[Leica] OT: Michael Collins, was Gun Photos

[marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small)]

At 06:11 PM 12/2/2008, Sonny Carter wrote:
 >I stated the outset that it was perhaps fiction. I am no stranger to myth 
 >in
 >local history.  You do not recall, I work in an Archive?  I agree you said
 >Wicklow played no special role in  Collin's Career.  However, in multiple
 >places, I've read that he was often a guest at Glendalough, and other 
 >places
 >in the County.
 >
 >So why does it not follow that the legends might be true that he may have
 >visited Pubs, and even recruited from the area?

Sources, please: "in multiple places I've read" 
is a hard citation to run down.  The Wikipedia 
article on Glendalough makes no reference to 
Collins' ever having visited the place, nor does 
Coogan in his biography.  I suspect you might be 
confusing Collins with Dev:  de Valera never 
passed up a chance to visit any locale with a 
religious significance while Collins seems to 
have done his best to avoid such.  (Dev had to 
make a pretence of piety as he was so distrusted 
and disliked by the Irish Catholic church.)

Glendalough does play a role, of course, in 
Rutherfurd's pastiche "history" of Ireland but, 
again, no mention of Collins ever being in 
Wicklow or Glendalough appears there.

Marc


msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!