Fergus Finlay: Collins was never my hero — but he had potential for greatness

Michael Collins was supremely well-organised and efficient in a lot of what he did. And he was ruthless, writes Fergus Finlay

Crowds at the event of the commemoration of the centenary of the death of Michael Collins at Béal na Blath on August 21, 2022. Picture: Larry Cummins

Time to make a clean breast of it. I was never going to join the thousands of people who travelled to the Michael Collins’ commemoration in Béal na Bláth — an event that still, inexplicably, starts with a decade of the Rosary.

Sorry, but Collins was never a hero of mine. I’ve always believed that the Civil War resulting from his conflict with de Valera shaped and distorted Irish politics in utterly perverse ways throughout most of my lifetime.