Winston Churchill recalled the horrible look that Michael Collins had after the United Kingdom delivered its final offer to end the Anglo-Irish war 100 years and a few months ago. Prime Minister Lloyd George had offered the men representing Ireland a status as a “free state” — not full political independence. There would be oaths to the king and a kind of dominion status like that of Canada or New Zealand. Also, the country would see its territory split: Six counties would belong to Northern Ireland, the statelet within the United Kingdom. For half a century Ireland had agitated for home rule, the restoration of a parliament of its own. Having been denied this by chicanery in Parliament and World War I, it then fought for the much grander goal of independence. The end result would be quasi–home rule, with partition of the island thrown in on top.
Collins was a great man of his own. With his stout and imposing frame, he was known as “the Big Fella.” Inspired by G. K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday, he carried on his rebellion against the largest empire in history basically out in the open, riding his bicycle to his appointments. He was a pioneer of urban warfare. By cultivating a well-placed spy in Dublin Castle, he achieved what no Irishman had done, before or since — he gained an intelligence advantage over the entire British state. When his planned assassinations of British spies and informers went through, hundreds of others crowded Dublin Castle looking for an escape. His technique of flying columns and retaliatory attacks — informed by solid intel and backed up by the cooperation of the enraged Irish public — made the war into a truly unwelcome and demoralizing headache for the British state.
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