His father, John Colivet, was a Sea Captain from Jersey (of French origin), and his mother Anne Kinnerk was from Askeaton, County Limerick.

Mayor O'Mara stated that the action was "a protest against the way Irishmen had been treated by the Government, who were filling the gaols with men who had the courage of their convictions".

At the official roll call, Colivet was marked "fé ghlas ag Gallaibh" (imprisoned by the foreign enemy).

On 14 April 1921 his treatment at Rathkeale prison was debated in the House of Commons - MPs questioned his cell conditions and if it was appropriate to carry around an elected MP, who was awaiting trial, as a hostage on British Army trucks.

[7] English journalist Wilfrid Ewart gives an interesting account of Ireland at that time, including a visit to Rathkeale prison and a meeting with Colivet, who was interned there in April 1921.

He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and voted against it, stating in the Dáil debate: "I am now asked to throw out the Republican Government and accept the status of a Dominion within the British Empire.

Many TDs were in attendance at his funeral including Éamon de Valera, Donogh O'Malley, Dan Breen and John Joe Sheehy.

As reported in the Limerick Leader, a number of his close friends were killed in the struggle for independence, including George Clancy and Michael O'Callaghan.

The paper also reported that Colivet fought on the Republican side during the Civil War, but "at no time did he entertain a feeling of bitterness to those who differed from him, and nothing caused him more sadness than the sundering of the grand bond of Irish unity".