Journalist and historian David McCullagh to deliver Collins Béal na Bláth oration

Michael Collins was a man of his time, and ‘lost leader’ narratives about how different Ireland might have been under his leadership are probably “a fool’s errand”, the historian delivering this year’s Béal na Bláth oration has said.

The highest profile casualty of Ireland’s Civil War, Michael Collins was shot and killed in an ambush by anti-Treaty forces at Béal na Bláth on August 22, 1922.

This year’s oration is to be delivered by journalist and historian David McCullagh, who is the author of six books, including a biography of John A Costello, as well a two-volume biography of Éamon de Valera — Rise and Rule. He presents RTÉ Radio 1’s Today programme.

Mr McCullagh’s most recent book, From Crown to Harp, examines the 27-year journey from the Treaty negotiations of 1921 to the 1949 declaration of Ireland’s new status as a republic.

He said that his Béal na Bláth oration will look at the evolution of the relationship between Britain and Ireland, and Michael Collins contention that the Treaty offered ‘the freedom to achieve freedom’.

Constructive statesman

“There are lots of different aspects to Collins’ career, the intelligence chief, the financial mastermind, and all the rest of it, but people tend not to talk as much about Collins as a constructive statesman,” he said.

“Collins was the person who did more than anybody to set up the constitution of the Irish Free State.”

Mr McCullagh said it was pointless to speculate about Collins as the great lost leader.

“It’s probably a fool’s errand to try and work out what Collins would have said or done in any particular situation, and we can’t really know,” he said.

“He was a creature of his time, as are we all, and as was de Valera, certainly. It’s convenient to talk about de Valera’s Ireland and blame him for everything that went wrong, but you know, the other side politically was just as conservative as he was, sometimes more so.

“It’s difficult to know how Collins would have dealt with society, but I doubt it would have been radically different.”