Auction of Collins’s hair shocks grandnephew

A grandnephew of Michael Collins has described the proposed sale of a lock of the Republican leader’s hair as macabre and undignified.

Solicitor Robert Pierse said he got “an awful shock” when he first heard the hair — estimated to be worth between €3,000 and €5,000 — was to go under the hammer on Wednesday at Adam’s Auctioneers in Dublin.

Mr Pierse has pleaded with the mystery seller to get in touch with him. He said he would be prepared to make a payment for the hair but was not willing to get involved in a public auction as he did not consider it to be a commercial item.