The Illustrated Life of Michael Collins

The memory of Michael Collins still resonates throughout Irish history nearly 75 years after his death. He was a powerful, vigorous man whose charm, intelligence, and physical attractiveness - as well as his oratorical powers - propelled him to the forefront of the Irish fight for independence from Britain and the subsequent treaty negotiations. As guerilla leader, Collins destroyed the British intelligence system in Ireland, acquiring a heroic reputation among his countrymen. He effectively drafted the constitution of the Irish Free State and founded the Irish army, becoming its first commander-in-chief.
The Illustrated Life of Michael Collins is a unique visual biography, lavishly illustrated with photographs and documents from Collins's country upbringing in West Cork, where he was instilled with a patriotic fervor by a local blacksmith, to his death at age 31 in an ambush during the Irish Civil War of 1922. The book also portrays the other, more romantic side of the man, with photos of his fiancee, Kitty Kiernan, and Lady Hazel Lavery, with whom Collins was reputedly having an affair.