Collins knew how to free all nationalists

YOUR columnist Diarmaid Ferriter (August 23) wrote that neither Collins nor his contemporaries had any idea how to free their own fellow nationalists in the North from “the shackles of oppression”.

I beg to differ. It is a (seemingly) little-known fact that while Collins was drilling a hole in the anti-Treaty republicans during the Civil War, he was simultaneously giving weapons to the Northern IRA units for protection against sectarian paramilitaries and policemen.

He was therefore doing the very best he could and thus won the support of the majority of the Northern command (with the exception of Frank Aiken). Thus we can say Collins did his best to help every citizen of Ireland on both sides of the border.