21 August 2022
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Luke SprouleBBC News NI
"What if Michael Collins had lived?"
That is the concern every visitor to the Michael Collins Centre and Museum in Castleview, County Cork, wants to ask, according to its joint founder Tim Crowley.
Monday marks 100 years because Collins was eliminated in a weapon battle in between completing sides in the Irish Civil War.
A century on, there remains a big interest in "the Big Fella", his role in Irish independence and his long-lasting legacy.
"A lot of our visitors are middle-aged and some have moms and dads and grandparents who were included 100 years ago," says Mr Crowley, whose grandma was Collins' cousin.
"But then we likewise have got 14 and 15 year olds who are substantial Collins fanatics who come in who understand what he had for his last breakfast.
"They toss some actually great concerns at us."
Thousands to attend Michael Collins commemoration
Collins was a crucial figure in the defend Irish self-reliance and was director of intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the War of Independence with Britain, which lasted from January 1919 till July 1921.
But the terms of the peace treaty with Britain, which he signed, were extremely questionable and caused a civil war which broke out in June 1922, with the IRA splitting into pro and anti-treaty factions.
Collins was commander-in-chief of the pro-treaty forces, which ended up being the brand-new Irish National Army, however on 22 August 1922 while he was taking a trip through his home county of Cork his convoy was assailed by anti-treaty fighters.
Collins left his automobile to battle and in the weapon fight which followed he was shot dead.
He was 31 years of ages.
At the time of his death he was chairman of the provisional government of the new Irish Free State, as well as leader of its armed forces.
To this day individuals question what may have been if he had made it through and gone on to lead the new state.
"People ask would he have attempted to bring about a 32 county settlement? Would he have permitted nationalists in the northern state to have been treated the method they were?" Mr Crowley states.
"I believe he was the one leader at that time that the evidence recommends had real interest in the northern circumstance.
"In his mind the treaty was just the beginning."
He thinks Collins would have been more forceful when it pertained to the Boundary Commission, which was intended to select where the new border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland should lie.
In the end, although the commission suggested small transfers of land in both directions, its suggestions were never executed and the border remained the same as it was in 1921.
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The civil war left a bitter tradition in Irish society, particularly the execution of lots of anti-treaty fighters by the new provisional federal government.
The first official executions were performed in November 1922 and they continued till May 1923.
But Prof Marie Coleman, teacher of 20th Century Irish history at Queen's University, Belfast, does not believe this would have been any various had Collins not been killed.
"There has actually been a great deal of speculation that the course of the civil war could have been various, that maybe the acrimony of the executions might have been different," she states.
"I see nothing to suggest that Collins would have prosecuted the war any in a different way.
"Arguably, he had more at stake in defending the treaty settlement because he had been a signatory of the treaty.
"He showed nothing in between June and August 1922 to suggest that he would have been any softer on the republican side than Richard Mulcahy sought him."
Collins' killing came simply 10 days after the death of Arthur Griffith - another crucial figure in the battle for Irish self-reliance.
Other popular leaders such as Éamon De Valera were now on the anti-treaty side.
But Prof Coleman states those who filled the vacuum were likewise capable leaders.
"Griffith was replaced by WT Cosgrave who was most likely the most experienced political leader in Sinn Féin," she states.
"Collins was changed by Richard Mulcahy, who had actually been the chief of staff of the IRA throughout the War of Independence.
"So probably, in truth, he understood more about running the army than Collins would have done."
There is still no agreement on who fired the fatal shot that killed Collins, which has left space for a variety of theories and conspiracies.
Mr Crowley says the events of Collins' final day are the most popular part of the museum and centre which he runs, with visitors always keen to inquire about who was accountable for his death.
"People are captivated by the fact he died the method he did," he says.
"He passed away a hero's death with a gun in his hand, you couldn't make it up."
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On Sunday, Mr Crowley will attend the official ceremonies and on Monday the centre is running a journey to a number of locations associated with Collins, consisting of the scene of his death at Béal na Bláth where they will hold a minute's silence at the time Collins was shot.
Among the more controversial aspects of Collins' tradition remains the reality he concurred to the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
It created the Irish Free State but within the British Empire and with the British King as president, who Irish TDs (MPs) were needed to swear an oath of loyalty to.
It also validated the partition of Ireland and the development of Northern Ireland.
"Some individuals say to us that Michael Collins was not a republican politician," Mr Crowley says.
"But I would say he was a practical republican with a plan that might in fact be successful.
"He was the sort of leader who just occurs for a nation once in a thousand years."