Any suggestion that he may have embraced them in the context of a time when fascism was fashionable must be made without any evidence. He was capable of suspending normal democracy in the National interest and did so during the Civil War when the cabinet seldom met and the war was directed by Collins and his immediate circle.
Yet the suspension of normal democratic procedures is not unusual for any government prosecuting a war. The constitution had to be approved by the British parliament and therefore had to conform to the provisions of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, meaning that its authors had to include parliamentary democracy at its core.
But they also included a series of provisions which empowered the people via direct democracy. This allowed citizens access to the legislative process by forcing the legislature to legislate, subject to referendum, wherever a sufficient number of citizens compelled them to do so via petition. The proposals were a very firm commitment to an extraordinary level of democracy and it is difficult to see how Collins could have agreed to them were he not a democrat.
Even if he was, it is unlikely that he would ever have approved any cessation of normal democratic processes. This campaign resulted in the execution of 81 prisoners and the summary execution of many more. This made him an unacceptable Taoiseach for the Clann na Poblactha party that Fine Gael sought to coalesce with in Mulcahy then held the peculiar position of being party leader of the senior coalition party, Fine Gael, but not Taoiseach, in two separate coalition governments.
Could a similar fate have befallen Collins? It is impossible to say for sure. In the absence of the death of a leader and friend, Collins may never have carried the same emotional baggage when faced with the decisions that Mulcahy was. What would Collins have done in relation to Northern Ireland? Collins deliberately armed northern IRA units during this period and toyed with the idea of conducting further offensives in May.
However historians still debate whether this rather aggressive stance was the sign of a genuine attempt at militarily undermining the northern state, or a political attempt at attaining the support of the northern IRA in the forthcoming Civil War. In the absence of further evidence it is impossible to say which of these perspectives is more accurate. Search results for 'If Michael Collins had lived' newsgroups and mailing lists.
Michael Collins - the simple answer that sweeps away all the confusion started UTC. What If Michael Collins started UTC. Special Care UTC. Home energy upgrades are now more important than ever. The Dublin start-up making the future better with an appreciation for innovation.
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That may have been effective at the time for the purpose of bringing the North closer to the South. However in more recent years suggestions of re-partition have not found favour with successive Irish Governments right up to the present.
The Civil War taught us many things, one above all the futility of violence as a means of securing the reunification of our people. The great majority of these who were together in the War of Independence and who opposed each other in the civil conflict came to one common conclusion in the pursuit of their mutual aim — that violence would never achieve it. This is and has been the view of the vast majority of the people of the 26 Counties, that the only enduring solution will be based on the coming together of the people of this island in peace and reconciliation.
We know that we cannot force unity and we do not wish to do so. Those in Northern Ireland whose aspirations are opposed to ours are entitled to our respect and understanding. Any settlement must embrace the different contributions each tradition has to offer.
Our aim must be not to try to remake others in our image but to welcome their traditions in an Ireland of which we are all citizens. We would wish for a similar and reciprocal willingness on the other side — with mutual respect for the right to differ on points of principle.
After the trauma of the Civil War and after the decision of de Valera and his followers to enter Dail Eireann in adherents. They knew that, whether as protagonists or as antagonists in their mutual cause, they shared the common bonds of sacrifice that they and their families had to endure in their different ways to achieve it. They knew too, as their leaders, Collins and de Valera, knew, that it would need even more sacrifice and some deprivation to achieve their further goals of advance, economic as well as.
Their efforts and sacrifices ensured that we of later would not have to endure the same. I am not suggesting that we have had it easy since but time may have dimmed our memory and appreciation of what those who lived in the early decades of this century had to endure. Have we as a nation become soft as a result? In its way the Treaty which Collins and his colleagues signed and adopted, and the manner in which de Valera and his having de facto accepted it, were able astutely to use some of its provisions which they changed in order to declare and maintain our neutrality during the — 45 World War, certainly shielded us from the fearsome horrors and most of the deprivations of that War such as were suffered by the French, the Germans, the Japanese and small nations like the Dutch and the Danes.
These small countries showed their resilience to the hardships they had to endure and effectively displayed the and the will needed to make their countries economically strong from a position of abject weakness.
These countries also had their internal turmoils but they have been able to rise above them and to reach accord in the interests of their countries' progress.
We too must rise above past bitterness whose continuing effects can limit our capacity to reach our full potential. Is there not in the Irish nation which has substantially improved its standard of living, over the past few decades, but is now faced with most severe economic difficulties, not all of our own making, the capacity to face some hardship, even temporarily in the national interest, to co-operate more with each other, to better understand the problems of the other side,.
Non co-operation between trade unions ; repudiation by trade union members of the authority of those whom they elect to lead them ; failure of farm organisations to reconcile with each other ; unfair or selfish action by producers or employers in relation to other producers and employers, or in relation to their employees or indeed similar action by employees in relation to their employers.
Is there not in us as a people striving to reach the same goals of satisfactory well-being and standard of living for all, to acknowledge the damage that such divisions and actions do to our progress and eliminate them for our country's sake and indeed in our own personal interests? I am not exonerating politicians. None of us can claim to be satisfied that we might not have done better in some circumstances or on some occasions.
As ordinary citizens how many of us can say that we take not what is fair and reasonable but as much as we possibly can out of any particular situation irrespective of the interests of others or the adverse effects our own narrowly based viewpoint might have on them. In this essay I have not tried to apportion blame for the Civil War but with that tragic episode now over sixty years behind us, as well as, I hope, all the bitterness it evoked, we cannot now afford the luxury of the little civil wars being fought in so many spheres of our economic life that can only make more difficult the task of recovery from the current world recession which has hit our open economy worse than most.
Collins and de Valera : Friends or Foes? We do know three important things, and I put them in this order : 1.
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