Road Trip: How Michael Collins sold the Treaty to the public

Friday, January 7, 2022, marks 100 years since Dáil Éireann ratified the Treaty. But what happened next? As the ink dried on the newly signed Anglo-Irish Treaty, Michael Collins went on the road to sell the deal. In March, he addressed a crowd of 50,000 in Cork city centre. Rebekah McCormack looks at how the Cork Examiner covered the event and assesses its impact

It was reported that Collins’ "vigorous and logical exposition of the case for the Treaty" as a vital impetus for the "deep impression" cast upon the spectators. Photo: Keystone-France\Gamma-Rapho

On March 13, 1922, Michael Collins delivered a speech to more than 50,000 spectators in the centre of Cork city in advocation of the newly ratified Anglo-Irish Treaty which he had signed, along with other plenipotentiaries, the previous December, 6, 1921. 

The Treaty was a significant milestone for Irish independence, with Collins denoting it as “the written endorsement of the freedom which we have obtained”.