Michael Collins Irish leader: Encyclopedia II - Michael Collins Irish leader - Early life

Michael Collins Irish leader - Early life

Michael John "Mick" Collins was born in Sam's Cross, near Clonakilty, in County Cork, Ireland in 1890. Although most biographies list his date of birth as October 16, 1890, his tombstone lists his date of birth as October 12, 1890. His family, muintir Uí Choileáin, had once been the lords of Uí Chonaill, near Limerick, but like many Irish gentry, had become dispossessed and reduced to the level of ordinary farmers. Yet their farm of 145 acres (0.9 km²) made them wealthier and more comfortable than most Irish farmers of late nineteenth century Ireland. It was into that relatively well-to-do farming existence that Michael Collins, the third son and youngest of eight children was born. Michael's father, also called Michael Collins, had become a member of the republican Fenian movement when younger, but had left the movement and settled down to farming.

Collins was recorded as being a bright and precocious child, with a fiery temper and a passionate nationalism, spurred on by a local blacksmith, James Santry, and later, at the Lisavaird National School, by a local school headmaster, Denis Lyons, a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (an organization of which Collins would eventually become the leader). Collins was tall, strapping and loved sports, which did not detract from his cerebral development or uncanny instincts. In February 1906 Collins took the British Civil Service examination in which (to pass it) he praised the "greatest empire" ([1]). After leaving school, the fifteen-year-old Michael, like many Irish, moved abroad: he worked in the British Post Office in London from July 1906, while living with his elder sister, Johanna ("Hannie"). He joined the IRB through Sam Maguire, a Protestant republican from Cork, in November 1909, aged 19. He came to play a central role in the IRB, ending up as its president within little more than a decade.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Early life", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki