Michael Collins's Intelligence War

Michael Collins (1890-1922) is often thought of as Ireland's lost leader: a man born into a revolutionary environment who became a skilled statesman and military leader and who met an untimely and violent death. Michael Foy's new book looks in depth at Collins's key role in the still fiercely divisive Anglo-Irish War that came in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising. It describes Collins' rise to prominence within Irish republicanism after the Easter Rising and, as de facto leader of the IRA and GHQ Director of Intelligence, how he was largely instrumental in bringing about the Anglo-Irish War of 1919 to 1921. It also contains a detailed account of how, for the first time in Irish revolutionary history, Collins seized the intelligence initiative from the British. The intelligence war is set firmly within the context of a city at war and Dublin's conditions at the time are vividly recaptured. The book uses an extensive range of primary sources - including written statements by participants, contemporary documents and photographs from both the Bureau of Military History, Dublin and the National Archives in London - to explore the role and personality of this fascinating man.

Michael T. Foy was head of history at Methodist College Belfast and is co-author of The Easter Rising.