Michael Collins

Revolutionary, soldier and statesman, Michael Collins was one of the principal architects of Irish independence. Born on a farm near Clonakilty, he emigrated to London as a teenager before returning to fight in the 1916 Easter Rising. As Director of Intelligence for the IRA during the War of Independence, and Minister for Finance in the First Dáil, he became the most wanted man in Ireland. In 1921 he reluctantly signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, famously remarking that he may have signed his own death warrant. As Chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-Chief of the National Army, he was killed in an ambush at Béal na Bláth during the Civil War, in his native Cork, aged just 31. His funeral drew some 500,000 mourners. 'Give us the future... we've had enough of your past