Death of Collins
Hopkinson says that “Collins’s journey south represented a despairing attempt to mend fences before the war became widespread and embittered. He was relying again on his old personal and institutional ties, particularly his IRB colleagues”. There is a vast amount written about this event, however most of what is written makes for poor history as it is based on conjecture. Hopkinson reviews some of the theories that have been put forward but concludes that Collins was probably killed by a bullet from one of the ambushers, perhaps a ricochet. He go onto say that “it matters more that Collins was killed than how he was killed. … Collins’s death threatened a major crisis for the Provisional Government”. Collins was 31 years old at the time of his death. Curran says “When the Big Fellow died, much of the color, excitement and hope that marked the national revival died with him.”