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''For the Apollo XI astronaut, see [[Michael Collins (Astronaut)]]''

''For the Apollo XI astronaut, see [[Michael Collins (Astronaut)]]''

'''Michael Collins''' was an Irish revolutionary leader, and the main commander of the [[Irish Republican Army]] during the [[Irish War of Independence]] (1919-1921) and of the [[Irish Free State]] Army during the [[Irish Civil War]] (1921-1923).

'''Michael Collins''' (1890-1922) was an Irish revolutionary leader, and the main commander of the [[Irish Republican Army]] during the [[Irish War of Independence]] (1919-1921) and of the [[Irish Free State]] Army during the [[Irish Civil War]] (1921-1923).

 

Collins was born into a republican family in west [[Cork]], in the south-west of [[Ireland]]; on leaving school he moved to [[London]] where he passed the examinations for the [[British]] civil service and in 1906 joined the Post Office. While in London he joined the local branch of the [[Gaelic Athletic Association]], a sporting organisation closely associated with Irish republican politics, and through his GAA links was inducted into the [[Irish Republican Brotherhood]] (IRB), a republican secret society. He returned to [[Dublin]] in time to participate in the calamitous [[Easter Rising]] of 1916; his experience of the failure of that romantic gesture was to affect his leadership of the IRA during the War of Independence, characterised by ruthlessness and professionalism.

[[Category:Ireland]]

[[Category:Ireland]]