Reframing Michael Collins in The Big Fellow

Declan Gorman’s play looks at how Frank O’Connor’s book on Michael Collins reframed an icon, writes Ellie O’Byrne.

The Big Fellow: possessor of a short fuse, a big heart and a bullying, boyish bravado. Of all the Irish patriots who enjoyed a resurrection for the centenary year, it is Michael Collins we remember in the most complex and colourful terms. We equally acknowledge his flaws, admire his bravery and mourn his violent end.

Yet Frank O’Connor, the man who revived Collins’ memory with his 1937 biography, The Big Fellow, arguably the author of the Collins who lives on in public imagination, not only fought opposite his fellow Cork man, on the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War, but admitted to having danced with glee when he heard of Collins’ shooting.