Heroic death of Michael Collins: How the Cork Examiner reported his killing in 1922
Death Cork The In Was Reported Of How Examiner Michael Collins The
An appalling catastrophe has befallen the Irish people.
The nation was plunged into grief yesterday morning when the almost incredible fact became known that General Michael Collins was dead. Though generally disbelieved at first, the news was but too true.
Cork was at once plunged into mourning. All the business establishments ceased work for the day, and all the trams stopped running.
The grief-stricken populace learned the facts of the calamity in a special early edition of The Echo.
General Collins was shot dead by ambushers at Béal na Bláth, a spot situated between Cork and Macroom. With members of the Headquarters Staff, General Collins left Cork in continuation of his visit to his various military positions in the South.
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The party was proceeding to Bandon by by-roads, accompanied by a whippet armoured car when they were attacked by a large party of Irregulars.
An hour's fighting ensued. The Irregulars lost heavily, but just before the attack was beaten off General Collins was shot through the head and in a short time died. A dispatch rider in advance was the only person wounded amongst the National forces.
In a feeble voice he asked for Major General Dalton and this officer and General Sean O Connell went to the dying hero, says our reporter. They whispered a few prayers, reciting the Act of Contrition.
The Commander-in-Chief's last words when he lay dying on the roadside was "forgive them".
The body was removed - under fire - to the armoured car and brought to the Shanakiel Hospital, Cork.
At noon yesterday, the dead hero was accorded a military funeral from the hospital to Penrose Quay. The body was taken to Dublin on the steamer Classic. Crowds who thronged the streets openly displayed their grief at the loss of a gallant Corkman and an Irish national hero.
General Mulcahy, Chief of Staff, in the course of a message to the man of the army says: Stand calm by your posts, bravely and undaunted to your work. Let no cruel act of reprisal blemish your bright honour. To each of you falls his unfinished work. Ireland, the Army serves, strengthened by its sorrow."
A message from the Irish Government says that Michael Collins "has been slain, to our unutterable loss - but he cannot die. He will live in the rule of the people, which he gave his great best to assert and which his colleagues undertake as a solemn charge to maintain."
At Cork Corporation and Cork Harbour Board touching speeches were delivered and arrangements were made to be represented at the funeral in Dublin.
The party of National troops consisted of about 20, most of whom were officers of high rank. They included members of the headquarters staff, who accompanied the Commander -in-Chief to the South, and Col. Comdnt Sean O’Connell, the officer commanding the bodyguard; Major General Dalton, commanding the troops in Cork and Lieut-Comdnt Dolan.
A despatch rider on a motor bicycle preceded the party. Immediately after him was the large special Leyland touring car belonging to General Collins and in it were travelling the Commander-in-Chief himself, Major-General Dalton, Lieut Conroy and other officers. A Whippet armoured car and an ordinary open tender brought up the rear.
The ambush occurred near Béal na Bláth at 6.30pm last evening, the fight lasting about an hour. Béal na Bláth is situated between Bandon and Macroom, about eight miles from the latter town, and south of the main road on the south side of the River Lee from Cork to Macroom.
The district is wild, rugged and is situated amongst the hills. The roads in the vicinity are poor, being chiefly bye-roads, as Béal na Bláth is altogether away from the main roads.
It was the interruption of communication on the main roads which led the party to proceed to Cork from Bandon by this roundabout route.
The party of officers, which included several of Ireland’s principal military leaders as well as the Commander-in-Chief left the Cork headquarters of the army at 6am on Tuesday morning.
They visited nearly all the posts in South Cork occupied by the National Army and took in Skibbereen, Rosscarbery and Clonakilty in the course of the tour. At each place the officer commanding the troops was interviewed and the Commander-in-Chief and the other officers were the recipients of a very hearty, enthusiastic, yet spontaneous greeting, not alone from the officers, but from the troops themselves. Little did they know that they would never again see the man whom they loved so deeply and admired so much.
The Commander-in-Chief himself must also have been very tired. From Sunday evening, when he arrived in the city, he had been hard at work day and night. On Monday night, midnight struck before he retired: yet he rose refreshed a few hours later to continue his exacting work.
Owing to the destruction of bridges by the Irregulars, and other road obstructions, the direct route from Bandon to Cork was not available. The party accordingly set off towards Macroom, with the intention of breaking into the main road near Crookstown and then returning to Cork by that way.
They had reached Béal na Bláth when the fatal attack was made suddenly without the slightest warning. It was then about 6.30pm. The district through which the party was travelling at that particular moment is a quiet remote spot, rather lonely.
A few shots fired by the attacking party, whose numbers were very large, being estimated as far as can be ascertained at about two hundred, opened the battle.
The ambushed party was taken completely by surprise. One of the first bullets very nearly struck the Commander-in-Chief, before his car was stopped, indeed before the fight really began. It whizzed past him, missing him by only an inch or two.
The party hastily dismounted and General Collins himself assumed the leadership, coolly directing his men.
The hail of lead which swept the road left him completely unmoved. His first thought was for the safety of his men, whom he ordered to take cover at the fences on both sides of the road.
In the first outburst of firing the despatch rider in front of the party was hit, being badly wounded in the lungs. Under the Commander-in-Chief’s direction the injured man was removed to a place of temporary safety and then the party settled down to reply to the fire of the attackers.
The discovery of the fact that the attackers had overwhelmingly superior numbers did not daunt either General Colling or his officers.
In a few minutes, the attack developed into a grim battle, fiercely contested. Every one of the ambushed party was a man who had been tried time and again, both in ambushes during the war with England, and since, and in various other encounters and dangerous duties.
They were men who had repeatedly proved their bravery and coolness in action, even when taken at a great disadvantage, when fighting in the face of the greatest difficulties. They were men whose soldierly qualities had earned them their well-deserved high rank and had earned them the grateful admiration of the whole nation.
In Tuesday’s battle they behaved as they could only behave. Fighting against overwhelming odds and with a terrible anxiety troubling them lest anything should happen their beloved Commander-in-Chief, they maintained a clam attitude, and fired away steadily.
The battle lasted for close on an hour, and it was in the very last stages of the fight that General Collins was killed.
The steady, careful fire of the ambushed party took a heavy toll during the fight, a very large number of the Irregulars being killed or wounded. For three-quarters of an hour the only casualty on the side of the National forces was the wounded despatch rider.
And then occurred the terrible calamity which has plunged the whole nation into grief and mourning. The battle was nearly over. The Irregulars were on the point of retreating, defeated in spite of their overwhelming numbers, their battle position, and every other advantage. The firing had become much less intense.
Suddenly the Commander-in-Chief collapsed and fell prone, struck in the head by a bullet. From the very first it was obvious that the wound was fatal. But the Commander-in-Chief, though mortally wounded, still fired away from the ground, encouraging his men by his magnificent bravery.
In a feeble voice he asked for Major General Dalton and this officer and General Sean O’Connell went to the dying hero. Broken-hearted, they whispered a few prayers, reciting the Act of Contrition, before General Collins breathed his last.
The Commander-in-Chief’s last words when he lay dying on the roadside, when he knew he had only a minute or two to live, revealed his greatness as nothing else could have done. He said: “Forgive them!” – and then died.
The body was removed – under fire – to the armoured car. The Irregulars were by this time in full retreat; having sustained very heavy casualties and leaving many dead and wounded on the field.
The National party was obliged to leave the Leyland touring car, and it was in the armoured car that the remains were brought to Cork, being conveyed to Shankiel Hospital. The sad procession reached the city between midnight and one o’clock yesterday.
When the body of the dead Commander-in-Chief was moved into the armoured car it was seen that Major General Dalton’s uniform was saturated with blood and it was at first feared that this officer had been wounded.
Such however was not the case. The stains were the blood of the great leader, who had died in General Dalton’s arms.
With the exception of the calamitous loss of General Collins and the wounding of the despatch rider, the National party suffered no other casualties.
The Commander-in-Chief and his party left Bandon on Tuesday evening on the return journey from Skibbereen. The party, which had covered between eight and ten miles from the town of Bandon were proceeding to Cork in a Crossley tender, a touring car, and an armoured car.
The Crossley tender was in advance, some 200 years in front of the touring car, in which were seated the Commander-in-Chief and Major General Dalton and the armoured car was about a similar distance from the Crossley tender.
All went well until about half a mile off Béal na Bláth, where intense fire was opened on the leading car from the high ground on the left, in the direction of Crookstown.
The Crossley tender was at once brought to a standstill and the eight men, under Commandant O’Connell, took up positions and immediately replied to the fire of the Irregulars, who were over 200 strong.
The attackers had raised barricades at the Crookstown end of the road, where a brewery dray and a farmer’s cart – the wheel of which had been removed – lay across the ground.
While the fire of the Irregulars was being replied to one of the National troops was despatched to clear the obstruction with a view to permitting the Commander-in-Chief to continue his journey to Cork.
General Collins, with that intrepidity for which was notable, elected to remain with his comrades and was in fact one of the first to alight and take a hand in the fight.
The Lewis gun of the National troops was in action under a minute and on the other side was a Thompson gun, supported by heavy rifle fire, which lasted over ten minutes, when the Irregulars were dislodged from their position in the hills and had sustained at least two casualties.
Commandant O’Connell, having noticed that the fire of the attackers had ceased, went back to the touring car in which General Collins had been travelling.
When he reached within 40 years of the vehicle one of Commandant O’Connell’s men shouted at him to take cover, as one of the Irregulars had appeared on their right, revolver in hand. That man was shot by the driver.
Comdt O’Connell, though under fire, succeeded in getting to the touring car, and to the Commander-in-chief and Major General Dalton.
General Collins had meanwhile sighted some of the Irregulars and addressing his comrades, said: “Come on lads; we’ll get them.”
At this point the firing was renewed by the Irregulars in a more intensified form. The General ordered positions to be taken up, at the same time taking his position on the extreme left, rifle in hand.
The exchange of shots now lasted for a period of four or five minutes, after which it was observed that General Collins’ rifle was silent.
Major General Dalton and Commandant O’Connell immediately went over to where General Collins had been firing to see what had happened and to their intense horror found that General Collins had fallen mortally wounded.
He lay on his right side in a firing attitude under the meagre cover of a two feet high fence.
His rifle was firmly clenched in both hands with the belt drawn as if putting in a cartridge into the breech. In this position he was hit with a bullet at the left side of the head.
He faintly murmured: “Emmet (referring to Major General Dalton) I am hit.”
All the aid possible was rendered but to no avail, the distinguished and gallant Irish leader passing away in the brief space of four minutes.
While the deceased General’s hand was being held and the Act of Contrition being recited, the attackers continued their fire, and Commandant O’Connell took the deceased’s rifle and returned the fire.
The Commandant’s own weapon had been left in the spot where he had been replying to the attacking party.
The body was removed to the motor car and during this time, though there were but few of the attackers to be seen, the National troops were subjected to their fire.
The despatch rider attached to the ambushed troops was wounded in the neck.
The National troops then continued the journey to Cork, after close on an hour’s engagement.