Room for a Big Fella: How this Cork hotel refurbished the historic room Michael Collins spent his last night in

History and mod cons can be happy bedfellows with sensitive interior design, as we see during a visit to Cork's Imperial Hotel

The four-poster bed with pleated velvet canopy overhead in The Michael Collins Suite at The Imperial Hotel, Cork. Pictures & Video: Denis Minihane

A recurrent theme in the last year when talking interiors topics, is how so many ideas and success stories came from the quiet, reflective days of lockdown.

One such conversation was with Allen Flynn, co-owner of Cork’s Imperial Hotel, who revealed how lockdown prompted an idea to refurbish the bedroom where the late Michael Collins stayed the night before his assassination in Béal na mBláth.