Michael Collins's stick goes behind bar in Dublin pub

A walking stick once belonging to Michael Collins with letter of provenence.

A walking stick once used by Michael Collins, which was auctioned last week in Belfast, has gone on display in a well-known pub in west Dublin.

The silver-tipped stick, used by possibly the most famous Irish freedom fighter of them all, went on auction last Tuesday at Bloomfield in the city, fetching €60,000, a record for the auction house and more than five times the stick’s estimated price.

Details of the buyer had been scarce — however it has now emerged that the successful phone bidder was hotelier Louis Fitzgerald, owner of multiple businesses across the Republic, primarily in the Dublin region.

“It was there when we showed up for work today,” an employee of the Poitin Stil bar and restaurant in Rathcoole said yesterday. 

“It’s the first thing you’ll see when you walk into the bar.”

“We had no warning. Any time Louis comes in he’ll often have something with him,” they said.

The Poitin Stil, a landmark local eatery with strong GAA connections and a large collection of memorabilia, was the first business Mr Fitzgerald took on.

The stick has gone on display behind the bar alongside the match ball from Bloody Sunday, the incident at Croke Park in November 1920 which saw 14 people killed after a mixed force of police officers and military opened fire on the crowd.

The Collins walking stick, with its distinctive silver collar and tip, was accompanied by a letter of provenance at sale.

Speaking after the sale, Karl Bennett, managing director of Bloomfield, had expressed his “delight” that the stick had been sold to someone in the south, prompting much speculation as to the bidder’s identity.

Police files tracking Collins’s activities during the War of Independence also sold for €7,800 at the police and military-themed sale. 

The papers are comprised of a dossier of Royal Irish Constabulary documents covering the period 1920 to 1922.

Other items sold included a service medal from the Easter Rising complete with its original box, which sold for €2,100.