Irish Examiner view: Time to know who killed Michael Collins

Theories and suspects still abound nearly one century after his death

Michael Collins pictured at the funeral of the Irish Free Stater and founder of Sinn Fein, Arthur Griffith, a week before his own death. Picture: Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

We all love a cold case and they don’t come more politically sensitive and engrossing than the murder of Michael Collins who, nearly a century after his death, still stimulates huge and divisive passions in the Republic.

Who actually fired that fateful bullet on August 22, 1922, at Béal na Bláth, Co Cork, in the middle of the bloody conflict between Free State and anti-Treaty forces is a conundrum which has vexed historians, politicians, and republicans of every hue for 99 years.