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Michael Collins was born at Woodfield, Clonakilty, in County Cork in 1890. He was the third son and the youngest of eight children. His father, also called Michael Collins, was 75 years of age when Michael junior was born. On his deathbed the father pointed to his youngest child and urged his grieving family to mind Michael because, 'One day he'll be a great man. He'll do great work for Ireland.' Michael was 6 years of age at the time.

During those six years Michael had been greatly influenced by his father, who encouraged his children to learn patriotic ballads and poetry. West Cork was the heartland of Fenianism, the Irish nationalist movement founded in the 19th century. Jermiah O'Donovan Rossa, one of its founders, had been a teacher in a school in Rosscarberry, three miles away from the Collins household. Michael's own teacher, Denis Lyons, was a member of the Fenian organisation, the IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood) and was to prove an inspirational figure. The local blacksmith, James Santry, was also a Fenian. Young Michael would often call to his forge to hear stories of earlier Irish rebellions in 1798 and 1848. Years later Michael Collins was to recall that, "In Denis Lyons and James Santry I had my first tutors capable of, because of their personalities alone, infusing into me pride of the Irish as a race."

As a child Michael also read widely. He was familiar with Shakespeare and the great novelists of the 19th century. Every week he read the nationalist newspapers "The Freeman's Weekly" and "The Leader". When only 11 years of age Michael began to subscribe to 'The United Irishman', edited by Arthur Griffith. Almost 20 years later, Griffith and Michael Collins would be the most important Irish representatives in the Treaty negotiations with Britain. Griffith was the founder of Sinn Fein, a nationalist party that exists to this day. At that time Sinn Fein was not a republican party. Griffith believed that a Republic was unattainable and that Home Rule, which the constitutional nationalists sought, was inadequate. His goal was an independent Ireland with the same monarch as England. While this did not accord with the Fenian view, Griffith did have a profound influence on the young Michael Collins. At the age of 12 he wrote, "In Arthur Griffith there is a mighty force in Ireland. He has none of the wildness of some I could name. Instead there is an abundance of wisdom and an awareness of things which are Ireland."

The young Michael Collins was a keen sportsman. He played the local game of road bowling. He enjoyed the Irish game hurling, and was fond of fishing. But it was his prowess as a wrestler for which Michael was noted. He took on all comers, and rougher bouts usually ended with Collins biting the ear of his opponent. Later during the War of Independence he would often break the mounting tension by insisting on "a bit of ear", as he called it, with his comrades.

In July 1906, at the age of 15, Michael Collins emigrated to London where he worked as a boy clerk in West Kensington Post Office. He quickly found his feet in the strong Irish community in London. He joined the Gaelic Athletic Association(GAA), the Gaelic League, which promoted the revival of the Irish language, and Sinn Fein. In November 1909 he was inducted into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). At this time the IRB was in decline, but the failure of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) to achieve Home Rule through constitutional means attracted younger members to the organisation. Shortly after joining the IRB Michael left the Post Office and took up a post with a stockbroking company and later he worked in the Whitehall Labour Exchange. Finally, before returning to Ireland, he worked briefly with an American firm, the Guaranty Trust Company.

Outside of work Collins wrote papers on Irish history and current political events. The Irish question had now moved to the centre of the political stage. The election results of 1910 gave the IPP the balance of power and its leader, John Redmond, demanded the introduction of Home Rule. The Home Rule Bill, which came before the House of Commons in April 1912, met with stiff resistance from the Ulster Unionists. Under the Home Rule scenario they feared that the Protestant culture would lose out to the Catholic nationalist majority. In 1913 the Ulster Unionist leader, Sir Edward Carson, organised the Ulster militias into the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and threatened to set up a provisional government in Belfast if Home Rule was introduced. Nationalists in Dublin responded by forming the Irish Volunteers. Although founded by Eoin O'Neill, a professor in University College Dublin, IRB members were active behind the scenes. Seeing the threat, Redmond managed to gain control of the executive of the Irish Volunteers. With the outbreak of the First World War, Redmond proposed in the House of Commons that the Volunteers and the UVF come together to defend Ireland against invasion. With the question of Home Rule now deferred until after the war, the Irish Volunteers split into two camps. The majority followed Redmond's advice and joined the British war effort in the hope of gaining Home Rule, while a minority dominated by the IRB stayed at home to organise armed rebellion.

When Michael Collins came to Dublin in early 1916 the scene was being set for an armed insurrection. The IRB's military expert, Joseph Plunkett, appointed him as a staff officer and he kept in regular contact with two older IRB members, Tom Clarke and Sean Mac Diarmada. The Easter Rising, when it did come, was an organisational disaster. Eoin MacNeill, the founder of the Irish Volunteers, issued orders to abandon all plans for a Rising. The IRB countermanded this order. Despite the confusion, the Volunteers, together with Irish Citizen Army, succeeded in taking over some of the main buildings in the city. Michael Collins fought in the GPO alongside the leaders of the Rising, Padraig Pearse and James Connolly. After five days of fighting the Volunteers were forced to surrender. The Rising was denounced in the newspapers of the time and members of the public were angry about the destruction of the city. But the public mood changed quickly when the leaders of the rebellion, including Clarke and Mac Diarmada, were executed over a ten-day period. Connolly, who was the last to face the firing squad, had to be strapped to a chair, as he could not stand upright because of his injuries. The Rising and its aftermath were to make a deep and lasting impression on Michael Collins. Later he wrote: "They have died nobly at the hands of the firing squads. So much I grant. But I do not think the Rising week was an appropriate time for the issue of memoranda couched in poetic phrases nor of actions worked out in a similar fashion. Looking at it from the inside ....it had the air of a Greek tragedy about it .... Of Connolly and Pearse I admire the former the foremost. Connolly was a realist, Pearse the direct opposite...On the whole I think the Rising was bungled terribly, costing many a good life. It seemed at first to be well organised, but afterwards became subjected to panic decisions and a great lack of very essential organisation and co-operation".

Collins and his fellow Volunteers were rounded up and sent on a cattle boat to English prisons. At first he was held in Stafford jail and then, at the end of June, the prisoners were transferred to Frongach camp in Wales. The British government, anxious to defuse the growing public sympathy for the rebels in Ireland, released the internees on the 22 December, 1916. On returning home Collins quickly found employment as secretary of the Irish National Aid and Volunteer Dependants Fund. He used his position to revitalise the Volunteer movement and attract new recruits to the IRB. But it was Sinn Fein, and not the IRB, which had gained most from the fallout of the Rising, despite the fact that Griffith had been opposed to it. Initially suspicious of Sinn Fein, Collins realised that it was a radical nationalist party that could defeat the IPP. He campaigned vigorously in a series of by-elections, first in Roscommon and then in Longford. In the Longford by-election Collins nominated Joe McGuinness, who was still serving a prison sentence for his part in the Rising. Using the slogan "Put him in, to get him out", McGuinness was elected. The effect of the by-election victories was almost immediate. The British released the remaining 120 prisoners.

Among the prisoners released were two senior surviving officers, Thomas Ashe and Eamon de Valera. De Valera had not been executed in 1916 because he was born in the United States. Ashe was elected president of the IRB but was soon arrested for making seditious speeches. Because he was refused political status, Thomas Ashe went on hunger strike and died five days later when the British tried to force feed him. The funeral arrangements were made by Michael Collins. At the graveside a section of uniformed volunteers stepped forward and fired a volley. Then Collins gave a brief oration: "Nothing additional remains to be said. That volley which we have just heard is the only speech which it is proper to make at the grave of a dead Fenian." Collins then wept in what was a very rare public display of grief.

Collins now organised the election of de Valera as president of Sinn Fein in a deal with Arthur Griffith. Sinn Fein's main aim was now the "international recognition of Ireland as an independent Irish Republic." The militants dominated Sinn Fein and Collins began organising an effective intelligence gathering operation. Among those he recruited, to spy for him were Joe Kavanagh and Sergeant Ned Broy detectives in G division. The G-men, as they were known, were at the heart of British intelligence in Ireland. Having people on the inside was to prove an invaluable source of information for Collins.

Early in 1918 Collins was arrested for making a speech against conscription in Legga, County Longford. During his many visits to Longford Collins would stay at the Greville Arms in Granard, run by "four beautiful sisters and their brother." Michael had fallen in love with Kitty , the second eldest sister. His chief rival for her hand was his comrade in the IRB, Harry Boland. Collins was jailed in Sligo but applied for bail. Once out on bail he went on the run.

All over the country anti-conscription campaigns took place. The British decided to arrest the leading nationalists in an attempt to stop the anti-conscription protests. Collins was tipped off about the planned arrests by his informants and told de Valera and the Sinn Fein executive what was about to happen. They decided that they would win an even greater moral and political victory if they were arrested. Sean McGarry, the president of the IRB, was also arrested and Collins quickly succeeded him as the president of The Organisation, as it had become known.

The arrests only succeeded in fuelling nationalist resentment even further. Collins and Harry Boland were now in effective control of the republican organisations and they set about preparing Sinn Fein for the forthcoming General Election. This came when Lloyd George called a snap election following the end of the First World War. The elections were a triumph for Sinn Fein. They won 73 seats, compared with 6 for the IPP. Michael Collins was elected unopposed for the South Cork constituency. On 21 January 1919, Sinn Fein's newly elected candidates assembled in Dublin's Mansion House to form the first national assembly in over a century. This day also marked the beginning of the War of Independence, when a group of Volunteers shot dead two policemen at Soloheadbeg in County Tipperary. The new parliament was to be known as Dail Eireann and it began by passing a declaration of independence. Only 27 of the 73 Sinn Fein TD's (members of parliament) could attend. Collins and his fellow TD Harry Boland were absent. They were in England organising de Valera's escape from Lincoln Jail. Within five weeks the remaining republican prisoners were released. When the Dail reassembled in April, Eamon de Valera was elected its president. Cathal Brugha was appointed as Minister of Defence and Michael Collins became Minister for Finance.

At the beginning of June 1919 de Valera left for America in order to raise funds, and did not return until the end of 1920. He was joined by Collins' close ally Harry Boland. Collins was now left with Cathal Brugha to manage the war effort at home. Brugha's suggestion that the Volunteers take an oath of allegiance to the Dail was agreed in August 1920. From now on the Volunteers became increasingly known as the IRA (Irish Republican Army). In September, Sinn Fein, the Volunteers and the Dail were all proscribed. The ban drove the Dail underground and Collins concentrated his efforts on maintaining the guerrilla warfare strategy, which was proving enormously successful. Collins' spies, especially Ned Broy, kept him informed about all developments within the British forces. Collins also established an IRA intelligence staff. The main figures in this were Liam Tobin, Frank Thornton and Joe O'Reilly. O'Reilly later became known as the "guardian angel" and was effectively Collins' right hand man. One description gives some idea of his relationship with Collins: "He was courier, clerk, messenger boy, nurse, slave." Collins had also selected a group of Volunteers, known as the Squad, for the purpose of executing British agents. One of these, a young man, only 18 years of age, called Vinny Byrne, carried out many of the executions. Before killing his victims from close range Byrne would often say the words "May the Lord have mercy on your soul." Det Sergeant Patrick Smith was the first victim of the Squad. From then on the Squad carried out a series of ruthless killings which struck terror into the British establishment in Ireland.

Collins had become the most wanted man in Ireland, with a price of £10,000 on his head. Luckily, the police did not have a good photograph of him and Collins was able to cycle about the city to one of his offices. If stopped, he always kept a cool head and joked with the police or soldiers. Collins' most important contact was now David Nelligan, who worked in Dublin Castle, the seat of British power in Ireland. Nelligan was able to tell Collins about the movements of British agents and the Black and Tans. The Black and Tans, so-called because of the colours of their uniforms, were recruited specifically to deal with the IRA. They quickly gained a reputation for viciousness. The War of Independence became even more ruthless, with terrible atrocities taking place on both sides. Colonel Sir Ormonde Winter was put in charge of the British Secret Service in Ireland. He brought in undercover agents, who had been working in Egypt, and they quickly became known as the "Cairo Gang". Collins realised he had to work quickly to avert this threat. By October 1920 he had the names of the Cairo Gang. On Sunday 21 November 1920 the IRA execution squads acted decisively. In hotels and boarding houses throughout the city they shot British agents. The Black and Tan retaliation was swift. That afternoon armoured cars entered Croke Park where Dublin were playing Tipperary in a Gaelic football match. They shot dead fourteen people. It was one of the blackest days in Irish history and became known as "Bloody Sunday". It was a difficult time for Collins. He had lost many close colleagues, he was under constant pressure and the return of de Valera on Christmas Eve 1920 didn't help matters. The two men were completely different in temperament. Collins disliked de Valera's "brooding over every word, like a hen over an egg." In turn Collins' forthright style annoyed his older cabinet colleagues, Brugha and Stack.

De Valera supported more conventional tactics in the war against the British. The burning of the Custom House in Dublin resulted in the loss of many Volunteers. Nevertheless, it had a demoralising effect on the British. In the elections of May 1921, Sinn Fein once again swept the boards. Collins was elected in the six county area of Ulster, which had now been effectively partitioned off under the Government of Ireland Act. In June Lloyd Geroge invited de Valera to London for talks without precondition. De Valera accepted and a Truce was set for 11 July, 1921. When the peace talks were set for October, Collins and Griffith were unexpectedly chosen to lead the Irish team of negotiators. On Saturday 8 October, while the rest of the peace delegation travelled to London, Collins became engaged to Kitty Kiernan. The peace negotiations began on 10 October, 1921 and lasted into December. On the 6 December Lloyd George gave the Irish delegation an ultimatum: sign or hostilities would resume. At 2.10am Collins signed and turning to Lord Birkenhead, said "I have signed my death warrant."

It was to prove a prophetic statement. Collins had always suspected that de Valera had sent him as a negotiator because it was a no-win situation. De Valera now rejected the Treaty. Collins' opponents, Brugha and Stack, as well as his comrade Harry Boland sided with de Valera. On the January 14th 1922, Dail Eireann ratified the Treaty, establishing southern Ireland - 26 of the 32 counties - as a Free State with dominion status. The Dail was now split into pro- and anti-Treaty camps. De Valera resigned and Michael Collins was elected Chairman of the Provisional Government. The Provisional Government had now to take over the evacuated British posts. The first occupation was Dublin Castle itself, where Collins arrived seven and a half minutes late for the changeover. Collins remarked to the British general "after seven and half centuries we won't begrudge you seven and a half minutes."

Tension grew between the pro- and anti-Treaty sides throughout 1922. IRA units had taken over the Four Courts in Dublin in April. On the 28th June Free State troops began to bombard the building. The Civil War had begun. In Dublin it took a week of intense fighting to dislodge the anti-Treaty forces. Cathal Brugha lost his life. Harry Boland, who had been Collins' closest friend in the early days of the struggle, was shot dead in the Grand hotel in Skerries on July 31st. The news devastated Collins and he wept uncontrollably. The bitterness of the conflict worsened with each day. Former comrades fought one another and families were split on the issue. The Provisional Government began to retake cities and towns held by the Republicans.

On August 22, shortly after the death of Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins was on a tour of inspection in the Cork area. Returning in convoy from Bandon he was ambushed at Beal na mBlath (The Mouth of Flowers) and died immediately of a single gunshot wound to the head. De Valera, who was in the same area of Cork at the time, was shaken by the news.

Thousands of people lined the streets of Dublin for the funeral of Michael Collins in a display of public grief.

In 1966, while President of the Republic of Ireland, de Valera said: "It's my considered opinion that in the fullness of time, history will record the greatness of Collins and it will be recorded at my expense."