Letter which betrayed ‘Big Fella’ auctioned for €3,800

The price of betrayal for one of Michael Collins’s opponents was his life but the cost of owning an insight into this fascinating piece of history came at a more modest €3,800.

That was the successful bid at auction yesterday for the letter written by a former ally of the rebel leader who decided to inform on the Big Fella in 1919 shortly after the British declared the first Dáil illegal.

Adams auctioneers had put a value of between €2,000 and €3,000 on the one-page letter dated Nov 11, 1919 and sent from 21 Gardiner Place, Dublin.