[Leica] OT: Michael Collins, was Gun Photos

[sonc.hegr at gmail.com (Sonny Carter)]

On Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 9:31 PM, Marc James Small 
<marcsmall@comcast.net>wrote:

>
>
> Again, I can find no reference anywhere that Collins had any special regard
> for County Wicklow.  I have asked for some documentary evidence to the
> contrary but, beyond pub tales, so far none has come forward.  I am very
> much open to being shown to be wrong, but, from the sources I have at hand,
> I cannot even find a single instance when Collins did more than pass 
> through
> the County.  Saying something is so doesn't make it so:  I have gone 
> through
> my sources and cannot find any support for the original assertion.  If
> anyone on the LUG has opposite and reliable information, I would appreciate
> their presenting it, probably best by private e-mail.


Also saying something isn't so doesn't make it not so.   Most history is
derived from asking people "what happened?"   In my admittedly short visit
to Wicklow County, I only had one conversation regarding Collins, and in
that conversation I was told he had recruited heavily in the Woodbridge and
Avoca areas.  I also was told that another pub we visited was the setting
for the recent movie.

We know part of that is noted by Tim Pat Coogan that they recruited in
Woodbridge.

 I also read in the advertisement for a vacation rental, a possible myth,
possible truth:

"Wicklow House, on several hundred acres of woodlands and pastures in
Annamoe, Co. Wicklow, has a cherished and memorable history. It was the
former home of Robert Barton who was the last signatory to the 1921 Treaty
and Erskine R. Childers, who was arrested at this house and executed in
November 1922 for possession of a revolver given to him by that great
Irishman Michael Collins as a keepsake."

As I stated in my first reply, the issue is possibly fiction, however, I
found the quote in a film review of "A Journey Through West Wicklow."

On his last night on earth Michael Collins was asked by his sister, "You
have been all over Ireland, Mick, which of them do you like the best?" The
Answer? "The people of County Wicklow". That is why, in 1965, a 110-ton
granite boulder was transported from West Wicklow to Sam's Cross, Collins's
birthplace. It stands, rugged sturdy and unyielding, like Collins himself as
a lasting memory to the "Big Fellow."

http://www.tuppenceworth.ie/Travel/westwicklow.html

That's it.  You asked for references, and here they are.  Not at all
academic, but interesting to me, and even more interesting I find Douglas'
family connection.  So I have heard the stories from two sources, both of
Wicklow.

And all this because Marc jumped on a fragment that I posted about violence
in New Orleans.


-- 
Regards,

Sonny
http://www.sonc.com
http://sonc.stumbleupon.com/
Natchitoches, Louisiana
USA