If any party has a right to claim to be followers of Collins’s legacy, it is FF

NOT only was Senator Liam Twomey’s attack on Finance Minsiter Brian Lenihan out of order, it was also historically inaccurate and, as a student of history, I feel I should correct this.

Senator Twomey claims Fianna Fáil are the “polar opposite” of what Michael Collins and Fine Gael stand for. This, however, is a a dubious claim. Collins was the man who, during the Anglo-Irish Treaty debates, declared it the freedom to achieve freedom, a stepping stone.

It was Éamon de Valera, however, who made use of this freedom slowly to dismantle the treaty, regaining the treaty ports, establishing the office of president, etc, while at the same time Fine Gael candidates (FG having been founded in 1933, 11 years after the death of Collins) ran under the policy of remaining under the British Commonwealth.