The life and legend of one of the world’s best-known revolutionaries, who was immortalised in a best-selling movie epic, will be the focus of a talk in Aberdeen next week by a distinguished Irish historian.
Professor Peter Hart will chart the life and times of the Irish nationalist leader Michael Collins (1890 – 1922), who played a major part in Ireland’s history after 1916. Michael Collins gained international fame as the mystery man who could not be caught, the man who won the war, and paradoxically, the man who made peace with the British Empire and made it stick.
Few people have had as profound an impact on their country’s history in so short a time as Michael Collins on 20th century Ireland.
Dead by the age of 31, he had already fought in the Easter Rising, been elected to four different parliaments, organised the IRA and smuggled in its arms, launched its guerrilla war, beaten British intelligence at its own game, financed the revolution, negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty, run the first independent government of Ireland, and led the Irish army to victory as its first Commander-in-Chief.
Professor Hart, who is the Canada Research Chair of Irish Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the award-winning author of The IRA and Its Enemies and two other books on modern history, will be speaking at the University of Aberdeen’s Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies (RIISS), 19 College Bounds, on Tuesday, November 1, 2005, at 5.15pm.
The evening, entitled The Real Michael Collins, will see Professor Hart drawing on his new book, Mick, published by Pan this month.
Professor Cairns Craig, Director of the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, is delighted to welcome a scholar of Professor Hart’s standing to the University.
He said: “We are honoured to host this important visit by such a distinguished historian as Peter Hart.
“The evening promises to be a fascinating historical exploration of the life of Michael Collins.”
Members of the public are welcome to attend and further information about the event is available by contacting Dr Enda Delaney on: (01224) 273685.