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Michael Collins: A Life
The most charismatic figure to emerge during the struggles for the independence of Ireland was undoubtedly Michael Collins. This remarkable biography, which draws on much hitherto unpublished material, charts the dramatic rise of the country boy who became head of the Free State and the commander-in-chief of the army.
320 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1997
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About the author
James A. MacKay
151 books13 followersAlso credited as "James MacKay" or "James Alexander MacKay".
Dr. James Alexander MacKay was a prolific Scottish writer and philatelist whose reputation was damaged by a criminal conviction for theft and repeated accusations of plagiarism. In an obituary by John Holman, Editor of the British Philatelic Bulletin, Mackay was described as a "philatelic writer without equal". Mackay's output was broad.
Dr. James Alexander MacKay was a prolific Scottish writer and philatelist whose reputation was damaged by a criminal conviction for theft and repeated accusations of plagiarism. In an obituary by John Holman, Editor of the British Philatelic Bulletin, Mackay was described as a "philatelic writer without equal". Mackay's output was broad.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 20, 2011
Ironically, Michael Collins spent almost a third of his short life working in England. He lived there with his sister, and they both worked for the British Civil Service. Intrigued by the movie by the same name, I decided to read this biography.
The influence of Michael's sister was crucial. As a youngster he had thought of becoming an engineer, but Hannah steered him to groups of Irish "patriots" who celebrated the traditional ethnic roots. London, at the time, was a maelstrom of multi-diversity mixing. Most immigrants were easily assimilated, abandoning their roots away from the traditional influences of family and community. Hannah repeatedly [pushed him back to the Irish roots and a celebration of the Irish heritage. This is not to diminish the influence of his mother, a very strong woman with an easy tolerance of religious differences and this was to provide the grounding for Michael's abhorrence of the sectarianism that threatened Irish nationalist solidarity. Collins was a tireless and energetic worker and a genius at soliciting support from the unlikeliest of people. He was constantly at it. "Even in a pub, if a friend bought a round of drinks, Michael would pocket the change for the National Aid Fund punctiliously issuing a receipt for the cash he had purloined." He had a way of blending into the background. Despite the fact that the authorities often wanted him he continued to walk to work for years using the same route. He was dressed meticulously and perhaps this made him more invisible. When leaving the office he would pretend to blow his nose preventing anyone from watching from seeing his complete face. Still, it was a remarkable achievement. Collins turned down the job of being Cathal Brugha's deputy. Brugha was the archetype terrorist proposing once to machinegun Parliament.
Cooler heads prevailed however. Collins, instead, reorganized the military end of the rebels and combined the posts of Adjutant- General with Director of Organization and Director of Intelligence. These integrated roles gave him enormous power. He evolved the tactics of guerilla war that were without precedent during the summer of 1918. The volunteers were tightly knit into "cells" with strict codes of conduct and discipline. Each fought on its own territory, and soon, following an ignorant and stupid campaign of repression by the British authorities, the people of southern Ireland began to turn to them for protection. Even the Catholic priesthood acknowledged the shift in power. Some of the antics indulged in by the Irish rebels under Collins seem straight out of a dime novel. In one attempted jail break de Valera, who was incarcerated in Lincoln Gaol, managed to borrow a key from the priest who was saying mass, and made an impression in candle wax. He then brazenly sent a picture of the key and the lock on a Christmas card showing a man holding a large key outside the front door saying "Xmas 1917 can't get in". The other side showed a huge lock with the inscription, "Xmas 1918 can't get out." There followed a message addressed to Collins' nom de guerre, Field, in de Valera's handwriting explaining that the picture of the key and lock were exact drawings and requesting that a copy be made and sent to him in a cake! This was done only the copied key proved defective so a second was made and smuggled in in another cake –one wonders what in the world the British jailers were doing during all this cake baking. It finally took four different cakes and keys to get one to work. The night of the escape approached and de Valera was able to open the cell and block doors with the key only to find himself blocked by a second gate. Collins was waiting outside with a key for that gate, but he jammed the key in the lock and broke it. By an extraordinary stroke of good luck, de Valera managed to push out the broken key from the inside and open the door. The escape was not discovered until two hours later. As they had taken a prearranged for taxi, they were well on their way into hiding. It's almost comic. British ineptitude was not reserved for their jails.
Nancy O'Brien, Michael's cousin, was hired by Sir James MacMahon to be his confidential clerk. This gave her access to all sorts of top secret messages. Even Michael could not believe the British would hire a close relative of the most wanted man in all of Ireland. "In the name of Jasus, how did these people ever get an empire?" he wondered. By 1920 Michael held the dual roles of Minister of Finance and Director of Intelligence. His attention to detail was extraordinary. He managed a huge National Loan campaign to collect donations from people. None of the activities could be overt and even advertising had to be done on the sly. The money that was contributed often had to be converted to gold and then hidden in assorted places, even behind the walls of houses. Detailed records had to be kept. His intelligence network was comprehensive and widespread. Spies were recruited through persuasion, coercion, or subtle intimidation. An agent of his discovered one highly placed clerk whose children were being kept from her by her ex-mother-in-law. Michael arranged for them to be kidnapped and placed in a secure home where the mother could visit them presumably in return for access to secret files. He intimidated the police by an active campaign of violence. He created the Squad, a group of paid assassins most of the Volunteers were just that who targeted and killed policemen or anyone deemed to be a hindrance to the Irish Republican cause. Often they were warned first to lay off; killed when they did not.
The British continued to wallow in foolish mistakes. Prime Minister Lloyd George tried to suppress the rebellion the way they had the Boers. He hired thousands of unemployed W. W. I unemployed veterans to form a special police force, mercenaries really, to supplement, or supplant, the regular Irish police brigades who had been so infiltrated and intimidated by the Sein Fein supporters as to be useless. Called the Black and Tans, these undisciplined troops ganged up around the countryside pillaging and killing with such abandon and ruthlessness that many who had been neutral or even loyalists were driven into the camp of the Irish rebels. The British administration became desperate, even discussing the use of poison gas at one point. Concentration camps were even built. The violence did cause a split in the rebel ranks with de Valera, returned from a trip to America to raise money and guns who wanted larger pitched battles, and Collins who argued for guerilla tactics. He preferred the ambush, an irony considering how he was to die not long after. Collins' downfall was his unwilling participation in the treaty negotiations of 1922 that were subsequently disapproved by de Valera and the extreme Republican wing of the Dail. Even though it became clear that most of their constituents approved of the treaty that granted Ireland a provisional government and was considered a reasonable compromise by Collins, the result was a bloody civil war. Collins was shot in an almost farcical ambush in which no one else was injured and he was struck by a parting shot.
McKay believes that if Collins had lived he might have been able to prevent much of the animosity between north and south. De Valera became president and was responsible for many stupid decisions that ultimately hurt Ireland in the eyes of the world community. Had the United States studied the Troubles and learned some lessons, we might have been less eager to enter Vietnam. The enemy was faceless, blended in with the crowd, had huge popular support sometimes coerced, but support nevertheless. The Volunteer army rarely numbered more than 3,000 yet the British forces numbering more than 60,000 could not make headway against them.
The influence of Michael's sister was crucial. As a youngster he had thought of becoming an engineer, but Hannah steered him to groups of Irish "patriots" who celebrated the traditional ethnic roots. London, at the time, was a maelstrom of multi-diversity mixing. Most immigrants were easily assimilated, abandoning their roots away from the traditional influences of family and community. Hannah repeatedly [pushed him back to the Irish roots and a celebration of the Irish heritage. This is not to diminish the influence of his mother, a very strong woman with an easy tolerance of religious differences and this was to provide the grounding for Michael's abhorrence of the sectarianism that threatened Irish nationalist solidarity. Collins was a tireless and energetic worker and a genius at soliciting support from the unlikeliest of people. He was constantly at it. "Even in a pub, if a friend bought a round of drinks, Michael would pocket the change for the National Aid Fund punctiliously issuing a receipt for the cash he had purloined." He had a way of blending into the background. Despite the fact that the authorities often wanted him he continued to walk to work for years using the same route. He was dressed meticulously and perhaps this made him more invisible. When leaving the office he would pretend to blow his nose preventing anyone from watching from seeing his complete face. Still, it was a remarkable achievement. Collins turned down the job of being Cathal Brugha's deputy. Brugha was the archetype terrorist proposing once to machinegun Parliament.
Cooler heads prevailed however. Collins, instead, reorganized the military end of the rebels and combined the posts of Adjutant- General with Director of Organization and Director of Intelligence. These integrated roles gave him enormous power. He evolved the tactics of guerilla war that were without precedent during the summer of 1918. The volunteers were tightly knit into "cells" with strict codes of conduct and discipline. Each fought on its own territory, and soon, following an ignorant and stupid campaign of repression by the British authorities, the people of southern Ireland began to turn to them for protection. Even the Catholic priesthood acknowledged the shift in power. Some of the antics indulged in by the Irish rebels under Collins seem straight out of a dime novel. In one attempted jail break de Valera, who was incarcerated in Lincoln Gaol, managed to borrow a key from the priest who was saying mass, and made an impression in candle wax. He then brazenly sent a picture of the key and the lock on a Christmas card showing a man holding a large key outside the front door saying "Xmas 1917 can't get in". The other side showed a huge lock with the inscription, "Xmas 1918 can't get out." There followed a message addressed to Collins' nom de guerre, Field, in de Valera's handwriting explaining that the picture of the key and lock were exact drawings and requesting that a copy be made and sent to him in a cake! This was done only the copied key proved defective so a second was made and smuggled in in another cake –one wonders what in the world the British jailers were doing during all this cake baking. It finally took four different cakes and keys to get one to work. The night of the escape approached and de Valera was able to open the cell and block doors with the key only to find himself blocked by a second gate. Collins was waiting outside with a key for that gate, but he jammed the key in the lock and broke it. By an extraordinary stroke of good luck, de Valera managed to push out the broken key from the inside and open the door. The escape was not discovered until two hours later. As they had taken a prearranged for taxi, they were well on their way into hiding. It's almost comic. British ineptitude was not reserved for their jails.
Nancy O'Brien, Michael's cousin, was hired by Sir James MacMahon to be his confidential clerk. This gave her access to all sorts of top secret messages. Even Michael could not believe the British would hire a close relative of the most wanted man in all of Ireland. "In the name of Jasus, how did these people ever get an empire?" he wondered. By 1920 Michael held the dual roles of Minister of Finance and Director of Intelligence. His attention to detail was extraordinary. He managed a huge National Loan campaign to collect donations from people. None of the activities could be overt and even advertising had to be done on the sly. The money that was contributed often had to be converted to gold and then hidden in assorted places, even behind the walls of houses. Detailed records had to be kept. His intelligence network was comprehensive and widespread. Spies were recruited through persuasion, coercion, or subtle intimidation. An agent of his discovered one highly placed clerk whose children were being kept from her by her ex-mother-in-law. Michael arranged for them to be kidnapped and placed in a secure home where the mother could visit them presumably in return for access to secret files. He intimidated the police by an active campaign of violence. He created the Squad, a group of paid assassins most of the Volunteers were just that who targeted and killed policemen or anyone deemed to be a hindrance to the Irish Republican cause. Often they were warned first to lay off; killed when they did not.
The British continued to wallow in foolish mistakes. Prime Minister Lloyd George tried to suppress the rebellion the way they had the Boers. He hired thousands of unemployed W. W. I unemployed veterans to form a special police force, mercenaries really, to supplement, or supplant, the regular Irish police brigades who had been so infiltrated and intimidated by the Sein Fein supporters as to be useless. Called the Black and Tans, these undisciplined troops ganged up around the countryside pillaging and killing with such abandon and ruthlessness that many who had been neutral or even loyalists were driven into the camp of the Irish rebels. The British administration became desperate, even discussing the use of poison gas at one point. Concentration camps were even built. The violence did cause a split in the rebel ranks with de Valera, returned from a trip to America to raise money and guns who wanted larger pitched battles, and Collins who argued for guerilla tactics. He preferred the ambush, an irony considering how he was to die not long after. Collins' downfall was his unwilling participation in the treaty negotiations of 1922 that were subsequently disapproved by de Valera and the extreme Republican wing of the Dail. Even though it became clear that most of their constituents approved of the treaty that granted Ireland a provisional government and was considered a reasonable compromise by Collins, the result was a bloody civil war. Collins was shot in an almost farcical ambush in which no one else was injured and he was struck by a parting shot.
McKay believes that if Collins had lived he might have been able to prevent much of the animosity between north and south. De Valera became president and was responsible for many stupid decisions that ultimately hurt Ireland in the eyes of the world community. Had the United States studied the Troubles and learned some lessons, we might have been less eager to enter Vietnam. The enemy was faceless, blended in with the crowd, had huge popular support sometimes coerced, but support nevertheless. The Volunteer army rarely numbered more than 3,000 yet the British forces numbering more than 60,000 could not make headway against them.
June 2, 2013
Actually it's 3.5 stars. A competently researched and written biography of Michael Collins.Collins was one of the leaders of the Irish rebels during the Irish Rebellion against British rule following World War One and then one the leaders of Ireland until his death in 1922. In 2013 Collins is still a divisive figure to many. I was able to read it without any political or emotional baggage hindering my reading experience. Others might have some difficulty doing that. Just something to keep in mind if you have strong feelings about the Irish issue.
For those readers who have no knowledge of the long, bloody and complicated history of Ireland MacKay does a good job explaining it without letting it bog down the book.Collins earlier life is covered a couple chapters, but it isn't long before MacKay gets to Collins growing political awareness and the Easter Uprising of 1916.
After that the book is focused on Collin's political and military activities - which comprised the last third of his 30 some years of living before he was killed in 1922.In addition to covering Collins there is fairly extensive coverage of the the activities of Collins associates and friends during the rebellion and ensuing Irish Civil War following Ireland's independence from British rule. MacKay also goes into some depth explaining some of the more confusing aspects of the rebellion and war such as the difference between the infamous "Black & Tans" and the "Auxies" Small things, but appreciated by this reader. There are also numerous photographs which are always a good thing in this type of book.
It's apparent that MacKay admires Collins and isn't above criticizing the British government for it's actions. In other words the author isn't a neutral. Regardless of that the book is well written and will help one get a better understanding of the "Troubles". Works well as a biography and historical text.
For those readers who have no knowledge of the long, bloody and complicated history of Ireland MacKay does a good job explaining it without letting it bog down the book.Collins earlier life is covered a couple chapters, but it isn't long before MacKay gets to Collins growing political awareness and the Easter Uprising of 1916.
After that the book is focused on Collin's political and military activities - which comprised the last third of his 30 some years of living before he was killed in 1922.In addition to covering Collins there is fairly extensive coverage of the the activities of Collins associates and friends during the rebellion and ensuing Irish Civil War following Ireland's independence from British rule. MacKay also goes into some depth explaining some of the more confusing aspects of the rebellion and war such as the difference between the infamous "Black & Tans" and the "Auxies" Small things, but appreciated by this reader. There are also numerous photographs which are always a good thing in this type of book.
It's apparent that MacKay admires Collins and isn't above criticizing the British government for it's actions. In other words the author isn't a neutral. Regardless of that the book is well written and will help one get a better understanding of the "Troubles". Works well as a biography and historical text.
October 5, 2025
A truly amazing read having not much knowledge of Irish history this was a true account of a amazing man and the history of Ireland
July 28, 2012
The author does a yoeman's job of presenting Michael Collins' life as a fighter for Irish independence in the early 1920s. From the Easter Rising through the Troubles to his death Michel Collins worked steadfastly for what he thought was in the best interest of his countrymen. Even those who did not agree with his support of the Treaty respected, admired and loved him. As the author points out, it is a tragedy that he was killed as had he lived it is entirely possible that peace would have come to Ireland and the north and south would have been rejoined.
In order to put names and faces into a clearer understanding of events, I suggest checking out on DVD the movie of Michael Collins starring Liam Neeson.
In order to put names and faces into a clearer understanding of events, I suggest checking out on DVD the movie of Michael Collins starring Liam Neeson.
August 1, 2007
The movie starring Liam Neeson is a good place to start, but read this if you want to learn more about the life of the most charismatic figure in the tempestuous modern history of Ireland. While undoubtedly a conflicted hero, Michael Collins exhibited a passion and commitment second to none.
August 26, 2025
This biography is very different to the one I had read by the Canadian author Peter Hart. James A. MacKay covered somewhat similar ground but seemed to give the impression that Collins was always involved in every action taken but Hart tried to be more indepth with his biography. The main difference with the two authors was the discription of Collin's death. MacKay gave more detail about than Hart.
April 15, 2020
First biography have read as regards Michael Collins, found it informative and very readable with the facts cleverly mixed with the build of his personality and character.
Found out he was only born about 20 kilomteres from me and he died about 20 kilometres from my family home !!!
Found out he was only born about 20 kilomteres from me and he died about 20 kilometres from my family home !!!
July 16, 2018
What could have (should have ) been. A sad ending to a brilliant man.
April 2, 2019
Very well researched. A little meandering in narrative. An excellent portrait of Michael Collins and a brief history of Ireland.
March 9, 2017
Straightforward biography of the iconic Irish leader.
May 19, 2009
A good account of Collins life and death, but as with Mackay's biography on Burns this book's credibility will suffer because of the substantiated allegations of plagiarism in a later biography. This would be unfair because his biographies of Michael Collins and Robert Burns are excellent, and each has merit in its own right.
January 26, 2008
Liked getting a history of Ireland as it sought its independence. Found the material a little dry at times.
July 27, 2011
good account of Michael Collins life
April 23, 2014
Nothing more needs too be said.
October 31, 2015
A great read
If only he had lived things would have been so different even Churchill came to respect him would have saved a lot of bloodshed in both countries
If only he had lived things would have been so different even Churchill came to respect him would have saved a lot of bloodshed in both countries
January 27, 2009
Better balanced than the usual treatments of Collins - including the circumstances of his death.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews