'Michael Collins's diaries: a new source, new perspectives?'

Synopsis:

From 1918 to 1922 Michael Collins kept working diaries of his busy revolutionary life. The diaries begin with Collins a revolutionary among many; they end with Collins as the most powerful figure in Ireland. They begin with Collins a single man; they end with him about to be married.
These diaries are a collection of hurried notes, necessary lists, names and appointments, things to do, and things not done. They are a record of his long working days, and they got him to where he needed to be on time. Though these diaries do not contain conventional lengthy entries in which Collins finally reveals his innermost thoughts, they still tell us much about this extraordinary man.

In this paper Michael Collins’s biographers, Anne Dolan and William Murphy, will introduce the diaries and try to capture the nature of this new Collins source. They will reflect on how the diaries change what we know about him, and challenge us to think differently about his life.

Speakers’ bios:

Anne Dolan is Associate Professor in Modern Irish History in the Department of History, and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. She is author of Commemorating the Irish Civil War: History and Memory 1923-2000 and, with William Murphy, Michael Collins: the Man and the Revolution. She has published widely on the history of violence in the revolutionary period, the politics of memory, and the social and cultural history of inter-war Ireland. Her latest book, with William Murphy, is Days in the Life: Reading the Michael Collins Diaries, 1918-1922 published by the Royal Irish Academy in association with the National Archives of Ireland.

William Murphy is an Associate Professor of History at Dublin City University. He is the author of Political Imprisonment and the Irish, 1912-1921 (2014). He has co-edited the books The Gaelic Athletic Association, 1884-2009 (2009) and Leisure and the Irish in the Nineteenth Century (2016). With Anne Dolan, he is co-author of Michael Collins: the Man and the Revolution (2018). His latest book, with Anne Dolan, is Days in the Life: Reading the Michael Collins Diaries, 1918-1922 published by the Royal Irish Academy in association with the National Archives of Ireland.