Madam, - I wish to respond to Eoin Neeson's enlightening article in your edition of May 24th on the ending of the Civil War 80 years ago. He correctly states that the belief that Michael Collins was "assassinated" on August 22nd, 1922 is "untrue". However, it is equally untrue to suggest that Collins was killed by "a freak shot, probably a ricochet, during an exchange of fire with anti-treaty troops".
While researching for my book The Day Michael Collins Was Shot I spoke to many of the men (pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty forces) who had participated in the Béal na mBláth ambush. The anti-Treaty men (Republicans) knew that during the engagement one of their men, with a Lee Enfield rifle, had shot a soldier in a direct hit. The report they received that night that Michael Collins had been killed, together with the finding of an officer's cap containing brain matter, confirmed for them that Michael Collins was the soldier who had been fatally wounded.
There is no doubt that Collins, like other senior figures at the time, hoped hostilities would end, shortly. But it was only a hope. Though he wrote of his desire "to keep open some avenues of communication", there is no evidence that Collins had decided to meet either anti- Treatyites or intermediaries in Cork on the night of August 22nd.
On the Saturday (August 19th), prior to leaving Dublin, Collins had received communication via "a wireless despatch" from General Dalton, Director of Military Operations, that "a Committee of prominent citizens of Cork" had a proposition for "a truce" between both sides. But the suggestion that a meeting was to take place is mere speculation. As Emmet Dalton told me, Collins had no arrangements to meet these "citizens" or to meet "anti-Treatyites" during his visit to the city. - Yours, etc.,
MEDA RYAN,
Cusack Road,
Ennis,
Co Clare.