[13] Leaving school at fifteen, Collins took the British Civil Service examination in Cork in February 1906[14] and moved to the home of his sister Hannie in London, where he became a boy clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank at Blythe House.

[20] In 1915 he moved to work in the Guaranty Trust Company of New York where he remained until his return to Ireland the following year joining part-time Craig Gardiner & Co,[21] a firm of accountants in Dawson Street, Dublin.

[citation needed] No state gave diplomatic recognition to the Irish Republic, despite sustained lobbying in Washington by de Valera and prominent Irish-Americans and at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

[31] At this time, most of the Dáil Éireann's ministries existed only on paper or as one or two individuals working in a room of a private house, as large gatherings of Irish republican politicians would be vulnerable to raid attempts by British Crown forces.

[citation needed] Despite that, Collins managed to produce a Finance Ministry that was able to organise a large bond issue in the form of a "National Loan" to fund the new Irish Republic.

On 28 October 1921 the Frieda slipped out to sea with Charles McGuinness at the helm and a German crew with a cargo of leftover World War I weapons – 300 guns and 20,000 rounds of ammunition.

Campaigning for Irish independence, even non-violently, was still targeted both by prosecutions under British law entailing the death penalty and also by extrajudicial killings such as that of Tomás Mac Curtain, nationalist mayor of Cork City.

In 1920, following Westminster's prominent announcements that it had the Irish insurgents on the run, Collins and his Squad killed several people in a series of coordinated raids, including a number of British secret service agents.

Prominent voices calling for negotiation included the Labour Party, The Times and other leading periodicals, members of the House of Lords, English Catholics, and famous authors such as George Bernard Shaw.

The British MP Brigadier General Cockerill sent an open letter to Prime Minister David Lloyd George that was printed in the Times, outlining how a peace conference with the Irish should be organised.

Under a bicameral parliament, the executive authority would remain vested in the king, represented in Ireland by a Governor General, but exercised by an Irish government elected by Dáil Éireann as a "lower house".

Éamon de Valera, the President of the Dáil objected to the Treaty on the grounds that it had been signed without cabinet consent and that it secured neither the full independence of Ireland nor Irish unity.

Collins was then in the process of co-writing that document and was striving to make it a republican constitution that included provisions that would allow anti-Treaty TDs to take their seats in good conscience, without any oath concerning the Crown.

[72] The pro-Treaty side argued that the proposed Irish Boundary Commission would give large swathes of Northern Ireland to the Free State, leaving the remaining territory too small to be economically viable.

Despite the abdication of a large part of the Dáil, the Provisional Government (Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann) was formed with Michael Collins as Chairman of the Cabinet (effectively Prime Minister).

[78][100][full citation needed] Negotiations to prevent civil war resulted in, among others, "The Army Document" published in May 1922 which was signed by an equal number of pro- and anti-Treaty IRA officers including Collins, Dan Breen, and Gearóid O'Sullivan.

This pact agreed that new elections to the Dáil would be held with each candidate running as explicitly pro- or anti-Treaty and that, regardless of which side obtained a majority, the two factions would then join to form a coalition government of national unity.

At that time Wilson had served as military advisor to the Northern Ireland government led by James Craig, in which role he was seen to be responsible for the B-Specials and for other sources of loyalist violence in the north.

President Arthur Griffith and military officer Emmet Dalton met with British officials to discuss 'the continued occupation of the Four Courts by the Irregulars under Rory O'Connor'.

[109] There is little documentation of the decision taken by the Provisional Government, headed by Collins, to attack the Four Courts; Historian Michael Hopkinson writes, 'the scarcity of evidence is explained by the acute sensitivity of the subject, both at the time and since'.

[112] These two developments led to the Provisional Government's 27 June 1922 order serving notice on the Four Courts garrison to surrender the building, their arms and release O'Connell, that night or face military action "at once".

Apparently, to get a better view of the laneway up which he had seen the enemy running, Collins left the protection of the armoured car and moved even farther back around a bend in the road out of sight of his comrades.

The man generally believed to have fired the fatal shot at Béal na Bláth, Denis "Sonny" O'Neill,[132] was a former officer from the Royal Irish Constabulary who served as a sniper in the British Army during the First World War.

A very fit, active man throughout life, in the most stressful times he continued to enjoy wrestling as a form of relaxation and valued friendships which afforded opportunities to share athletic pursuits.

This characteristic was exemplified by a letter he wrote on 4 August 1922 to his canvassing agent; offering to pay half the bill for a hired election car because some of the journeys had been for personal trips.

While his official and personal correspondence records his solicitous care for the wants of insurgents in need, during the war he showed no hesitation in ordering the death of opponents who threatened nationalist lives.

[140] The Central Bank of Ireland released gold and silver commemorative coins on 15 August 2012 which feature a portrait of Michael Collins designed by Thomas Ryan based on a photograph taken not long before his death.

[citation needed] Nine years after his death, the UK Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, which removed virtually all of London's remaining authority over the Free State and the other dominions.

[citation needed] An Irish documentary made by Colm Connolly for RTÉ Television in 1989 called The Shadow of Béal na Bláth covered Collins' death.

Celtic metal band Cruachan recorded a song also titled "Michael Collins" on their 2004 album Pagan which dealt with his role in the Civil War, the treaty and his eventual death.