Irelands Michael Collins And Emon De Valera

Ireland's Michael Collins and Emon De Valera

There are many conditions under which Ireland was divided into two nations. Two main men were the main leaders of this split, Emon de Valera and

Michael Collins. Sinn Fein also played a large role. Their differing visions for an Ireland free of British rule was the root motivation for the split.

Born in New York City in 1882, Emon de Valera was described as a 'tall, spectacled, schoolmasterly, of Jewish cast' as Tim Healy said. Edward Norman, the author of A History of Modern Ireland, added that de Valera was an 'austere theoretician' (Norman, 265). Michael Collins was born in 1890 at Clonakilty, Co.

Cork. Edward Norman said his personality was to be to the contrary of de

Valera's; he said Collins was not an intellectual and was a man of violent impulses. He took that statement further when he said the Collins would go as far to tumble his colleagues on the floor and bite their ears in playful attention. Now that de Valera's and Collins' personalities have been established, we can now analyze the events and actual conditions under which

Ireland was under that led ultimately to her freedom.

All across Ireland people were repulsed by the executions which they considered to be needlessly brutal. What they lacked was new leadership to focus the restless energy of the Irish into effective political action, but it was not long in coming. At Christmas 1916 all rebel prisoners who had been interned without trial, those that the British had considered insignificant, were released as a goodwill gesture to the United States which had been very angry by British conduct regarding the rebels. This proved to be a costly mistake. Among those released was a cadre of IRB men who had spent their time in prison educating and organizing themselves into what came out to be a formidable political and military force. The leader of these efforts in prison was Michael Collins, who was still a little known Volunteer at the time.

Despite martial law, Collins contacted the members of his secret organization throughout Ireland and set in motion a clever plan to obtain political power. Using Sinn Fein as cover, the IRB began to run its members as candidates for parliament. Their successes throughout 1917 against Redmond's

Irish Parliamentary Party candidates shifted power to Sinn Fein and caused a turmoil of public support for the republican movement throughout Catholic

Ireland. After Collins release in June, 1917,Eamon de Valera, the oldest of the surviving 1916 rebels, joined Collins. De Valera was lucky for he had been