewell greetings in private life, with intimate friends. Roger

12 Photo] THE PRESIDENT ADDRESSING A MEETING AT SLIGO ON THE [Hogan, Dublin.

16 t h APRIL, 1922, IN DEFIANCE OF A “ PROCLAMATION ” BY THE ANTI-TREATYITES.

Casement, that Bayard of our land, regarded laudation of the Master. And they knew that him as “ one of the simple, great men of old, no more congenial topic could be broached in the who went about their daily tasks ‘ like noble presence of his old school-fellow, who loved boys at play.’ ” To Senor Bulfin he was a theme the very ground he trod. Emerson wisely for seemingly inexhaustible eulogium. His remarked : “ Nature never sends a great soul letters, extending over years, are crammed with into the planet without confiding the secret to allusions to Arthur’s ascetic simplicity, his another soul.” There were many souls who, unselfishness, his humility, his fortitude, his even twenty years ago, when the big world was stainless idealism. Mary Butler’s affection and unaware of his presence, realised that he was admiration were akin to worship. She hung the man who would lead his race to a greater on every word he wrote or spoke. With eminence than it had ever before attained. feminine hyperbole she dubbed him “ Wisdom ” The memory-haunted heart of the ever- and “ Simplicity.” Major John MacBride, faithful Gael will not readily forget Arthur who was one of his life-long friends, loved Griffith, the Irish Moses, who led his people him with all the intensity of his noble nature; out of deeper than Egyptian slavery, the great­ to him “ Dan ” was impeccable, ideal. The hearted, Christ-like poor man, who asked for O ’Rahilly, Sean MacDermott, James Connolly, no other riches than the peace, prosperity, and Padraic Pearse, and other heroes of Easter freedom of his mother, Eire. His name be Week found no more congenial topic of con­ well remembered for evermore. versation, for many years, with me than the S e a n G h a l l .

13 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

0 L f^ J JU~tfYh&W V-i

Message to fcthe Irish People, written by Presi­ dent Griffith when he £ * * * - t l L . was settling his affairs, prior to attending the Sligo Meeting, but not published until after his. death.

Block k indly lent by * 'Eire O g *

* s > ~ ^ A s * + y * * -

Photopress] A L o n d o n S n a p . [3 Johnson’s Court, E.C.

14 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

THE DEAD PRESIDENT.

(From a drawing by P aul H e n ry ).

He had the prose of logic and of scorn, Has flung the fire upon ! Our own, our sacred strength And words to sledge an iron argument, He mustered up ; he won us that which set And yet he could draw down the outland birds A shield before us, put weapons into our hands, To perch beside the ravens of his thought, Gave us the nation's franchise ; then he lived Poetry and Legend and Romance ! Only as long as the child stays in the womb A man four-square ! In ungrown times we heard him, After that triumph ! Now all our praise, And heard And all our honours go into a grave ! Amongst boys' voices and old men's voices A man's full voice ! He knew Odysseus, Odysseus ! You who planned How men who’d save their land must patiently plan To save the island-homeland ; you who laboured And have an end, not be So long upon the barren outer sea : Like that enthralled fowl that has its beak Now you are gone from labours would be fruitful : To the board that's marked, and cannot lift its beak : Our fields He knew that the man of state Are still uncleared, our navies still unbuilded, Must be as careful as the wren with a nestful, Our city's left inglorious on its site ! Low-flying like the lap-wing, quick to strike Odysseus, Odysseus, you who made As the ger-falcon when her circle's made. The plan that drove the wasters from our house, He knew And bent the bow that none could bend but you, W hat sacred resistance is in men Now the bow’s down, the bow is upon the ground, That's all but broken ; how from resistance used And who can lift it, who can draw it now, A strength is born, a stormy, bright-eyed strength And show himself a master in this house, Like Homer's Iris, messenger of the gods, This ancient house that has the curse of war ?

Coming before the ships the enemy P a d r a i c C o l u m .

15 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

THE DEAD MICHAEL COLLINS,

By Sir John La v e r y .

Reproduced by permission of Geo. Pulman & Sons, Ltd., who have published a reproduction in facsimile colour.

Bealnablatha.

(Written on seeing Sir John Lavery’s picture of the dead Michael Collins). Oh ! go you with the folk of fairy, They left his blossom white and slender Or come with ghosts at dead of day? Beneath Glasnevin’s shaking sod; Good luck lie with you, Michael Collins, His spirit passed like sunset splendour Or go or come you back our way. Unto the dead Fiannas’ God.

What is that curling flower of wonder Good luck be with you, Michael Collins, As white as snow, as red as blood? Or stay or go you far away; When Death goes by in flame and thunder Or stay you with the folk of fairy, And rips the beauty from the bud. Or come with ghosts another day. S h a n e L e s l i e .

16 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. v MICHAEL COLLINS.

I n C o u n t y C o r k .

M i c h a e l C o l l i n s i n 1917.

By courtesy of H e WAS A CONVINCING O r a t o r , AND HE ' ' Pat he Gazette: KNEW HOW TO EMPHASISE H lS POINTS. 17 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

Photo] [Hogan, Dublin.

M ic h a e l C o l l i n s addressing a wonderful Pro-Treaty Meeting in Cork in April, 1922, in the County where he was born and where he died. GENERAL COLLINS’ IMMEDIATE ANCESTRY. Micheal O’Coileain, born 16th October, 1890. parish. His maternal grandfather was James Died 22nd August, 1922. Youngest child of O’Brien, of Tullineasky. The latter’s mother Michael Collins, farmer and builder, Woodfield was a member of the Murray clan. Two o f (Palbeg), Clonakilty, and of Mary Anne her brothers were Ross priests. O’Brien, of Tullineasky. Grandmother on the His uncles and grand-uncles, many of whom paternal side was a member of the O’Sullivan still survive, were remarkable for what was family of Castleventry, Clonakilty. His great- almost a genius for getting along well with grandmother on the paternal side was Miss everybody. A resident o f the district asserts Neville. His grandmother on the maternal as a positive fact that he never knew of one o f side was Johanna McCarthy, of Garralacka, the Collins or O’Brien family to be either whose mother was Miss O’Connor of Lisavaird plaintiff or defendant in a law court.

18 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

Photo] [Hogan, Dublin. D r i v i n g H o m e h i s A r g u m e n t s a t t h e G r e a t M e e t i n g i n C o r k .

19 Photo] [Finnerty, Newbridge. AT THE CURRAGH. Left to right— Colonel Dunphy, General Collins, Major-General Emmet Dalton (in whose arms the Commander-in-Chief died), Comdt.-General P. MacMahon, and Comdt.-General D. O ’Hegarty.

GREETED

BY

FRIENDS.

[Photo, Walsh, Dublin.|

20 BEALNABLATHA—THE SCENE OF THE AMBUSH.

The Commander-in-Chief was at the right-hand side of the road when he received the fatal bullet. He was at once removed to the left side. The mark indicates the spot where he breathed his last, and in the sward close by a Cross is cut.

A P r e v i o u s

V i s i t to

H i s H o m e C o u n t y .

A A n d a

C h a t . H a n d s h a k e .

I n t h e

R u i n s o f h i s

H o m e .

By courtesy of Pat he Gazetie\ Photo] [Walsh, Dublin. THE FUNERAL OF GENERAL COLLINS.

Passing the Government Buildings, Merrion Street, where he used to work so strenuously.

From a portrait executed in bronze by the famous Medallionist, T. Spicer Simson, from studies made while the late Commander-in-Chief

M ic h a e l C o l l i n s a s a B o y . sat at lunch in a friend’s house. ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

THE DEAD COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. PERSONAL REMINISCENCES

BY PIARAS BEASLAI.

(Included by kind permission of “ Freeman's Journal.” )

I t is seven years ago since I first met Commander-in-Chief at the funeral of Arthur Michael Collins-—then a mere boy of 25—in Griffith, it gave me a strange sensation to the rooms of the Keating Branch of the see included in the small group of G.H.Q. Gaelic League, at that time situated in North officers almost all my little band of Gaelic Frederick Street. No inward premonition, players of 1913 to 1916. One only has parted no instinctive feeling warned me that I was company with us. making acquaintance with the most remark­ Mick, as I said, was a constant associate able Irishman of this generation. I saw only of our little group. There was one other man a tall, strong, good-looking Irish boy, full of constantly in our company whom we were life and spirits, with a gay and infectious proud to look on as our leader—the late laugh, a sunny and sociable disposition, who Sean MacDiarmada. It was the high opinion “ made friends ” with me immediately. which I saw Sean to hold of Mick Collins Young as he was, Mick was already active that first made me realise that the laughing in the Gaelic League, in Sinn Fein, in the boy from London had something more than Irish Republican Brotherhood, and in the the ordinary in him. Sean had the same Gaelic Athletic Association. In London he capacity for inspiring love and devotion in had been studying Irish, earning credit as an others which Mick was afterwards to display. athlete and hurler, and concerning himself The younger man loved and reverenced Sean. actively in the work which led up to the I have sometimes felt in after times that Insurrection of 1916. But it wras first on the mantle of Sean MacDiarmada had fallen his social and debonair side that I came to on Collins. With all their differences of . know him, and I thought of him more as a appearance and manner, both had much in gay and pleasant companion than a future common. Their outlook was the same, their leader of the National Movement. grip of practical realities, their love for the During the few months that immediately plain people, their vehement appreciation of preceded the Insurrection of 1916, Mick spent the drolleries of humbler life in Ireland, their much of his time in the rooms of the Keating sociable disposition, and their power of Branch, wrhich was frequented by a small inspiring energy and efficiency in other men. group of young men who have since become It seems strange to think that in those famous. It is a proud thought to me that fateful days, when we were feverishly pre­ that little group were first brought together paring for the Insurrection, Mick Collins was by me in an enterprise small enough in its in our midst, and was so little regarded. The way compared to the big national work they man who was to lead Ireland to victory in were destined to do afterwards. This was that six years’ war which we were inaugurating the formation of “ Na hAisteori,” a dramatic was then little known, little appreciated. society, of which I was President, and of Even our little group had not sensed the which the leading members were Major- genius of the man. During the last few days General Gearoid O’Sullivan, Commandant- before the “ Rising,” the rooms in North General Diarmuid O’Hegarty, Commandant- Frederick Street were an important centre of General Fionan Lynch, Commandant Colm O our activities. Mick was in and out con­ Murchadha. When we marched behind our tinually, but was not consulted about any

23 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. important matters. On that eventful Easter out process, Mick still remained unidentified, Sunday, 1916, that day of orders and counter­ and he was ultimately marched off with the orders, of rumours and alarms, of calling off prisoners destined for internment. arrangements, and calling them on, Mick was It was only after his release from intern­ with us in the North Frederick Street rooms, ment at the end of 1916 that he began to gay and boyish as usual. We jested about the make himself felt in the work of the nation! coming fight. In the evening Gearoid Even we in Lewes prison sensed, in that O’Sullivan, Diar- obscure way that muid O’Hegarty, an impression Mick and myself reaches prisoners, slipped down town that Mick Collins to a restaurant was one of the near the Pillar for “ li ve wires ” some tea. I think among the men it was as merry a outside. Messages meal as we ever reached us from had, and Mick was him by various the life and soul surreptitious chan- of the party. We nels, a system derived grim of communication amusement from was built up, and arranging with we were put in some girls of our touch with the acquaintance to go new situation in for an excursion Ireland. with them on When we were Easter Monday-— released in 1917 knowing at the we found that our time what Easter boyish comrade of Monday would the previous year bring. had become a man I next saw Mick of weight in the a week later a work for Ireland’s prisoner in the freedom. The Gymnasium of Irish Volunteers Richmond Bar­ were being slowly racks. Detectives built up again moved backwards after the break-up and forwards of 1916; the work among the pri­ had now to be soners (who were done in secret, made to sit on the and Collins’ mar­ floor), and picked Photo] [Hogan, Dublin. vellous energy and out men known O n R e l e a s e f r o m P r i s o n , X m a s , 1 9 1 6 . resource found em­ to them. I was ployment in this picked out and placed at the other side of work. Somehow that little group of men I the room, and found myself opposite Mick. have spoken of came together again—an event He looked as cheerful and debonair as ever. which seemed beyond the range of possibility I thought it better to show no sign of re­ on that Easter Sunday we last met. Only cognition, and was relieved to see that he one man was missing—Sean MacDiarmada— was apparently unknown to the detectives. slain by the British. When the day had been spent in this weeding- We met nightly at a certain rendezvous, a

24 • ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

amazing enough. Here is one. Early in 1919, when he was a very much “ wanted ” man, he actually spent a night in the headquarters of the “ G ” Division in Brunswick Street, then the centre of British political spy work, and acquired much valuable infor­ mation. Our little group in 1918 was reinforced by another associate—the late Harry Boland. Harry and Mick conceived a sincere affection for each other, and the unhappy political differences brought no severance of personal friendship between them. Harry, Mick, and myself being “ on the run” (at that time M e m b e r s o f t h e C o l l i n s F a m i l y an uncommon experience), and engaged in outside their home in Co. Cork, which was the same work, were constantly together destroyed b*T the Black and Tans. up to Harry’s departure for America in 1919. I am certain that no man grieved place which played a big part in the history more for Harry’s death under such circum­ of the struggle for freedom. At a later stances than Mick. period we had to change the rendezvous, but It is not generally known that Mick had a the habit of meeting nightly was persisted in warm regard for the late Cathal Brugha, all through the years of war that followed-—- which the latter never reciprocated. After even through the height of the Black-and-Tan the fierce attack made by Cathal on him at Terror in Dublin. Sometimes one or other Dail Eireann, I remember Mick saying to of the group was absent—away in gaol— and me : “ Do you know, in spite of all he said when this was so, the “ Big Man,” as we against me, I still have a sneaking affection loved to call Mick, never forgot him. Amid for Cathal.” This was typical of the great the Herculean work that lay on his shoulders, broad-minded, broad-hearted nature of the amid the doubts and dangers which sur­ man, free from petty malice or jealousy. A rounded him, he always found time to write Big Man indeed ! to “ the lad in gaol,” to send him cigarettes, Our little group was reinforced by some books, cheery messages, by some of the notable associates, among others Commandant- mysterious means of communication which he General Tobin, Commandant-General Cullen, controlled. No other man showed more and Colonel-Commandant Frank Thornton, continuous and kindly thought for me during which last officer was recently seriously my several imprisonments ; and my experience was that of many others.

“ jThe dearest friend to me, the kindest man, The best-conditioned and unwearied spirit In doing courtesies.” The German Plot period was the beginning of Mick’s career “ on the run ” ; it was also the period when his great work for the Army began. As Adjutant-General and Director of Organization he did a lion’s share in building up a new army from the remains of the Irish Volunteers, and at a later period, as Director of Intelligence, he made that army doubly formidable. Many mythical stories have been By courtesy of] [Pathe Gazette. told of his exploits, but the true ones are A t G r i f f i t h ' s G r a v e .

25 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. * wounded in an ambush near Kilkenny. These luck, courage, and confidence, and not to any three were Mick’s chief intelligence officers, special “ elusiveness,” disguises or mystery. and no team ever gave more loyal, brave, No wanted man ever took less precautions. and magnificent service. The day has not He never wore a disguise, and always went yet come when the full story of the work anywhere business called him, even the most done by those men and the group of brave prominent places in Dublin. His only men who served under them can be fully precaution was to ride a bicycle, and not to told ; but it was admitted by the British sleep for many nights in succession at the military authorities during the recent war same house. Again and again he was held up that the effectiveness of the I.R.A. Intelli­ and searched. On one occasion, Christmas gence Department was simply marvellous. Eve, 1 9 2 0 , he, in company with Command­ The nightly meetings of our group were a ant-General Tobin, Commandant-General combination of social intercourse and business. O’Connell, and Rory O’Connor of “ Four I believe that they were an important factor Courts ” fame, was actually captured by in the effectiveness of the work. At the Auxiliaries in the Gresham Hotel, but after chosen rendezvous Mick met his lieutenants, an hour’s detention and interrogation they met heads of other Army Departments, met succeeded in bluffing the “ Auxies,” as we officers from the country, and kept in close call them, into releasing them. touch with them all. As we had to operate The legend of Mick’s “ bodyguard ” of in different furtive offices scattered all over armed men who always attended him seems the city, this nightly personal intercourse was hard to kill. I can state in the most emphatic of immense personal importance. manner that there is no truth in it. During the height of the Terror, when the All through the blackest days of the Terror British Army and Auxiliaries were combing Mick moved freely about on his bicycle out Dublin for Michael Collins, there never without any guard or companion. The was a night that a crowd of very much legend of the “ bodyguard ” was invented by “ wanted ” officers did not meet their beloved the British Intelligence Department to Chief at the same rendezvous. His vital explain their failure to capture him. In energy was never more strikingly displayed similar strain in the present troubles, the organ than on these occasions. Everybody had of the Irregulars described Mick as moving business with him ; everybody called him around Dublin “ in an armoured car-” At aside to discuss some problem or give some the time in question I had met the Com- information. He concentrated his mind on mander-in-Chief riding through Dublin in full each new question with startling rapidity, uniform in an open touring car containing came to a rapid decision,'made a brief note, only himself and the driver. and passed on to something else. You could I have often been struck by the resemblance be sure the matter noted would not be in character between Danton and Michael forgotten. He was the man who remembered Collins. Both had the same intense love and got things done. Then business done, of their country, of the plain people of their he would relax, begin to jest or even to land ; the same vital energy in a moment indulge in horseplay with all the zest of a of national crisis, the same fiery spirit, the schoolboy. He was much addicted to practical same large, generous nature. Like Danton, jokes. At this time, when a huge price was Collins saved his country, and fell because on his head, with lorries thundering by in he disdained to take precautions. Danton the streets outside our place of rendezvous, uttered one of the greatest phrases in history : he was ever the gayest of the gay, full of “ Let my name perish, but let France be exuberant animal spirits, and our meetings saved.” Collins at the secret debate on the were as merry as if no dangers surrounded us. Treaty said something similar in an appeal His many miraculous escapes gave him, I for an arrangement in Ireland’s interest. think, and gave us all a kind of blind con­ “ You can have all the glory, let us have fidence in his luck. Let there be no mistake all the disgrace, but let us save Ireland.” about it, his many escapes were due to sheer (Continued on page 28.)

26 THE

POLICE GAZETTE

OB HUE-AND-CRY.

Published (by Authority) for Ireland on every Tuesday and Friday.

t REGULATIONS. tSsF Ail Notice intended for insertion in the “ Huc-and Cry ” are to he transmitted, under cover, addressed to the Inspector-General, Royal Irish Constabulary, Dublin Castle, authenticated oy a Separate Communication. No Description can be inserted unless an Information shall have been svrorn; but it is not necessary to forward the Information to the Inspector-General. Notices respecting all Felonies and such Misdemeanours as ore of an aggravated nature will be inserted. All Descriptions of persons a hose apprehension is sought on a charge of Misdemeanour should be accompanied by a statement that a Warrant has been issued, and by the name of the person in whose hands it is. But the Constabulary should remember that they cannot arrest a person charged with an offence of this nature unless they have the Warrant in their possession v, hen making the arrest. ** Should irregularities arise in the delivery of the ' k Hue-and-Crv f it will be necessary to forward one of the covers, or give the number it bears, as without this information the mistake cannot be rectified. Prison and Police Authorities are particularly requested to be good enough to inform the Inspect or-General, Royal Irish Constabulary, Dublin Castle, of the abolition of Gaols, Stations, Ac,, and of any eim«nstancee rendering the spppiv of the V Ilue-and-Cry ” no longer necessary. Postage should be prepaid at the ordinary rates- for printed matter kn any copies of this Gazette*which may be sent by post within the Catted Kingdom , except such as arc dispatched in proper course from a Metropolitan Government Office, or from the Publishing Office of the Gazette. Copies aent abroad should be prepaid at the rate of a half-penny for every tw o ounces. |

pmtm, mmAv, im.

NOTICE

foe CompcsiUon of the Hue-acd-Ory w ill be* foand arranged for easy reference as follow*;— (a.) Regulations on top of first page. (b.) Apprehensions Sought. (1 .) Royal Irish Constabulary (2.) Dublin Metropolitan Police. (S .) English Police. (4. ) Scotch Police. (c.) Animals Stolen. (d.) Property Stolen, f i d Apprehensions

APPREHENSIONS SOUGHT.

ERNEST BEY THE, M. P. (Dublin City), age : DESCKIPTiONS a n d PI t O T O O UAPHS 84, 5 ft. 8 in., grev eyes, bread face, Breadl persona who are wanted. nose, medium make, long dark hair', brown, DENTS tlALVIN (Cork E.U.), 21 jus., i If any • of them be fopm! they < should clean shaven. Maries—Wart on right cheek. V height 0-ft. 1 in., hair dark brown. arrested and a.telegrauyyent to Head Qnartpi in. fwm» Jpbu *>f ear.

PIERCE BEASLEY, M.P. (Dublin City), age II yrs., A ft 8 'in., complexion fellow, B it HARD M U l »’ \ h y M.P (Dublin City), ! MICHAEL COLLINS, M.P. (Dublin City and brown eyea, long face, long nose, medium me he. age y ; ,r. j fc & ?t s in ., fair hair, h as j

IN THE HEIGHT OF THE TERROR. “ WANTED” BY THE BRITISH.

27 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

I have been permitted by[a friend of Mick’s Again, in the second letter, he says :— and mine-—one of the little group who met “ If people had a little truer appreciation together in the times of storm and stress— of other people’s opinion, we might never to make use of two private letters received by have got into this present morass.” him from “The Big Man ” only a few daysMichael Collins is gone. A week before before his tragic end. These letters, not he died I marched behind him at the funeral intended for publication, contain some phrases of Arthur Griffith. I heard that mass of which show the outlook of our lost leader on splendid manhood blessed and prayed for by the present situation—his sanity, his big, the people along the route as the hope of broad, generous statesmanlike mind, in the Ireland, I saw him gazing on the grave of midst of a crisis when smaller men lose their his colleague, and thought what a heavy heads at the spectacle of wanton destruction. weight had descended on those strong young He said :— shoulders. To-day the strong form is powerless, the gay laugh is silenced. A career “ Anybody who is out for blood or scalps of brilliant promise is ended in the very is of little use to the country ; equally, of beginning of its usefulness. But that course, the real issue cannot be departed inspiration which he gave to those who loved from I for one will always be found and followed him will not die, and those who on the side of any arrangement that will are left will not desist from their efforts till give the country the chance it desires and Ireland has attained that peace and freedom will safeguard the future.” for which she longs.

M ICHEAL O COILEAIN.

“ Multitudinous is their gathering, a great host with whom it is not fortunate to contend, the battle-tiooped host of the 0 Coileain.”

In the dark night I waited for the boat W hat master spy, what bloodhound nosed him out ? That bore his body as its dearest freight ; Surely he is our country’s supreme foe : And, with long time to wait, And surely he shall go I cast in mind our country’s horoscope, Down the memorial ages. He shall have Striving to find the future from the past, The fame of Judas who McMurrough clad. From courage to the people known by rote : W hat alien schemer or deluded lout, The laughing face, the unimpeded mind, W hat Cain has caught his country by the throat ? The heart that slew itself through being kind ; What devil to destruction could devote Until she loomed at last The brightest heart we had W ith light on either mast, While he was yet a lad, And turned our Liffey to a Styx of hope. And his unblemished body to the grave ?

How often had I lain awake and heard When in the Mouth of Blossom* your lips paled. The pent-up city trembling to the shot, Then pale with resolution re-imbued I shall forget it not, The gathering multitude And he alone the quarry for the lead With whom it is not lucky to contend, Of each licentious savage on him set ? The Race becomes a Collins in this fray, How often have I prayed that still they erred The bravest of your land are now enmailed ; When through the streets they dashed So keep with Death your long-acquainted tryst j And house and house was smashed. No death can make your famous soul desist Now Death holds in a net That was in danger gay W hat England could not get From pointing out the way For forty thousand pounds upon his head. To walk with you ennobled to the end.

*Beal na Blatha. 0 G

28 Photo] [Irish Times. PRESIDENT GRIFFITH'S FUNERAL. General Collins, with General Mulcahy, leading the G.H.Q. Staff, all Officers with distinguished

Photo] [Daily Sketch. MR. W. T. COSGRAVE DELIVERING THE ORATION. 29 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

THE LESSON OF ARTHUR GRIFFITH’S LIFE.

P resident Co sg r a ve, delivering the oration, stained its name both at home and abroad— said:—This great man laboured for thirty a moral desolation not merely in the ordinary years to achieve that which he scarcely lived acceptation of the term in which people think to see. The work to which he set his hand of dishonesty and disregard of individual was a work which, in time, attracted the rights, of reckless murder and general attention and support of the nation by reason insincerity, but also the moral desolation in of the earnestness, the sincerity, and the a blindly dishonest outlook and attitude selflessness of the efforts which he made to towards the national position and the effect achieve the destiny of the nation which gave of the nation’s Treaty of Peace. him birth. This great man abhorred those Those of us who knew him during the magicians of political metaphysics who say last month of his life felt every day when he one thing and mean another. At no time addressed us that that man must have suffered during his life, during the period that anyone more than any other man in this country, here knew this man, did he ever say “ yes” when he thought of the wounds of his soldiers, when he meant “ no,” or say “ no” when he and the deaths of the men who gave their meant “ yes,” and when he signed the Treaty lives to preserve the honour and the integrity with the enemy, whom he had encountered of their country, and to preserve that which and met and fought during the last thirty he had fought for and which he had secured years, he meant to keep it. His signature before he died. was his bond for the honour of the nation on This man was certainly a man of patience whose behalf he had pledged his word. without display, a man of absolute honesty Having achieved all he had laboured to and steadfastness, a man of great character; achieve, he allowed no mere catchcries to turn he was a man who had never feared to appeal him from his purpose, and his signature was for a great national morality, that this nation his bond that he would accept and carry should take its place amongst the other out his part of the bargain as long as nations with a just pride. It is right, here the other side carried out their part of the at his graveside, that we should also refer bargain. to the confidence he had in his country. This man was not merely a great patriot He looked through a cloud which he or a great democrat ; he was a great man, knew had to be dissipated and swept away., and for the rest of the history of this country and the country restored to a normal con­ his name and his work will be a lesson and sciousness with the same iron steadfastness an inspiration to those who come after him as thirty years ago when he set out towards — a lesson now in this time of easy indulgence the goal of the country’s regeneration. He when everybody seems to think that the time had now, at the moment when he has been for work is past. This man’s life will be some­ taken from us, set himself with just as much thing to look back to, something that people steadfastness to accomplish the moral re­ can review and realise what work had got to generation, to retrieve the nation’s honour, be done in order that we should arrive at established in the liberty that has been won, this period in our nation’s history. He died, which only a people in unity and honesty unlike many of his great predecessors who of purpose could hope to hold. were leaders in this country, a successful man, It is sad to lose him, but it is sadder still having accomplished the thing to which he to see the state of the country ; and the had set his life’s work, but he died a sorrowful message we take from his graveside is a man, and if it were not for the greatness of message of hope inspired by truth, honesty his heart and the magnificence of his mind, and steadfastness, and as we separate let us he would have died a broken-hearted man, remain united in spirit, and we may hope for within the last few months of his life he that the clouds will soon have passed, and looked out upon the moral desolation which, the sun of happiness and prosperity rise on. for the time being, darkened his country, and our beloved land again. 30 Photo] [Hogan, Dublin, MEMBERS OF THE GOVERNMENT, AND PRO-TREATY MEMBERS OF DAIL EIREANN (Second Dail, February, 1922).

Photo] A GROUP AT ARMAGH. [Allison, Armagh,

31 Facsimile of General Mulcahy’s Message to the Army, issued immediately on receipt of the news of General Collins’ death.

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yt^s < ^ ,TrT>t-vr' By courtesy] [Topical Press Agency. GENERAL RICHARD MULCAHY DELIVERING THE ORATION AT GENERAL COLLINS GRAVESIDE. ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

GENERAL MULCAHY’S ORATION AT THE GRAVESIDE.

Opening in Irish, he said that there was a plaque of President Roosevelt, of the United burden of sorrow heavy on the hearts of our States, and the inscription on it ran : “ I wish people to-day, that our minds, like the great to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but Cathedral below after the last Mass had been the doctrine of strenuous life, the life of toil said, and the coffin borne away, and the great and efifort, of labour and strife; to preach that concourse of people emptied from it— our highest form of success that comes, not to the minds were dry, wordless, and empty, with man who desires mere ease and peace, but to nothing in them but the little light of faith. him who does not shrink -from danger, Continuing in English, he said:— Our hardship, or bitter toil, and who, out of these, country is to-day bent under a sorrow such as wins the splendid ultimate triumph.” it has not been bent under for many a year. “ Mara bhfuigheann an grainne arbhair a Our minds are cold, empty, wordless, and- theidheann sa talamh bas ni bhion ann ach e without sound. But itds only our weaknesses fein, ach, ma gheibheann se bas tugan se toradh that are bent under this great sorrow that we mor uaidh.” meet with to-day. All that is good in us, all “ Unless the grain of corn that falls into the that is strong in us, is strengthened by the ground dies, there is nothmg but itself in it, but memory of that great hero and that great if it dies it gives forth great fruit.” ! legend who is now laid to rest. And Michael Collins’ passing will give us W e bend to-day over the grave of a man not. forth great fruit, and Michael Collins’ dying more than thirty years of age, who took to will give us forth great fruit. Every bit of his himself the gospel of toil for Ireland, the gospel small grain of corn died, and it died night and of working for the people of Ireland, and of day during the last four or five years. W e sacrifice for their good, and who has made have seen him lying on a bed of sickness and himself a hero and a legend that will stand in struggling with infirmities, running from his the pages of our history with any bright page bed to his work. that was ever written there. ' On Saturday, the day before he went on his Pages have been written by him in the hearts last journey to Cork, he sat with me at of our people that will never find a place in breakfast writhing with pain from a cold all print. But we lived, some of us, with these through his body, and yet he was facing his intimate pages; and those pages that will reach day’s work' for that Saturday, and facing his history, meagre though they be, will do good to Sunday’s journey and Monday’s journey and our country and will inspire us through many his journey on Tuesday. So let us be brave, a dark hour. Our weaknesses cry out to us, and let us not be afraid to do too much in the “ Michael Collins was too brave.” day. In all that great work, strenuous it was, Michael Collins was not too brave. Every comparatively it was intemperate, but it was day and every hour he lived he lived it to the the only thing that Michael Collins was full extent of that bravery which God gave to intemperate in. him, and it is for us to be brave as he was— How often with a shout he used to get out of brave before danger, brave before those who bed in the morning at 5 or 6 o’clock crying, lie, brave even to that very great bravery that “ All the time that is wasted in sleep,” and our weakness complained of in him. would dash around the room, or into some When we look over the pages of his diary for neighbouring room where some of us lay in the 22nd August, “ Started 6.15 a.m. Macroom to hope of an hour or two’s sleep, and he would Ballineen, Bandon, Skibbereen, Roscarbery, clear all the blankets off us, or would pound Clonakilty,” our weakness says he tried to put vigorously at the door which prudence had too much into the day. Michael Collins did not locked. try to put too much into the day. Standing on Crossing the square.of the barracks on the the little mantel-piece of his office was a bronze Saturday morning that I mention, he told o f

34 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. his visit to one of the barracks in the South on Yes, get up to read, to write; to think, to his first trip there, and of finding most of the plan, to work, or, like Ard Riogh Eireann long garrison in bed at 10 o’clock; and thinking of ago, simply to greet the sun. The God-given all the lack of order, lack of cleanliness, lack long day fully felt and fully seen would bring of moral strength and efficiency that goes with its own work and its own construction. Let us this particular type of sloth, and of all the be brave, then, and let us work.

Photo] [Keogh, Dublin. GENERAL RICHARD MULCAHY, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. (General Collins’ Successor).

demoralisation following on the dissatisfaction “ Prophecy,” said Peter, who was the great that one has with one’s self all the day that one rock, “ is a light shining in the darkness till the starts with an hour’s disadvantage. “ Oh,” he day dawn.” said, “ if,our fellows would only get up at 6 And surely “ our great rock ” was our o’clock in the morning.” prophet and our prophecy, a light held aloft

35 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. along the road of “ danger or hardship or bitter Donegal, nor the men of Donegal from the men toil.” And if our light is gone out it is only as of Cork. the paling of a candle in the dawn of its own His great love embraced our whole people prophecy. and our whole Army, and he was as close in The act of his, the word of his, the look of spirit with our men in Kerry and Donegal as his was day by day a prophecy to us that loose he was with our men in Dublin. Yes. And lying in us lay capabilities for toil, for bravery, even those men in different districts in the for regularity, for joy in life; and in slowness country who sent us home here our dead Dublin and in hesitancy and in weariness half yielded men— we are sure he felt nothing but pity and to, his prophecies came true in us. And just sorrow for them for the tragic circumstances as he as a person was a light and a prophecy in which they find themselves, knowing that in to us individually, he looked to it and wished fundamentals and in ideals they were the same. that this band of brothers, which is the Army, Michael Collins had only a few minutes to will be a prophecy to our people. Our Army live and to speak after he received his death has been the people, is the people, and will be wound,'and the only word he spoke in these the people. Our green uniform does not make few moments was “Emmet.” He called to the us less the people. It is a cloak of service, a comrade alongside him, the comrade of many curtailer of our weaknesses, an amplifier of our fights and many plans, and I am sure that he strength. felt in calling that one name that he was calling W e are jealous for his greatness. Words around him the whole men of Ireland that he have been quoted as being his last words; might speak the last word of comradeship and Michael Collins is supposed to have said the love. fragile words, “ Forgive them.” Michael Collins W e last looked at him in the City Hall and in never said these words, “ Forgive them,” the small church in Vincent’s Hospital. And, because his great big mind could not have studying his face with an eager gaze, we found entertained the obverse thought, and he knew there the same old smile that met us always in those who sat around him and worked with him our work. And seeing it there in the first dark that they, too, were too big to harbour in their hour of our blow, the mind could not help minds the obverse thought. travelling back to the dark storm-tossed Sea When Michael Collins met difficulties, met of Gallilea and the frail barque tossed upon the people who obstructed him, and worked against waters there, and the strong, calm smile of the him, he did not turn aside to blame them, but Great Sleeper in the stern of the boat. facing steadily ahead, he worked bravely Tom Ashe, Tomas MacCurtain, Traolach forward to the goal that he intended. He had MacSuibhne, Dick McKee, Micheal O’Coileain, that faith in the intensity of his own work that and all you who lie buried here, disciples o f in its development and in its construction he our great Chief, those of us you leave behind would absorb into one homogeneous whole in are all, too, grain from the same handful, the nation, without the necessity for blame or scattered by the hand of the Great Sower over for forgiveness, all those who differed from the fruitful soil of Ireland. We, too, will bring him and those who fought against him. forth our own fruit. He is supposed to have said, “ Let the Dublin Men and women of Ireland, we are all Brigade bury me.” Michael Collins knows that mariners on the deep, bound for a port still seen we will never bury him. He lies here among only through storm and spray, sailing still on a the men of the Dublin Brigade. Around him sea full “ of dangers and hardships, and bitter there lie forty-eight comrades of his from our toil.” But the Great Sleeper lies smiling in the Dublin battalions. But Michael Collins never stern of the boat, and we shall be filled with separated the men of Dublin from the men of that spirit which will walk bravely upon the Kerry, nor the men of Dublin from the men of waters.

36 Photo] [Hogan, Dublin. PRESIDENT GRIFFITH AT ENNIS MEETING. Mr. P. Hogan, Minister for Agriculture, speaking. Mr. Kevin O ’Higgins on Mr. Hogan’s left.

The first number of the “ Sinn Fein ” .daily.

sinn(sins rcst-BAar reing eunm f

Block presented by Clement Shorter.

Photo] A t HIS Desk. [Keogh, Dublin. 37 Photo] [Hogan, Dublin. PRESIDENT GRIFFITH ENTERING THE MANSION HOUSE, DUBLIN.

The President's Funeral in O ’Connell Street. Unprecedented crowds of mourning people lined the long route (4^ miles) to Glasnevin.

[Photo by courtesy Topical Press.]

38 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

[Copyright strictly reserved. MICHAEL COLLINS. From a Portrait by Leo Whelan, R.H.A. Reproduced by kind permission of Major O’Malley-Keyes.

39 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

Attentions

C row d !

[Photo Hogan, Dublin.]

Photo] A HURLING MATCH AT CROKE PARK (1921). [Hogan, Dublin. Michael Collins (himself a first-class hurler) throwing in the ball

40 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

Photo] t h e FUNERAL OF GENERAL COLLINS, [Hogan, Dublin.

As seen from the top of Nelson’s Pillar. Hundreds of clergy of all denominations led the cortege, and for the second time within a fortnight hundreds of thousands of heavily-stricken people lined the long route to Glasnevin.

41 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

THE QUENCHING OFhOUR SHINING LIGHT. By KEVIN O’HIGGINS.

Michael Collins is dead. I know it now, for was anguish to him, for in his great heart was I have seen him stretched in his coffin sleeping no meanness, no pettiness, only a great abiding his last sleep. When I took that fateful message all-embracing love for his countrymen. For on the telephone in the small hours of that them he slaved through fair and foul weather, morning my mind rejected it while my hand for them he died. He stood, a great bulwark, traced the woeful words :— “ Commander-in- between them and the fanatics and doctrinaires Chief shot dead in ambush. Bealnablath, near and pseudo-intellectuals who he knew were Bandon.” This, thought I, is some fantastic menacing the life of the Nation by setting it devilish lie, for bullet could not still that great an impossible task. Unlike the latter, he was heart of his, still less bullet sped by an Irish flesh of the people’s flesh and bone of the hand. And even as I conveyed the brief people’s bone, and his love of them was too real staccato message from Cork to his colleagues— a thing to give place to an insistence on empty his fellow-toilers for eight crowded years— formulae. Dick Mulcahy, Gearoid O’Suilleabhain, Sean “ To do the best for theffrish people in any MacMahon, and Tom Cullen— my stunned circumstances that may arise ”— that was an brain kept drumming out its refusal to accept. interpretation which another gave to the Dail “ This is not true ! This is not true ! ” oath, which, of course, is the spirit in which But now I have looked upon the calm face of we all took it, and Michael Collins kept it— to my friend and chief, have touched his pale the death. hands, have borne his coffin on my shoulders, His conception of Irish nationalism was big and in common with his countrymen I face the and broad, not a thing of dry formula. Shortly fact that Michael Collins, the greatest man that before his death he told me that he regarded ever served this Nation’s cause, lies cold in this fight as a fight for the foundations of a death— slain by a fellow-countryman in his State. It would be for its people to mould its native county. development and destinies, but we could History can scarce equal the grim irony of never make a start unless we had recognition his taking off. Poets, novelists, playwrights, of the basic principle of representative govern­ have never conceived tragedy more appalling ment— majority rule. “ So vital,” said he, “ do than the quenching of this “ shining lamp of I consider these issues that I would be for the Gael,” — hounded to death by little minds sacrificing the last member of the Government which he taught to think, and whose lack of and the last man in the army sooner than give thought was his constant despair; slain by those way to them.” In further discussion of con­ whom he taught to fight, who would never have ditions and their causes he remarked, “ The poor faced the British in battle but for the burning old country would be all right only there are inspiration of his vibrant personality. so many that feel they have arrears to make Michael Collins is dead— and his country and up.” And now the “ men with arrears to make the world are the poorer for the loss of a truly up ” have had their pound of flesh. They have great man. Michael Collins is dead— and in slain him whose phenomenal energy and the hearts of those who were his friends there courage were a constant rebuke to themselves. is, and will ever be, an aching void. For oh ! he They have silenced the tongue that could tear was big and human and lovable this nation- to shreds their metaphysical fallacies, that builder, and I know not whether my heart is preached a sound, wholesome doctrine of more sore for my friend or for my chief. nationalism which shamed the neurotic Big and human and lovable, a man who felt mournings used as a cloak for crime. But in keenly;— to be disliked, to be misunderstood, that slaying they have given victory— to him

42 Photo] [Hogan, Dublin. J o s e p h M cG r a t h , T -D .; M i c h a e l C o l l i n s , T .D .; S e a n M c G a r r y , T .D .; P a d r a i g O ’ M a i l l e , T .D .; and W . T . C o s g r a v e , T.D., at a great Pro-Treaty Meeting held in College Green, Dublin, in March, 1922. and to the Nation that he loved. Michael Michael Collins is dead. The tragic waste of Collins died. He died to establish the mastery it; the infinite pathos of it. That brain, with of the Irish people in Ireland. He died to all its wonderful potentialities, dashed out by ensure that the newly-won right of “ Govern­ fratricidal bullet. That great heart stilled; ment of the people by the people ” shall not that great frame, every nerve and sinew of perish from the land. He died to establish which was bent unsparingly in loving service the foundations of a State, to vindicate the first of his people, rigid in untimely and unnatural principle of democratic government. He died death. Mourn, people of Ireland, for there is that the Irish Nation might live— and grow. gone from among you a great-hearted man The foundations cemented by his blood shall who loved you well and strove for you mightily. endure. The principles he died to vindicate shall Mourn, but while ye mourn, read through never perish. Henceforth no man shall hold your tears the lesson of his life— and of his power in Ireland save by the will of the people. death. No policy shall hold sway for one half-hour Michael Collins toiled through dark days. He that is not sealed with the great seal of their never lost faith in the Irish people nor hope in endorsement. For when false prophets arise, their future. It was his boundless confidence shrieking wild words about “ the people having that rallied the Nation when it reeled before the no right to do wrong,” men who are children first shock of the Terror. It was his sublime now will remember that the doctrine was confidence that led it back in grim and imper­ preached in Ireland once before, and that the turbable counter-offensive. His faith sowed greatest man who championed the cause of an the harvest. It will be our inspiration in oppressed people died to smash it. the task of garnering. Sorrow, therefore— The liberties that were bought at the price of but no despair. The road is marked by his gallant life will be jealously sentinelled by Michael Collins. His dauntless spirit will be his people. with us on the way. 43 Photo] [Hogan, Dublin. IN CORK— BOUQUETS FROM CHILDREN.

Photopress] [3 Johnson's Court, E.C. MINISTERS AT THE FUNERAL OF GENERAL COLLINS. Left to right: Ernest. Blythe, W . T. Cosgrave, P. Hogan, E. Duggan, Eoin MacNeill, J. J. Walsh, and Desmond Fitzgerald. ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

FOUR GENERATIONS.

Left to right:— General Collins/ M other; his Sister, Mrs. P. Powell, and her child, Nora; Grandmother, Mrs. O'Brien. (Taken about 1905.)

A S O L D IE R FAMILY.

Nephews of the dead Chieftain. Left to right: Sergt. Finian O ’Driscoll, Volunteer Fachtna O’Driscoll, Quartermaster- Sergt. Seaghan Powell, and Volunteer Michael Powell.

Photo] [Cashman, Dublin*.

45 MICHAEL COLLINS.

IRELANDS PRIDE a n d IRELANDS SORROW.

By ALICE STOPFORD GREEN.

I reland has had many sorrows, but she has and Irish alike, were ready to risk everything had no woe like this. in his service. He had faith to believe in the Seven years ago Micheal O Coileain from a Irish as self-respecting and self-supporting, small farmer’s house near Clonakilty, a clerk in and made the plan, which had never been an obscure bank in London, had his call to share thought of by any former leader, to raise, by a in the desperate effort planned for 1916. Before loan to be repaid, the sum of a million pounds; six years were past he had become to us the in spite of every effort of the British Govern­ greatest man that had ever been raised in ment the sum was over-subscribed by men who Ireland for our deliverance. With his splendid did it at the peril of their freedom or their life. frame, rarely equalled in the surgeon’s eye for He had to get rid of old amateur methods of perfection of balance and proportion and war, and to organise and discipline volunteers strength; with his young gaiety and chivalry; for fighting the enemy and for the safe­ with his prodigious vigour and activity of mind, guarding of property and defence of the people and the great affections of his heart, his coming in the coming State. He it was, in fact, who to us was like a revelation from the old heroic carried the country. In all these departments world of a free Ireland. It might have been of work others were working, able and loyal the apparition of a Cuchulain in the glory of men. They will be the first to tell how it his courage and generosity, or it might have became the habit everywhere for the men of been Fionn for his deep intuitive wisdom and action to refer every difficulty to him, and to wide outlook. There was no slave-mind in the take his “ Go and do it ” as a final order. He making in that ancient Ireland, and the new was eminently just. A lady once thinking to Cuchulain brought with him all the richness of please him, exclaimed, “ O f course, every spy its freedom of soul. Micheal O Coileain will should be shot ” ; he turned on her angrily and remain one of the loftiest figures in all Irish gave his emphatic view of the conditions of story. judgment and punishment. With his keen eye There was a long, long way to go after the for efficiency he collected all sorts of men from Easter week of 1916 before the Irish might sit here and there, and established his own down in their own house; and Collins was the imperious discipline— a discipline enforced by only man whose vision was wide enough to see his double hold on the men through his all the potentialities of the new road to emanci­ prodigious power of work and grasp of every pation from the prison of the past centuries. subject, and through the passionate devotion Great soldier as he proved himself, he was by which he inspired in all whom he selected to his own genius not a destroyer but a builder. work. He recognised that he had first to “ win the After the war, when the old system by which war ” before he could “ get on with the work ” the Castle had held the people in bondage was of salvation. No new building could be set up utterly broken, when a new confidence came till the ground had been cleared of the rubble to a people set on the way to freedom, when and waste of centuries. The immediate an army had been formed and a police, when necessity was to abolish utterly the slave-mind the war closed, and the military question had and its old terrors. A first step was to smash turned into the question of how to secure finally the British Intelligence department. How he the national independence of his country, accomplished that will doubtless some day be Collins had reached his real problem. With told— a marvellous tale of organisation, of the end of the fighting he put aside the past; selecting and training, and of power to inspire the evils of war, its cruelty, its bitter memories such confidence and affection that men, English and revenges, dropped away from his magnani­

46 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. mous heart. All that was gone and over. Now know the facts no more foolish lie was ever the way lay open for the rebuilding on which invented. He had only one concern where his whole soul was set. To him, at least, it Ireland was concerned. He saw everything seemed that to clear out of Ireland every single through Ireland’s eyes alone. Nor had he any soldier and policeman and judge and collector reverence for English Cabinets. When of revenue and education official and public important summaries of Irish history and other board, and to empty the Castle of every relic statements appeared in the Press the common of seven centuries of mastery, was sufficient phrase was that someone else had written them, for a beginning. Irishmen might then start and so forth. They were, in fact, dictated by to show that they could do more than fight. Collins as he walked up and down the room, and And their victories in peace might henceforth they show the penetrating judgment that went lead them farther than any battles in the field. straight to the heart of a question. He had He was the strength of every man who was read much and thought— and his judgment, not trying in his department to turn out the only of men, but of a book or a play, was

Photopress] IN LONDON. [3 Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, E.C. AN INTERVIEW FOR THE PRESS- old methods and bring right order out of thoroughly sound. Whatever lesser men might bad traditions of favouritism and place- say of him, in his great heart there was to the huntmg. last no trace of bitterness. No leader before All men wondered as he took up his him in Ireland has borne away so immense a Herculean task. W e know the bitter schism. love and eternal devotion as has been given to But Collins was never embittered. He knew a him. Their grief will know no consolation. I good man, and to the end he kept his esteem was standing by a young soldier as the vast and affection for those of his opponents procession filed in for their last farewell of the whose honour he trusted. He himself had dead— “ You are broken with fatigue and his cruel detractors— men with no eyes for sorrow,” I said. Fie turned away his head the great facts of his genius. There with a choking gasp— I can’t bear it.” All was much talk of political temptations in alike now strive together to carry on the work London to his supposed vanity. To those who from which he was torn so piteously.

47 Photopress] [3 Johnson’s Court, Fleet Street, E.C. AT THE FUNERAL OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. Left to right: Mrs. K. Sheridan (sister), Master P. Powell (nephew), Sister Celestine, Miss H. Collins, Mrs. Powell, Mrs. O ’Driscoll (sisters), General Sean McKeon, and Sean Collins (brother).

Photopress] AT THE GRAVESIDE- [3 Johnson’s Court, Fleet Street, £.C . Comdt.-General J. O ’Reilly, with Sean Collins, in centre. 48 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

ARC O SRIOtDCA.

peAR ceAtin ceA^ARCA, rac RAib riorar Aomoe Ann, A£RS te R-A *OOinineACC, A5 CRR SIOS DO AR AR 5 CAOI Agus e ’r-a seASArh ar ardar 1 bAttA 1 'Iordair Sasara Ab eipeACUAige te seAR Gme a co^Ait as ar tAib r-a a 5 craoRs^a01 teAt) a sois^eit raisirrca *o’OiReAnn- RA1b SI, 101R CeARgA A£RS *ObARCRS A^RS ROSAtflAIReAbt. Aigib ra CACRAb sm, 1 gCAinnc mAtt R0151R, rar tAimc Crid *oe’n cairrc a Rinne A rc 0 gRiobCA ar oi*bbe bRige 5 ° tiorhuA, acc 50 RAib *ooimiR-smAoiRce 1 n^Ab sir tA tt 1 Loroair Sasara, os coiriAiR *oebRAi*bce AOR AbAIRC *01, A£RS *ORCRAbC AgRS OltSeACC RA SCAR 5^b*6eAt, CA1R1C SI pi OR, R1AR bi CR1*0 tflOR *Oe *ORCbAS CR10SCA1*Ote S1R tRAR CORRA1CCAS ARC O ^RIObtA, RA SeARpA1*6 SAR RgRIObCAb, mA1*01R te CRRSA1 RA *Oe5R beAT) RA1R, SRAS A^RS ARRAS te pice btlA*OAR O bCiReARR ; bi, ajrs rias pite ar ce 50 bpnit sb r-a 60m. til StRAg R10R A bi SA 1ACA1R, A^RS bi AR bRt*0 crrias cRoi*be a tube bisce co^Ait, a^rs misneAb a

Photo] GROUP AT THE WEDDING OF GENERAL SEAN McKEON. [Hogan, Dublin.

is mo *oib AR-65, bom bog sir is 50 mbei*ois ar sgoit bAbAmc *ooib, bi crid iror *oe *orccas ra bpiti Ann no ar botAisoe, *oa mbA *oe aor bmneAt) eite ia*o, ar oi*6be sm. X)\ ar *ocir 1 r -omAR ra bAimtbise pA01 teAbAi*6 a beic Ag pte te poitici*beAbc ; Abe m i’s ’n Am sm : 5Ab *ORiRe bRbAR *oe’n poitici*6eAbc a^rs te crrsai poitici*beAbcA a btos cairic ar tRbc eisce *oar bAiR teis ar bpoitici*beAbc, Abe ariair ar *oReAtw ARR, R1 bin b bRAtAOAR o’r R^RIObtAb AbC piORSOlSgbAt pimineAb 50 mbA stige beAtA *bbib 1 ; Abe *o’eiRig RA RA1S1RRCACCA. t)i CR1*D A^AIRR SA t^CAIR A bi CAR teis ar teigeAbcAi*be SRim 1 n^Ab rr d *oar bAin te eis ar teAbRAn pAoi Cisemge ra bttngAiRe do teigeA*o, r-ar *ocir miisgAitc 1 ^cRoibje a tRbc bisce, A^RS A5RS bi stilt A5AIRR te rr*o mAR e o’n teigeAbCAi*be ; 1AttAC CRR ORRA gRIORl *0A RblR A *6 bARARl. A^US n-A teAbAi*b sm, a ^ rs 1 teAbAi*b ra poiticipeAbcA, Rinne cri*o *oa tncc eisce gniorh RbiR pReism : bog sb ar 5CRoi*be te r-a AutRAbc a^rs te r-a *bitseAbc OgARAlg 05A, *OAR mi1S5tRlgeA*6 SpiORA1t) RA RA1S1RR- 49 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

CAbcA 1 gceA n e lonncA *oe’n beA*o uAm An oi*bce sm, gun emig tern a tin a sciOnA*b isceA b 5 0 CAtA*b h a tti5A*0An AnAm An pAmc An bAtA ah son nA Li6meAnn sA oin se. btiAncA n-A *oiAit) ; cui*o e i t e aca, Agus cai*o Ag obAm * * * p b s A n teAS n A o n e An m b n A n beAtAig, Agus tAn eis 1s *oocA gu nteig beAgnAb gAb *oume aca 1 n - A n n a ‘Out 1 gconcAbAme An a son ; mAnAC Ane O gm'obtA An oeeAngA a teigeAt) An bon An bit An ticm posgAitee A g u s a s o i s g e A t nAisnmcA, i s bAnAriiAit t i o m 5 0 bum An piAnsAb buig Ane O gm'obtA ca s e A b c n b b p A g p d r b e a ™ bui*o is mb aca n-A •ocnomsuAn mAi*om obc *oe btiA*bAncAib o 6 0 m Ann. Ag cun sios An te cunsAi nAisiuncACCA ; tneitm b An gniobtAig a b i m A n A C b, m m o i * o e 5 0 p A * o n A i c THac piAnAis SAn mbbA*b gtuAiseAbe ticm sm : *o’Ainirii sb cui*o nAisiuncA nA tiAimsme seo, *oa *bubAitct innei *oe nbm nb eisem ge nA tiSmeAnn mAn bA tern *bb-SAn ia*o, Ann An bon An bit. A b e i s 1 ns nA “ m ibAitci ” * * * sm bi buAi*b Agus cuiiiAbe

1H nAib Aon *0111116 cuig An JjniobtAig 6 P^1n noimbin AniArii 1 gcuiD- Agus An cuspbm bum sb eAbcAin An JniobtAig gan nontie tuigsinc \ g c e A n e . pios beit Aige 5 0 nAib sb ’O u b n A ‘6 sau t i c m s e o aca 1 tAtAin pm a nAib An*o- 1 gceise AgAtn go nAib An tnbitne Agus cumAbc tn bn gniobtAb An Aon smAoi- Ag bAmc teis. CumA An neA*bAtriAin : mA bi, o ’eim g ^niobtAb beit An Aitne Ag teis An sm AoineAt) sm bun Ati cb sm nom'i nb, nb gAn 1 bpbi*bm Agus 1 n g m o r i i , a b e it ; cumA e beit a 5 Agus ni m oioe go noeAnnA CAitine An a nbs noigm nbi*b Aon *oume gnforh mbn pbm, nb n-A tose, bio*b AniArii An An SAogA t seo Abe gAete beb*bA nA peAn- An ee bi An Aon sm Aom eAri SAnAbCA a 5 sgeiteA*b uai*6 AriiAin, nb An eb a n A i b 1 gcorimArbe, 1 *ocneb is 5 0 Aon smAotneAri AriiAin 1 gctimpi*be 1 gcbrtt *00 bAb n-uAbcAn n-A Aigne An bAoi 5 0 nAib meteAbe mbn Agus A n b i t . cnoi*be tAi*om Agus AnAm * * * cumASAb n-A Aice, 5 0 nAib peAn Ann nAb toicpeAt) 50 t)A rhiAti te *ouine cun *oeo cumA cb nA couscaici s i o s A n a hui*o sgniob bbA*b Anti Abe 5 0 teAnpAt) nbmeAbe, Agus a S A o t A n sb a tong *oa mb’b An bAs t i e e A n * b A a r i i e A S ; b A r i i i A n pbm bbAtj nonfie sa estige. te *oume cun sios An a A g u s n i RAib a p i o s AniArii, peAttsAriinAhc econom ic, AbrAi^e pbm AriiAin, cb mAn Agus An An mbAnAriiAit a S i t e A * b bAC a bun teis pbm, bi Aige An ionA*o An tube A g u s t e n-A b A o t ^ n : m a 5 oibne sa scac ; bA riiiAn te CAgAmC *Oblb S1UO a b i *oume enAbe An a n b S A i b t 5 CorTmAi*be n-A AgAiP A g U S A n A b b A S A l b 1 mAi*oiH te cunsAi poitici- gcomtuAOAn cahat), An Photo] P r e s i d e n t C o s g r a v e . [Lafayette. *beAbLA acahti, Abe * 0 0 a gneAnn AiseeAb Agus (President Griffith's Successor). ■ b A o i n e 5 0 mbA bbm Agus A n a tAgAige is bio *6 5 0 m bA *OuAt *obib b eit teis s b , A b e v S nobAncAoi 1 A b e a bum n-A AgAi*b An An A*ObAn seo nb An An A*6 b A .n g c e A n e e , * 0 0 UonpAi*be ah pAipbAn seo An pA*o. O sin, Agus gAb A*ObAn aca SAtAb suAtiAb Abe mon Aon nu*o AriiAin te nA*b gun bAitt An ein seo *oume t o i c A n e 0 JmiobtA cumA cbAn*o a tAinic : b’m o An *oe nA peAnAib b’uAiste *OAn nugA*b AniArii m nei Agus A g A i * b 1 gcoriitiAi'be b te n-A teAgASg Agus te n-A cneonAube *oe nA cneonAi*btib b’pA*o-bneAtnuigteAb *o^ boisgbAt, Agus 111 pbA*opAi*be cosg bun teis Abe ah nAib aici AniArii nuAm * 0 0 smeA*b Ane uASAt C gm 'obtA omeAt) is *o,pbA*opAi‘be cosg bun teis An nAriiAneA PA 0 1 A n b p o * o . mAnA. A buAnseASriiAbe Agus a •bAmgne SeAS * 0 0 P a d ra ic 6 coriAme.

50 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

THE DEATH MASK OF PRESIDENT GRIFFITH By the eminent Dublin Sculptor, Albert Power.

51 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

THE PASSING OF ARTHUR GRIFFITH. “ There have been many Irishmen of genius in 17 Fownes Street, until he began to attract as great or greater, of learning as deep or the attention of Ireland to the policy of : deeper, and some few of patriotism as ardent; “ National self-development through the but he was dissimilar to other men in this— that recognition of the duties and rights of he had established between his soul and the citizenship on the part of the individual and soul of Ireland a perfect communion, and all his of the aid and support of all movements genius, all his knowledge, all his thought, all his originating from within Ireland instinct energies, were united and devoted to realising with national tradition, and not looking Ireland’s soul to Ireland’s people.” outside Ireland for the accomplishment of —Arthur Griffith on William Rooney. their aims.” T he bravest man of our race is dead. He is That was the position 17 years ago, when with the kinsmen of his soul: Brian of the “ the function of fighting Ireland’s battle for 35 Tributes and Conn the Hundred Fighter and years on the ‘ floor of the house ’ was a beggar’s the great Councillors of our Land whose whine for a beggar’s dole.” courage kept their will unshaken and their How he worked, on in poverty, how he vision unobscured. He was gentle and simple refused £1,000 a year to edit a newspaper in and lovable. He was terrible, unpersuadable, New York, how he refused the gift of the old and right. And when one thinks of his gentle­ “ Freeman ” from John Redmond— these ness and simplicity, and of all he renounced things testify to the incorruptibility, self- and endured, and when one realises the long, confidence, and the confidence of the man. solitary fight he made of it, the heart almost Confidence in what? Confidence in a grace breaks to think of the cruel suffering Fate and a saving spirit in the Irish people. He had imposed on this shy, modest, uncomplaining more faith in the people of Ireland than any little man. man before him, for no man before was placed A poverty that would have ground most men in such a position. No man before him was into squalor or coarseness did not even make faced with the accomplished fact of Ireland’s him vulgar— he preserved through it all a conquest, and with Ireland’s acceptance of her natural refinement. He was a man with whom conquest, and her complacence and satisfaction no man could take liberties. Even when he was in her absorption. A position in which any sinking one cold morning some twenty years little protest she made premised and took for ago after a long swim off Bullock Harbour, granted England’s ownership of her soil— an those who were with him hesitated to give him acknowledgment of which underlay the system help for which he did not ask, until he had lost of Education, and was a prerequisite of any consciousness and it was almost too late to go leave to live in any position in Ireland but a to his assistance. His will was greater than serf’s. his strength. He kept his worries to himself, Often, and the occasions have not been few, and leant his weight on nobody. And he did when even his friends wondered if there were this less from pride than from a sense of duty, enough of Ireland left to be worth fighting for, for, when he had addressed himself to the great he never doubted, much less wavered, but task of regenerating and re-mustering the Irish fought grimly on for the great faith that was Nation, he felt that none should be called on to in him: for “ he had established between his share the hardship and self-sacrifice that this soul and the soul of Ireland a perfect com­ involved until he should have first prepared the munion.” way. What he did is history; what a great soul He realised Ireland’s soul to the Irish people. he spent in doing it will never be realised, for When I looked on the dead face with the who can measure things divine? Inadequately straight lines in the forehead that Lavater knew fed and clad, without exercise or even sufficient to be the signs of genius and leadership; air, he worked unremittingly in his little office the marble features that were the clear 52 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. hieroglyphics of forcefulness and nobility of the city, his children might not have the soul; the great strength of character in the jaw. memory of his courage. But he had a rarer and the fine outline of it all, I felt that here gift than bravery of this kind. He had dwelt a spirit that had strength and nobility supreme moral courage. That is what I mean enough for a nation, so Ireland must never be when I say that the bravest man of our race despaired of as long as it holds communion is dead. with Arthur Griffith’s soul. When owing to (among other exigencies) the Arthur Griffith justified Ireland. His faith exigencies of the language, the word Republic in Ireland was never shaken. Courage was his had to be adopted as being the most unmistak­ native inheritance. He only once acknowledged able formula for leave to go our own way with

Photo] WHERE ARTHUR GRIFFITH SLEEPS. [Hogan, Dublin. “ •No flowers ” was in the funeral notice, but many beautiful wreaths, nevertheless, were sent in sympathy with the much-loved President. fear, and that was in 1916, when, having put England’s hand out of our pockets; and when his children over the wall into a friendly the youth of Ireland had sustained a long neighbour’s garden, he set out for the Post battle against England with that cry, knowing Office, and saw Pearse, who sent him to inter­ and saying that he would be a scapegoat so far view MacNeill and Bulmer Hobson in the as the terms he brought back from England fell Dublin mountains, with a view to obtaining short of a Republic— and all the more so since help from outside— his fear was, as he went out this was neither limited nor defined— and he to the mountains, that if he were shot, and it signed the Treaty, he showed himself thereby might be made to appear that he died leaving possessed of a quality of courage which only 53 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. one or two of his contemporaries possessed. make terms with England not as a suppliant. The Treaty was won by a lonely and terrible He alone saw his work around him. He alone fight against disintegration and decay within could say, “ Mea msenia vidi.” the Irish Nation, as well as by an imme­ Now that his never comforted body, broken diate and terrible war waged continuously by the weight of raising and rebuilding the by sons of his brain and soul. “ Damn it, Nation, has been borne to its last resting-place Pat,” said Harry Boland to Dr. Macartan, through the thronged city that he loved; now “ hasn’t he made us all? ” He did not care that the poor he lifted up and set on a road that

Photo] PRESIDENT GRIFFITH’S FUNERAL. Dublin. Passing Westland Row Church. The President’s brothers, brother-in-law (Father Leo), and little son, Nevin, walked immediately behind the hearse.

a straw for ephemeral opinions or for what leads from their poverty have gazed at the tri­ men thought of him. Guided by his faith in the coloured coffin surrounded by soldiers of his Irish people he was immeasurably in advance making, and followed by the representatives of of his contemporaries and of his time. The the Nation he renewed, have paid it the last man he looked to of the younger men was tribute of reverence and awe; and now that his Richard Mulcahy. splendid soul glows with the splendour of God, He alone of leaders was never disgraced or it remains for Ireland to become worthy of discredited. He alone of Irishmen went to Arthur Griffith. O l iv e r S t . John Gogarty. 54 Photo] [Walsh, Dublin. MINISTERS AND DEPUTIES AT PRESIDENT GRIFFITH’S FUNERAL. Left to right, first row :— Joseph McGrath, Ernest Blythe, Micheal O hAodha, W . T. Cosgrave. Second row :— J. J. Walsh, P. Hogan, Desmond Fitzgerald, Hugh Kennedy (Law Adviser).

I n C o u n t y C o r k .

P r e s i d e n t G r i f f i t h g r a v e a n d g a y a t S l i g o . By courtesy of Pathe Gazette.]

55 The Death Mask of Michael Collins, by Albert Power,

Photo] [Hogan. Photo] [Hogan. A HEARTY "GRIP FROM AN OLD FENIAN. A t t h e A rd F h e i s i n t h e M a n s i o n H o u s e ,

D u b l i n . ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

THE TWO LEADERS. BY EOIN MacNEILL.

A rthur G r if f it h and M ichael C ollins will sanity, in their characteristic absence of stand in history as Ireland’s organisers of personal vanity, that this is the true principle victory. They led their people through the of Irish nationality, they knew that only by desert, and they died in sight of the promised betrayal or by disregard of that principle they land. Their aim was to achieve the liberation could become “ traitors ” to Ireland. ®f the Irish Nation, not in words and phrases, There are two leading types of active mind, but in reality, in facts, in power. They did not the positive and constructive, and the negative confuse political action with rhetoric and and destructive. Both one and the other may metaphysics. They took the way of faith and be in revolt against evil and injustice. The hope, not the way of presumption and despair. spirit of negation and destruction is content

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Photo)I THE TWO LEADERS. [Central

Ireland to them meant the historic Irish Nation, with being in revolt, in fact it could not be not a figure of speech. No one who heard it happy without being in revolt. It has an will forget the appeal of Arthur Griffith in the instinctive sense of its own weakness and Dail— “ Is the Irish Nation never to get a incompetency, that it is only a minus quantity. chance ? ” It did not hold the mind of either of By instinct it shrinks from the task of building, these men that Ireland’s destiny was to be a of road-making, of reclamation. If it pro­ stage on which they might be the heroes of the fesses an ideal, its ideal is a disembodied play, or an arena for the glorification of formula, enthroned in declarations and individual prowess. They held, as some of professions. It inverts the inspired dictum their foremost recent antagonists also held, that good works are to faith as the spirit is to that their supreme political duty, a duty from the body. It pretends a perfection that is pure which no political formula, declaration, or personal vanity, the perfection that can be engagement could absolve them in the sight of attained all at once by simply vowing it. It God or man, was “ to do the best they could for sees the cockle in the cornfield, and its negative Ireland.” Recognising in their characteristic destructive instinct is wholly concentrated on

57 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. killing the cockle, forgetting that there is no service of his country. He was an idealist, but reason for killing the cockle except to preserve his ideals were not the bodyless proclamations the corn, and that to destroy the cockle and the of vanity. Ireland meant for him a people, a corn together is no more than mad futility. country, and a tradition, three sensible realities One of the dangers of rightful revolt is that it indissolubly bound in one. His mind could tends to produce this spirit, especially in not reduce Ireland to a metaphysical formula, immature and irresponsible minds in which the much less to a political formula. For him,

Photo] [Cashman, Dublin. AT A CROKE PARK HURLING FINAL. Left to right: Mr. J. J. Walsh, Postmaster-General and Director of Tailteann Games; Mrs. Arthur Griffith, M rs. J. J. W alsh, and President Griffith. habit and purpose of constructive effort have political faith without political good not been built up. works was a dead faith. He believed in Arthur Griffith’s mind never conformed to Irish liberty, and Irish liberty for him meant this type. All his life he was a builder, a road- that the Irish people should have their country maker, a reclaimer. By a laborious and studied and their tradition liberated from external con­ preparation he prepared himself for the trol. He did not believe in a liberty proclaimed

58 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. and not sustained upon realities. To profess an He recognised no less clearly that the Irish ideal, and not to undertake and carry out the Nation is a concrete corporal and spiritual constructive effort necessary to realise that reality, not a figment of the mind, and that its ideal, belongs to a vanity, a vainglory, that was freedom must be a real objective freedom, not not in his nature. The boys and girls who are a mere mental attitude, enabling those who asked to adopt the belief that Arthur Griffith assume it to say, “ Behold, I am a perfect one ! ” was a traitor will not be told by those who ask Griffith was above all things a teacher, with the them that, but for Arthur Griffith’s years of three grand qualities of a teacher, knowledge, self-effacing and self-sacrificing devotion to the enthusiasm, and sanity. Collins was also charac­ ideal of a free Ireland, they themselves in all teristically enthusiastic and sane, and his third

Photo] [Hogan, Dublin. COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS CARRY THE DEAD PRESIDENT’S COFFIN INTO THE CITY HALL FOR THE LYING-IN-STATE.

human probability would be in every way and great quality was the complement of Griffith’s, in a very great degree less Irish than any it was practical efficiency. “ Get on with the generation that went before them. Even the w ork! ” The phrase expresses the chief facile patriotism of shouting and shooting would attribute of the man, a power of getting things not have come into their most delirious dreams. done. This power radiated from him, passed O f a wholly distinct temperament, Michael from him like an electric current from man to Collins was at one with Arthur Griffith in man out to the very end of the series His his conception of national duty and purpose. influence over other men was almost magical,

59 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

and in the time to come the young men of public affairs will not forget how uncere­ Ireland, grown older and looking back on these moniously hard he could be upon occasion. days, will recognise that they were saved, and He could tolerate no nonsense when he was on Ireland with them, from their own vanity by public duty. When he was off duty he was the sanity of Michael Collins. altogether another man, ready to enter into any Strong, sturdy, and earnest in their public whim or game that was agreeable to his

Photo] [Hogan, Dublin. GENERAL COLLINS CARRYING THE COFFIN OF HIS FRIEND. life, these two men had another quality in comrades. I break off here— it is sad, indeed, common that bespoke them kindly Irish of the to be thinking and writing about what these Irish— they were genial, witty, playful, and at men were. It is better for us, remembering all times the best of company. For Griffith them, to be faithful to their memory by getting this was more of a contrast than for Collins. on with the work, and giving the Irish Nation Those who came in contact with Griffith in a chance.

60 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS.

A SPRIG OF MYRTLE. FIaving written in “ L’CEuvre ” a number of articles on Ireland, I often received letters expressing sympathy for the Irish people. Such a letter as this one— which I received just before leaving Paris for Dublin— will show what warmth of sympathy is roused in French hearts for Ireland and what sorrow is felt for Ireland’s present trouble. The following is a translation of the letter: — “ . . . . Are you going back to Ireland? How much I envy y ou ! My thoughts will follow you closely. “. . . . If I write to you to-day, it is to beg something of you. I enclose with this a sprig of myrtle, symbol of love among the ancients. It is rather common in our Provencal woods. It is nothing, but all the same it represents much regret, and sorrow and tears. I ask you, if you go to Michael Collins’ tomb, to lay there this poor offering from a far-off and -deeply-moved friend. I pray you, Mademoiselle, do not refuse me this. I do not know you personally; and still I entrust you with this mission, sure that you will accept it. I cannot send flowers that could arrive fresh, but what matters the value of the thing?— this one is heavy and rich with tenderness and admiration. “ And please say, Mademoiselle, to all your friends in Ireland that in France there are friendly hearts that beat for them, and which are so sad nowadays. . . .” And in the letter was a sprig of myrtle, carefully fixed with a violet tape on a card, with these w ords: “ To Michael Collins, as a token of deep admiration, ardent sympathy, and love, from a friend in France.” I am sure that Michael Collins would have under­ stood and appreciated this simple-hearted gift.

S imone T er y.

Photo] [Daily Mirror.

A t H a n s P l a c e , L o n d o n , d u r in g t h e P e a c e N egotiations .

A D u b l i n H o a r d in g w h i c h S p o k e t h e

P e o p l f / s M i n d .

61 ARTHUR GRIFFITH. MICHAEL COLLINS. PRINTED BY

DOLLARD, LTD.,

WELLINGTON QUAY,

DUBLIN.