Collins political letter set to fetch over 8,000

A political letter penned by Michael Collins is set to fetch over 8,000 at auction next week.

The three-page document was written by the War of Independence hero in the months after the signing of the Treaty with Britain, which led to the bloody Civil War of 1922.

The letter spent decades in the family of the recipient, Derry republican Louis J Walsh, but is now being offered for sale by a private collector who bought it from them a few years ago.

“There is virtually nothing of Michael Collins’ political thoughts remaining today because most official documents with his name were destroyed by Eamon de Valera,” said

auction cataloguer Peter Sheen.

The letter, dated February 7, 1922, was written the morning Collins arrived back in Dublin from a meeting in London with Winston Churchill and Unionist leader James Craig. The document is on display in

London this week and will be available for viewing in Dublin next week.

It goes under the hammer at Adams auctioneers in Dublin next Friday, February 21.