It is a little known fact that on two occasions in Michael Collins’s short life, he could have possibly changed the course of Irish history by emigrating to America.

Michael’s link with America was through his older brother Patrick, who had emigrated to Chicago in his early twenties and joined the Chicago Police Force, where he rapidly rose through the ranks. Patrick later married an Irish girl, Emma Jewell and had one child, a son. They spent the rest of their lives in America, never returning to Ireland.[/dropcap]

The first occasion Michael seriously considered joining his brother, was in the Spring of 1915, during the early days of the First World War. Michael was just a young man of twenty-four, working in London as a clerk, but with the possibility of conscription looming, he decided to join the American Guarantee Trust Company of New York, whose British offices were based in Lombard Street, in the City of London. Had he been called up, Michael could have emigrated to America and joined the parent company in New York and avoided being sent to the Western Front.

Had Michael emigrated to America in 1915 or indeed in 1917, the War of Independence may not have been as successful as it wasHowever, conscription did not come into force until two years later in 1917. By that time, Michael had already returned to Ireland (in January 1916), joined the Irish Volunteers, fought in the 1916 Rising, and had been back in the UK as a prisoner, first in Stafford Jail and then Frongoch. He was released from Frongoch in December 1916 and returned to Ireland once more, where he continued his campaign for Irish freedom throughout the War of Independence, which was partly achieved with the signing of the Treaty in London in December 1921.

Had Michael emigrated to America in 1915 or indeed in 1917, the War of Independence may not have been as successful as it was. Without the drive and energy that Michael brought to the campaign, it is quite possible that Ireland could still be under British Rule today.

The second occasion Michael considered joining his brother in America was around June 1922. This was one of the most turbulent years of Michael’s life, starting with a narrow majority of the Dail voting ‘Yes’ in favour of the Treaty in January of that year. As the year progressed and the threat of Civil War loomed over Ireland, the idea of a new life in America became very appealing to him.

Michael had fallen in love with a young woman from Granard, Co. Longford, Kitty Kiernan. Michael had first met Kitty and her family in 1917, through his friend Harry Boland, who was also very fond of Kitty and had hoped to marry her. But it was Harry’s involvement in De Valera’s American campaign, to raise support and finance for the Irish cause, taking him abroad for eighteen months, that brought Michael and Kitty closer together. On Harry’s return in December 1920, he realised that he had lost Kitty to Michael. This brought a bitter split between the two men, compounded later with the Treaty and Harry taking the anti Treaty side.

With the loss of his best friend Harry Boland and the ongoing threat of a Civil War, Michael, in discussion with his older sister Mary, told her that he was seriously thinking of marrying Kitty and moving to America, to start a new life and to be with his brother Patrick and family in Chicago.

Had Michael done this, there are two possibilities of the path he would have followed. Firstly, he would very likely have joined the Chicago Police Force along with his brother and possibly later their ‘G’ (Special Branch) Division. With his unquestionable intellect, ambition and leadership qualities, he doubtless would have risen through the ranks, and become an experienced, middle aged officer by the time of the gangster era, during the early 1930’s depression.

This raises the interesting possibility how Michael would have been perfectly qualified to deal with such organised street criminals as John Dillinger and his contemporaries. Michael would have recognised a similarity in methodology, albeit with different value systems to his own activities during the War of Independence. Being on the run, smuggling arms and ammunition, the heroic image and living each day as his last. Michael would have fought fire with fire, using his former guerrilla experience.

A second possibility and the most realistic, is that Michael would have turned his natural financial and business acumen to his advantage in America, the land of opportunity. He may have become a successful and rich business man. Back in Ireland in early 1922, he had already been approached by an American publishing company, to write his biography, for the princely sum of £2,000, followed shortly by another publishing company, this time in London, offering him £10,000 for his ‘Memories’. The New York World newspaper company topped this by an offer of $25,000 cash. Interestingly he was to turn down all three offers, being too busy setting up his new Free State.

To return to history, had Michael emigrated to America, either in 1917 or 1922, he would not have become Commander in Chief for the new Free State Army during the Civil War and provided a rallying point for the Free State forces. He would not have been killed six weeks later in an ambush organised by men who had admired and loved him only a year before. Who knows, had he avoided his sad fate through emigration, he might have played a role in the development of Ireland long after the civil war.