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Boards.ie history forum had a thread on what happened the hat he was wearing at the time of his death a while back. Still a bit of a mystery surrounding were it ended up.Originally posted by cogito View PostComment
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I thought it was left on the road at Béal na Bláth...Everything is self-evident.Comment
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Some of the attackers took it, then a priest buried it, then after that its gets a bit clouded.Originally posted by cogito View Post
One account is this
then we have this theoryAn officer's cap, presumably Collins', was taken from the site the following morning and brought to Jim Murray's house at Raheen. A local person, the now Secretary of Kilmurry Historical Society, remembers Brigade Commandant Tom Hales sitting on the settle-seat where the cap was thrown into the kitchen. Hales showed strong displeasure. The young chaps from the locality who brought the cap were ordered to take it out. They then threw it into a bunch of briars near a pool of water. It was retrieved with a hayfork the next day. Fr. Jeremiah Coakley, at the Newcestown parish station in October at Murrays, asked for the cap, so that he could give it to a sister of Michael Collins. The cap (which did not have a badge) was given to Fr. Coakley.
John M. Feehan’s The Shooting of Michael Collins: Murder or Accident?
The cap on display in the National Museum as Collins’s cap cannot be his cap because it is too small. The cap has a red stain on it which is supposed to be blood, but after time, a true blood stain would have turned black. The cap is torn as though a bullet tore it but it was never examined for powder marks and the stain was never tested to see if it was indeed a stain from Collins's blood. There is a story that Collins’s cap was given to Seán Hales as evidence that Collins did not get shot by a ricocheted bullet but that cap has vanished.
Meda Ryan’s The Day Michael Collins Was Shot
Then this letter in the Examiner throws more confusion on the whereabouts of his hat too!As O’Connell, Smith, and Dalton tried to hoist the body into the car, a bullet grazed Smith’s neck. Dalton took off his cap and used it to cradle Michael’s head on his lap. They stopped shortly at a church where Father Timothy Murphy was a priest. Murphy saw Collins and walked away. O’Connell was angered and tried to shoot the priest. If Dalton had not have tipped the rifle at the last moment, the priest might have died too. Murphy claims he said nothing because he saw how upset everyone was and he chose to go back and get the oils for the Last Rites in silence. Dalton held Collins for the rest of the journey and, years later, he commented: “I remember, hoping there would be no further problem, praying and chastising myself. I regretted I hadn’t countermanded Collins’s order and driven like hell out of Béal na mBláth. I felt so empty during that journey back to Cork. I felt as if I too had been hit by a bullet.”
They stopped at Sacred Heart Mission Church near Cork where a priest finally did administer the Last Rites. Collins’s body was taken to Shanakiel Hospital and Dalton had to tell Ireland that Michael was dead. When the doctor got to Collins, the bandages Dalton placed on his head were removed. Collins was laid out in uniform and candles were lit. The next morning, a hat and coat were found in the room. The hat was still wet with blood but had no hole from a bullet. The body was taken to Dublin by a boat called Classic. Oliver St. John Gogarty was assigned the task of embalming Collins’s body. A death mask was made and the process started.
According to Ryan’s account, Sonny O’Neill told a colleague that he used a dum-dum bullet and dumped his weapon to destroy the evidence. Ryan states several theories in how Michael was ambushed:
Collins was hit from behind by IRA members headed to Kerry
Collins was hit by a member of his own party by a close range bullet from the armoured car
Collins was hit by a ricocheted bullet
Collins was hit by a bullet fired by an IRA member
Of course, because Collins’s wound was never properly analyzed, it is difficult to know the truth. Dr. Leo Ahern said there was only one large entrance wound and no exit wound. No forehead wound was found. Dr. Michael Riordan also examined the body and agreed with Ahern. One large, deep entrance wound with part of the head blown off was the conclusion. Dr. Christy Kelly confirmed Riordan’s appraisal, Dr. Gerard Ahern spoke of Kelly telling him about the wound and Dr. Cagney told the same story. Gogarty, the embalmer, said he thoroughly checked for forehead wounds and found none. Leo Ahern believed a dum-dum bullet caused the wound but he and the other doctors did not say anything publicly because the Irregulars (members of the anti-Treaty faction) used dum-dum bullets and the doctors were scared of what might happen to them if they spoke their opinions. Dalton said he believed it could only have been a ricocheted bullet or a dum-dum bullet because there was no entrance wound that he saw. Dalton also thought that the cap on display in the National Museum in Dublin was the one he used to cradle Michael’s head. But he did not know how the hole in the cap got there. Collins’s head was large and the cap in the Museum is too small to be the one that fit his head. Another cap was buried by Tom Hales, Jim Kearney, and Timmy Sullivan on the morning of August 23. Kearney said the cap they buried “contained almost a basin full of human matter.” (At some point before this, Sonny O’Neill and Dinny Brien talked to Jim Kearney and Timmy Sullivan. O’Neill said, “I dropped one man anyway.”) The owner of the field, Jim Murray, dug the cap up because he was scared an animal might root it out of the ground. He washed it and left it to dry for several days in the hot sun. His wife stuffed it with paper to get it back into shape. Murray did not want to keep the cap so he gave it to a priest, Father Coakley. Coakley then gave it to Nell O’Sullivan to take to the Free State Army Headquarters. Seán Hales saw it and allegedly muttered, “Mick’s cap.” Seán gave it to the authorities in Dublin who also had Collins’s coat. The cap was sent to the National Museum by the early part of 1923. Father Coakley said the tear in the cap looked like the jagged mark of a bullet. Ryan makes this statement regarding the situation: “It is now certain that the cap in the National Museum is the cap which was worn by Michael Collins on the day he was shot.”
I was listening to Nora Owen on RTÉ radio deprecating the making of money out of the sale of her grand-uncle, Michael Collins’s hair lock, at an auction recently.
The other O’Mahony sister, Mary Banotti, was on the same channel the previous day in similar tones.
Of perhaps greater value than a lock of his hair was the hat Collins wore to the Treaty negotiations in London.
This he gave as a souvenir to his life-long friend, Commandant Pat Colgan of Maynooth.
After Colgan retired from the Irish Army with the rank of Major, he and his wife, Annie Shortt, bought the Muckross Hotel in Killarney, where they settled.
In June, 1957, at a celebration in the hotel, Major Colgan was introduced to Mrs Pierce, wife of Listowel Veterinary surgeon, R Pierce, and niece of Michael Collins, whereupon Colgan presented her with Collins’s hat.
The Kerryman reported him thus: "This was sought by the director of the National Museum in Dublin to be preserved for the nation, but its fitting place is in your home."
Where is the hat now, I wonder?
John Colgan PC
Dublin Road
Leixlip
Co KildareLast edited by Napper Tandy; 21-11-2012, 01:49 AM.Comment
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Everything is self-evident.Comment
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I know that.....but the two iconic images of Collins that people remember are him wearing his hat and cap so strange that the state hasn't clarified if they have the correct items or if they can secure them.Originally posted by cogito View Post
Incidentally the bronze cap badge which Collins was wearing when he was shot at Béal na mBláth in 1922 fetched €28,000 against a pre-sale estimate of €2,000 to €3,000 in 2010. So how much for his hat or cap?Comment
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On This Day 1920, Michael Collins gave the order for 14 suspected British Spies to be killed.
" My one intention was the destruction of the undesirables who continued to make miserable the lives of ordinary decent citizens. I have proof enough to assure myself of the atrocities which this gang of spies and informers have committed. If I had a second motive it was no more than a feeling such as I would have for a dangerous reptile. By their destruction the very air is made sweeter. For myself, my conscience is clear. There is no crime in detecting in wartime the spy and the informer. They have destroyed without trial. I have paid them back in their own coin "'Never look down on a person unless you're helping them up'.
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Originally posted by Rashers View Post
an accepted way to deal with ones enemies..........
and those methods should be accepted by all......Here Rex!!!...Here Rex!!!.....Wuff!!!....... Wuff!!!Comment
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Believe it or not the Brits supplied the Free Stater's with their uniforms.....the crumpled hat appears to be a purpose made job....maybe Collins chose the 'hat band' job because he was CinC, but I don't know..Originally posted by cogito View PostWe'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!
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An eerie pic of Michael....taken without him knowing and reported that the click of the camera made him reach for his gun.Last edited by DAMNTHEWEATHER; 21-11-2012, 09:23 PM.We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!
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His own words.We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!
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Duh !! That was my original question to you...Originally posted by DAMNTHEWEATHER View Post
Everything is self-evident.Comment
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That's what happens when you bury a hat.Originally posted by Napper Tandy: Some of the attackers took it, then a priest buried it, then after that its gets a bit clouded.Comment
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According to Meda Ryan in 'Who Shot Michael Collins' a farmer or farm worker found the cap after the ambush. He brought it to a priest who told him that as there was blood and brain matter on the cap it would have to be buried reverently. The man that found the cap said he buried it near the base of a tree.Originally posted by twangman View Post
Then there's Michael's uniform. After being brought to Shanakiel (sp?) hospital where British army medical staff took over the body, one of the staff asked for a fresh uniform so that he could be laid out properly, as the uniform he was wearing was muddy and bloody.
Its said, again by Meda Ryan, that a British MO took the bloodstained uniform and greatcoat, after which its believed they were brought to New York.'Never look down on a person unless you're helping them up'.
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Keep yer hat on !! Castle Handover.Originally posted by cogito View PostDuh !! That was my original question to you...We'll sail be the tide....aarghhhh !!
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