Michael Collins Cork City March 1922

On March 12th 1922 Michael Collins attended a Pro Treaty rally on Cork Citys Grand Parade. Collins, joined by a number of his fellow pro treaty TDs passionately spoke to a crowd of what was reported to have been around 50,000 people.

The huge crowd gathered seemed to have been in support of the Treaty and Collins received a enthusiastic reception. But rumblings of the Civil War troubles to come were also demonstrated in the form of organised groups heckling, fighting and firing gun shots into the air, as well the kidnapping train drivers so special trains for supporters were prevented from reaching Cork City.

Collins used the platform to launch an attack on the Anti Treaty leader Eamon de Valera. Who he accused deserting the ship of Irish state while absent in America during the War of Independence and leaving it to men like Collins to steer it into calmer waters. He also highlighted the obvious benefits of the Treaty to the ordinary people of Cork, namely the exit of British forces who had burned Cork City just over a year previous.

The event was reported in the following days Irish examiner in a positive light with little mention of the dissenting groups. Collins also downplayed this opposition when he wrote to his fiancée Kitty Kiernan the following day- ‘Everything went off excellently on the whole- no real trouble, all the people for us.’