How Collins defined the national struggle

RYLE Dwyer’s article headlined “Brutal Separation” (Irish Examiner, March 24) is a mixture of innuendo and fact.

Michael Collins ordered the execution of armed British forces operating in Ireland. Tomás MacCurtain — the unarmed Lord Mayor of Cork — was murdered, not executed.

Writing about the period, Collins said: “Ireland’s story from 1918 to 1922 may be summed up as the story of a struggle between our right to govern ourselves and to get rid of the British government and the British determination to prevent us from doing either.