Michael Collins was a young man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders — artist, Mick O'Dea
Artist Mick O’Dea pictured at the unveiling of his portrait of Michael Collins. Cork’s Imperial Hotel has commemorated the 100-year anniversary of the death of Michael Collins by unveiling a new portrait in his honour. Pictures: Joleen Cronin
Michael Collins was known as The Big Fellow. However, Collins wasn’t big by modern standards: he stood a little under six feet tall. It’s something that the portrait painter Mick O’Dea was conscious of — as well as the strain on Collins the year he died.
“He’d be no match for a Limerick hurler today,” says O’Dea. “The image of him I've taken for the portrait is from approximately 1919. What struck me is that if you look at photographs of him in, say, 1922, particularly around the Treaty debates, and the Treaty negotiations in London in the winter of 1921, he looks unhealthy, puffy. Like a man under pressure. There’s quite a dramatic change within a few years. He was continuously having to move around, sleeping odd hours. He was a young man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.”
