An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 39 we run into an ambush along the way, we'll stand and fight them." Dalton said nothing. The ambush took place at Béal na mB- láth just before sunset, at 7.30pm. When the first shots were fired, Dalton ordered "Drive like hell!" but Collins countermand- ed the order as he had predicted and yelled "Stop, we'll fight them!" Collins and Dalton first fired from behind the armoured car, and then Col- lins shouted "There they are, running up the road." The Lewis machinegun in the armoured car jammed several times, and when it did the IRA/Republicans took advantage of the lull in firing to move their positions. Collins ran about 15 yards up the road, dropped into a prone firing position, and continued shooting at the IRA men on the hill. Dalton said then he heard the faint cry: "Emmet, I'm hit!" Dalton and Comdt Seán O'Connell ran over to where Collins was lying face-down on the road. Among the questions surrounding the ambush, many remain, including was Collins hit by a ricochet bullet? There is agreement that the wound to Collins's head was 'large and gaping' but there was disagreement whether there was an entry wound and an exit wound. This has led to several different theories: that Collins was hit from behind by one of the IRA/ Republicans who were just coming onto the ambush; that a member of his own party killed him, either by a close-range bullet from a handgun or by a bullet from the armoured car; that the fatal wound was caused by a ricochet bullet; that it was a bullet fired by Sonny O'Neill (or another IRA/Republican). The best current evidence indicates the latter as immedi- ately after the ambush Sonny O'Neill said: "I dropped one man." The convoy headed back to the Impe- rial Hotel, where Dalton, O'Connell, Sgt Cooney and Lt Gough went into the hotel to inform Maj Gen Dr Leo Ahern and asked him to take charge of the body. Dr Ahern first examined Collins's body when it was brought to the hotel, and then at Shanakiel Hospital. His examina- tion found a large, gaping wound 'to the right of the poll. There was no other wound. There was definitely no wound in the forehead'. Collins's death was never officially regis- tered, there was no inquest, and there was no formal, independent autopsy. When the Fianna Fáil government was to take over in 1932, it was said that many papers relating to Collins's killing were taken from Porto- bello Barracks and burned by order of the Minister for Defence, Desmond FitzGerald. At Collins's funeral in Glasnevin on Mon- day, 28th August, Gen Richard Mulcahy, who would take Collins's place as commander in chief of the army, delivered the oration: "Our country is today bent under a sor- row such as it has not been bent for many a year. Our minds are cold, empty, wordless, and without sound. But it is only our weak- nesses that are bent under this great sorrow that we meet with today. All that is good in us, all that is strong in us, is strengthened by the memory of that great hero and that great legend who is now laid to rest. …Unless the grain of corn that falls to the ground dies, there is nothing but itself in it, but if it dies it gives forth great fruit. Michael Collins' passing will give us forth great fruit, and Michael Collins' dying will give us forth great fruit. … Our Army had been the people, is the people, and will be the people. Our green uniform does not make us less the people. It is a cloak of service, a curtailer of our weak- ness, and an amplifier of our strength. … When Michael Collins met dif ficul- ties, met people who obstructed him, and worked against him, he did not turn aside to blame them, but facing steadily ahead, he worked bravely forward to the goal he intended. …Men and women of Ireland, we are all mariners on the deep, bound for a port still seen only through storm and spray, sailing still on a sea full 'of dangers and hardships, and bitter toil'. But the Great Sleeper lies smiling in the stern of the boat, and we shall be filled with that spirit which will walk bravely upon the waters." about the author: Joseph E.A. Connell Jnr is a USA native and the author of a number of books on Dublin and its revolutionary his- tory. His recent books are Dublin Rising 1916 and Who's Who In The Dublin Rising 1916, and his latest is Michael Collins: Dublin 1916-22 published in April 2017 by http://wordwellbooks.com Michael Collins's coffin atop a gun carriage is brought past Trinity College in front of many onlookers. Photo: George G Pierce/South Dublin County Libraries

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