The Illustrated Life of Michael Collins - Hardcover

Connolly, Colm

3.93

41 ratings by Goodreads

9781570981128: The Illustrated Life of Michael Collins

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1570981124 ISBN 13: 9781570981128

Publisher: UNKNO, 1996

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The memory of Michael Collins still resonates throughout Irish history nearly 75 years after his death. He was a powerful, vigorous man whose charm, intelligence, and physical attractiveness - as well as his oratorical powers - propelled him to the forefront of the Irish fight for independence from Britain and the subsequent treaty negotiations. As guerilla leader, Collins destroyed the British intelligence system in Ireland, acquiring a heroic reputation among his countrymen. He effectively drafted the constitution of the Irish Free State and founded the Irish army, becoming its first commander-in-chief.
The Illustrated Life of Michael Collins is a unique visual biography, lavishly illustrated with photographs and documents from Collins's country upbringing in West Cork, where he was instilled with a patriotic fervor by a local blacksmith, to his death at age 31 in an ambush during the Irish Civil War of 1922. The book also portrays the other, more romantic side of the man, with photos of his fiancee, Kitty Kiernan, and Lady Hazel Lavery, with whom Collins was reputedly having an affair.

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From Publishers Weekly:

Although Collins (1890-1922) was the leader of the Irish Free State when he was assassinated, there are relatively few photographs of him available because, as director of IRA intelligence and the inventor of urban guerrilla warfare, he was wary of being photographed when the British were offering 10,000 (the equivalent of $50,000 in today's economy) for his apprehension. Connolly, who wrote an award-winning 1989 TV documentary on Collins, The Shadow of Bealnablath, and has helped the production team of the new Neil Jordan film, Michael Collins, with Liam Neeson in the title role, here compiles 100 extraordinary photos of the father of the modern Irish Republic, found in archives in Ireland and England. There is a candid shot of him and Eamon de Valera laughing; pictures of Collins entering No. 10 Downing Street during the treaty negotiations in 1921 that reveal his raw energy; and a blurry, frightening photo of him being surprised by a photographer and reaching for his gun. There are also pictures of him as head of state, mingling and joking with the people, and three photos of his dead body. The text adds insight into how Collins waged his campaign for Irish independence. There are significant comments from Vinnie Byrne, one of Collins's "12 Apostles"-his own private assassination squad-on the events of "Bloody Sunday" 1920 when Collins had the entire British Secret Service in Dublin gunned down. A book that admirers of Collins will cherish.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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