Assassination of Michael Collins is given modern take in new TV docu-drama

IMAGINE if Michael Collins was killed today, how different would be the aftermath of his assassination?

Certainly, the scientific inquiries afterwards would be very different to those of 1922.

As the country marks the centenary of the independence leader’s death next week, a new programme will attempt to shed new light on one of Irish history’s darkest corners.

In Cold Case Collins on RTÉ1 on Wednesday at 9.35pm, asking difficult questions and using contemporary scientific analysis, former State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy fronts a docu-drama that re-opens the case of his assassination at Béal na mBláth, Collins’ killing is one of the most contested events in Irish history, igniting acrimonious arguments that have endured ever since.

Cold Case Collins imagines the investigation that never happened, with an interrogation room set to uncover what happened in West Cork on August 22, 1922.

Professor Cassidy will chair a 21st century inquiry comprising forensic scientists, criminal investigators, military strategists, archaeologists, archivists and historians.

As viewers, we eavesdrop on the experts as they sift and filter through the evidence old and new, looking for answers to the questions that have igniteddebates and arguments for decades.

Key participants in the project include the Technical Bureau of An Garda Síochána, Forensic Science Ireland, the Irish Defence Forces and the National Museum of Ireland.

Helen Collins, a descendant of the Collins family, has also actively contributed to the programme.

The team behind Cold Case Collins has an exceptional track record in this genre, re-invigorating the telling of history for television through a number of award-winning, innovative ‘twisty-history’ concepts.

ANOTHER TV PROGRAMME

The untold story of Irish song The Laughing Boy, written by Brendan Behan in memory of Michael Collins, is revealed in An Buachaill Gealgháireach on TG4 at 9.30pm on Wednesday.

With an extraordinary after-life as To Yelasto Paidi, it became the powerful left-wing anthem of resistance in Greece in the late ’60s.

The film takes Cork poet Theo Dorgan on an odyssey of his own, as he uncovers the truth of the story behind the song. It is a narrative that interweaves the tragic and bloody birth-pangs of both modern Ireland and modern Greece. But these histories are also bound together by something more profound and transcendent - the power of a song.