Michael Collins (Historical Fiction)

After the great Easter Rising of 1916, the two emerged leaders of the modern front to secure independence from the British Empire for green Ireland were Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins. Collins was always the more fieldwork and street oriented of the two now famous underground Irish rebels, and Eamon was considered the more shrewd diplomat. They'd been carefully tracked by the evolving English military and intelligences residing in Ireland at the time. Michael wanted to create a system of infiltration and guerrilla specialists to root out the deadly informants who'd been degrading the Irish cause while simultaneously creating a frontline for barracks destruction and police control destabilization.

Now, the Irish had been contending with British rule in their green land for centuries. Waves of rebellions were characterized by forms of grassroots folk uprisings, many armed, culminating in the Easter Rising of 1916. Michael hoped to now capitalized on this new era momentum and therefore created an underground network of specialized weapons and barracks infiltration men, street rebels on bicycles in early hours prepared to assassinate key British officials responsible for matters of systematized undesirable Protestant policies in Catholic Ireland. Eamon on the other hand was logistically dealing with matters of folk rhetoric and mob governance so as to present the new face of the cause as distinctly political.

Michael Collins decided to name his network of dark infiltration street men the Irish Republican Army or IRA. This was the first time the historic Irish Catholic rebellion would be organized in terms of direct guerrilla forces directed at the strongholds of British policing of Protestant leadership and military. The IRA was now the valiant face of Catholic resistance to the British Empire. Michael Collins was considered the genius behind all this engineering. Eamon de Valera meanwhile continued to negotiate with the British Parliament in the hopes of acquiring more political voices for inter-religious biases. This was perhaps going to be the first time religious conflict in Western civilization would be marked by great strides in guerrilla intelligence.

EAMON: We're still labeled as terrorists and murderers!
MICHAEL: Right now, we're simply desperate for housing.

As this IRA drama unfolded in the first half of the 20th Century, Eamon decided to send Michael Collins to England to serve as the new face of diplomatic negotiations. This is because folk tales in Ireland had been glorifying Michael as a figure of great Catholic populace romance. However, this move now revealed to the mass public what Michael Collins looked like, and until now, his face and appearance were unknown by the English. Michael failed to obtain independence for the northern portion of the Ireland country which was still predominantly inhabited by British Protestants. However, he'd managed to argue and win independence for the rest of Ireland, which wasn't predominantly Protestant but Catholic!

EAMON: You lost us the northern area of Ireland!
MICHAEL: Parliament was favoring only the south, Eamon.

This rift in Ireland caused a civil war between the two new factions of the IRA, and the furious Eamon now presided over the faction who'd contest the validity of the Collins treaty! Michael had to seize control of the entire country of Ireland, and those loyal to Eamon were now part of the New IRA, which was dangerously more armed than the original IRA. As Catholics fought each other in this now horrible unfolding national drama, Michael Collins realized this internal civil war would destroy the morale of the people. However, before he'd be able to resolve these social matters, he was assassinated by someone runored to be a snake agent of Eamon. Nevertheless, Michael Collins would be canonized as the Irish hero who'd defied certain forms of British ideology.

HISTORIAN: Collins is a man of canon for moments like St. Patrick's Day.

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