https://kilmainhamgaolmuseum.ie/ Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Beal Blath (or Green land) may not strike you as a bloody field but it is here in West Cork where we pick up the story of Michael Collins’ Hundred Year War.

It is little exaggeration to say that without Michael Collins the Republic of Ireland as we know it today would not exist.

And that’s why today thousands are gathering at Beal Blath to mark the 100th anniversary of the assassination of the leader of the Irish Free State.

The memorial: Where Michael Collins was assassinated

Collins was, and continues to be, a divisive figure in Irish history.

Either the genius commander of the Irish guerrilla force that brought the British Empire to the table.

Or the traitor who surrendered six counties of the island to the UK.

Collins’ legacy

Collins’ legacy is, of course, two Irelands on the one island… or is it that there is even one at all which is not under British rule.

While there’s a split too there with the two parties who have ruled the Republic dividing along Civil War lines.

Under Collins’ party Fine Gael and his one-time captain and future Taoiseach Eamon De Valera’s Fianna Fáil.

But it is much more, and whichever side you come down on, it is worth probing Collins and the story of the Republic for yourself.

The story of the Republic

The best starting point is a post office… the GPO in Dublin where they still sort your mail and give you a history lesson.

And it was here that Padraig Pearse declared Ireland a republic in Easter 1916 and was executed for his troubles.

At Kilmainham Gaol along with the other leaders of the Rising.

And most dramatically the Scottish communist James Connolly who was shot strapped to a chair in the exercise yard.

Because his leg was gangrenous after he was shot during the Rising.

It’s an eerie but dramatic experience which is probably why it was chosen for scenes in the Italian Job and In The Name Of The Father.

Ireland of Hop-on glory

Best bar none: Liam Neeson in Michael Collins

Easter 1916 and the Irish Civil War feature heavily on your DoDublin Bus tour.

Where you will visit Collins Barracks the high point of the Big Fella’s career.

When the British officially handed back power to the Irish of Ireland.

You’ll remember it from the titular film with Liam Neeson memorably cast as Collins.

And the dialogue played out just as it had done that day but sans Collins’ expletives.

British officer: ‘You’re seven minutes late Mr Collins.‘

Collins: ‘You’ve kept us waiting 700 years. You can have your seven minutes.’

Only the rivers run free

Seven hundred years then… Britain’s fascination with their noisy neighbours.

For noisy, of course, read craic with the Irish never having invaded the folks next door.

Unless it is with booze and a sing-song.

All of which leaves us with unfinished business as we reflect today on Michael Collins’ Hundred Year War.

We’ve heard of little else in the UK all week so let’s do a deep dive into the 22 Committee and all things 22.

The 22 Committee, or 22 as it’s come to be shortened to.

It’s the group of backbench, or rank and file, MPs who have hastened the leadership contest.

Put aside that there’s something arcane about a committee called the 1922 in charge of the direction of travel in 2022.

Or not…

Let’s time travel and compare where we were in 1922, where we are now, and where we can compare.

The Irish Question

Dublin: As 1922 dawned, Ireland was still in the UK, was about to become a Free State and halfway in was engaged in Civil War.

Irish history breathes from the streets.

With one of the most dramatic statue-lined thoroughfares anywhere in the world.

The GPO where the Proclamation of the Republic was announced in 1916 is halfway up O’Connell Street and has a museum.

While the Collins Barracks where Michael Collins oversaw the transfer of power from Britain should be on your route.

As should Kilmainham Gaol where the rebels of Easter 1916 were held.

And in whose exercise yard the Scot James Connolly was shot strapped to a chair.

The Scottish Question

Edinburgh, Glasgow: And in 1922 Scotland had parked its self-government ambitions promised them in 1914.

Like the Irish they put it on hold because of The Great War.

But unlike their Celtic cousins they took a different fork in the road.

Scotland’s bloated cities, particularly its largest Glasgow where living conditions for most people were a heath risk, rose up.

There was a riot in George Square in Glasgow in 1919.

And three years later Red Clydeside socislist MPs had got a foot in Westminster.

These days their descendants, Nicola Sturgeon et al are more pink or rosé than red.

They sit in the devolved Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, Edinburgh.

It is open for visits, tours and gawking at the MSPs.

All roads lead to Mussolini

Italy: And Il Duce, Benito Mussolini, heralded in an era of Fascism.

When his March on Rome led to him taking power.

Mussolini still has a rather big footprint in Italy in a way unthinkable say with Hitler in Germany.

I’m reminded by my guide Ingrid in the rebuilt Renaissance City of Dresden.

Where a mural of Communist icons survived the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

That if we airbrush history we open ourselves up to repeat it.

And Mussolini’s stark self-aggrandising architecture in Bergamo, my last Italian pit stop.

It only reaffirmed the beauty of the Renaissance art around it.

While dark tourists, of which I am one, will learn more of Italy between the wars.

In his home town of Predappio in Emilia-Romagna.

Hello Uncle Joe

Georgia: And on the other side of the great political divide Joseph Stalin succeeded Lenin in charge of the newly-created USSR.

The first Soviet Union including Belarus, Ukraine, Belarus and the Transcaucasian Republic of Armenia, Azwrbaijan and Georgia.

Stalin had started out on his reign of terror in Georgia.

As a Russian Mafioso fixer (who does that sound like?) and bank robber.

Fly the flag: With Irish Georgian ambassador George

And despite his history of repression and cull of his own people Stalin is still marked in his own republic of Georgia.

But don’t let that put you off.

Georgia is the original home of wine, has a rich culture and Black Sea coastline to savour.

Toot and come in

Egypt: And in 22 the British unleashed some dark forces.

No, not in the return of its latest Tory PM, a Scots-educated leader in Bonar Law (now you know).

But in Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and its riches in the Valley of the Kings.

It was a momentous year for the Egyptians.

With the ancient land gaining independence from the UK and Fuad I crowned king.

Whether the Tories elect us a Mummy PM, a first BAME Premier or someone who again is too male, too stale a thought here.

Bonar Law lasted but a year.

His successor Stanley Baldwin a year too, before Britain got its first Labour PM Ramsay MacDonald.

All things to consider for the 22 Committee and all things 1922.

Tag: https://kilmainhamgaolmuseum.ie/

Collins’ Hundred Year War