1 Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution Bill, 1998.

2 Forster, M., Michael Collins: the lost leader (London, 1971); Jannon, P., Michael Collins: la naissance de l’IRA (Paris, 1978); Broin, L.Ó, Michael Collins (Dublin, 1980); Braoin, P.Ó, Micheál Ó Coileáin (Fermoy, 1985); Yeates, P., Michael Collins: an illustrated life (Dublin, 1989); Ryan, M., The day Michael Collins was shot (Swords, 1989); Dwyer, T.R., Michael Collins (Cork & Dublin, 1990); Coogan, T.P., Michael Collins (London, 1990); Feehan, J.M., The shooting of Michael Collins (Cork, 1991); McKay, J., Michael Collins: a life (Edinburgh, 1996); Connolly, C., Michael Collins (London, 1996); Ryan, M., Michael Collins and the women in his life (Cork & Dublin, 1996); O’Mahony, E., Michael Collins: his death in the twilight (Wicklow, 1996); Nelson, J., Michael Collins: the fnal days (Dublin, 1997); Doherty, G. and Keogh, D. (eds), Michael Collins and the founding of the Irish state (Cork, Dublin, 1998); Osbourne, C., Michael Collins, himself (Cork, 2003); Hart, P., Mick: the real Michael Collins (London, 2005); Foy, M.T., Michael Collins’s intel ligence war (Stroud, 2006).

3 For a recent re-evaluation of historiographical treatments of both Collins and de Valera, see Diarmaid Ferriter, ’s Judging Dev (Dublin, 2007).

4 Bernard Lewis, , History – remembered, recovered, invented (Princeton, 1975), p. 55.

5 I.H.S., xxvi, no. 104 (1989), pp 329–51.

6 Ibid., p. 335.

7 See Butterfeld, ’s The Englishman and his history (Cambridge, 1944).

8 Davison, G., ‘Paradigms of public history’ in Richard, J. and Spearritt, P. (eds), Packaging the past? (Melbourne, 1991), pp 4–15.

9 Bradshaw to Regan, 9 June 2006.

10 Cf. Regan, J.M., ‘Southern Irish nationalism as a historiographical problem’ in Hist. Jn., 50 (2007), pp 197–223.

11 Davison, , ‘Paradigms’, p. 4..

12 An exception is Roy Foster, ’s The Irish story (London, 2001). Foster does not favour the term ‘public history’.

13 Irish Press, 22 Mar. 1933.

14 Macardle, D., The Irish republic (London, 1937).

15 Dorothy Macardle, , Bureau of Military History statement 457 (N.A.I.), p. 3; Macardle, , Irish republic, p. 23.

16 Bowman, J., De Valera and the Ulster question (Oxford, 1983), pp 313–14.

17 See O’Halloran, C., Partition and the limits of Irish nationalism (Dublin, 1987), p. 158.

18 Bowman, , De Valera, p. 312.

19 Ibid.; O’Halloran, Partition, pp 165–7; see also Regan, , ‘Southern Irish nationalism’, pp 197–223.

20 Dáil Éireann private sessions, 1921–2 (23 Aug. 1921), pp 59–60.

21 See T., WilliamCosgrave, Dáil Éireann deb., xiii (7 Dec. 1925), cols 1306–7.

22 See D.Kennedy, , The widening gulf (Belfast, 1988).

23 Murphy, J.A., ‘Identity change in the Republic of Ireland’ in Études–Irlandaises, 5 (1976), p. 151.

24 See Lee, J.J., Ireland, 1912–1985 (Cambridge, 1989), pp 586–96.

25 See Wall, M., ‘Partition and the Ulster question (1916–26)’ in Williams, T.D. (ed.), The Irish struggle (Dublin, 1966), pp 79–93, and P. Lynch, ‘The social revolution that never was’ in ibid., pp 41–54; FitzGerald, G., ‘The signifcance of 1916’ in Studies, 55 (1966), pp 29–37; O’Brien, C.Cruise, ‘The embers of Easter, 1916–66’ in the Irish Times, 7 Apr. 1966.

26 Fanning, R., The Irish Department of Finance, 1922–1958 (Dublin, 1978).

27 Curran, J., The birth of the Irish Free State, 1921–23 (Alabama, 1980).

28 Daly, M., Industrial development and Irish national identity (Syracuse, 1992); eadem, The buffer state (Dublin, 1997); eadem, , The frst department (Dublin, 2002).

29 Garvin, T., 1922: the birth of Irish democracy (Dublin, 1996).

30 O’Halpin, E., Defending Ireland (Oxford, 1999).

31 Regan, J.M., The Irish counter-revolution, 1921–36 (Dublin, 1989).

32 See Gkotzaridis, E., The trials of Irish history (London, 2006), ch. 5.

33 Foster, R.F., Modern Ireland (London, 1988); Lee, , Ireland; David Fitzpatrick, , The two Irelands (Oxford, 1998); Alvin Jackson, , Ireland, 1798–1998 (Oxford, 1998); Diarmaid Ferriter, , The transformation of Ireland (London, 2005).

34 P. Berry to N. S. Ó Nuallain, 17 Aug. 1966 (N.A.I., DT/98/6/28).

35 O’Brien, G., Irish governments and the guardianship of historical records, 1922–72 (Dublin, 2004), pp 108, 154–72.

36 ‘Inter-departmental committee on national archives fnal report’, Dec. 1974 (N.A.I., Department of the Taoiseach, 2000/01/75), pp 34–7.

37 Interview with Breandan Mac Giolla Choile, former keeper of state papers (1971–85), 27 Sep. 2005.

38 Dáil Éireann private sessions, 1921–2 .

39 Ibid. (23 Aug. 1921), pp 57–9.

40 See Dwyer, T.R., Eamon de Valera (Dublin, 1980), pp 44–3; Bowman, , De Valera ; Laffan, M., The partition of Ireland (Dundalk, 1983).

41 Dolan, A., Commemorating the Irish Civil War (Cambridge, 2006), p. 113; Irish Times, 3 Apr. 1972.

42 Cosgrave, L., ‘L’état ‘ in Teatbha: Longford Hist. Soc. Jn., 1, no. 3 (1973), p. 171.

43 MacEoin was a member of the 1922 I.R.B. supreme council.

44 Williams, T.D., ‘The Irish Republican Brotherhood’ in idem (ed.), Secret societies in Ireland (Dublin, 1973), p. 148.

45 Farrell, B., ‘The new state and Irish political culture’ in Administration, 16 (1968), pp 238–46.

46 Ibid., p. 245.

47 Ibid., pp 242, 246.

48 Kohn, T., The structure of scientifc revolutions (Chicago, 1962; 3rd ed., London, 1996).

49 For early examples of partisan Treatyite histories, see O’Sullivan, J.M., Phases of revolution (Dublin, 1924), and generally O’Hegarty, P.S., The victory of Sinn Féin (Dublin, 1924).

50 Farrell, , ‘New state’, p. 238.

51 Farrell, B., The founding of Dáil Éireann (Dublin, 1971), p. 84.

52 ‘Inter-departmental committee on national archives fnal report’, p. 35.

53 Mac Giolla Choile interview.

54 Edwards, O.D. and Harkness, D.W., ‘Cabinet papers, North and South’ in Irish Times, 21 Apr. 1976.

55 Ibid., 22 Apr. 1976.

56 What follows is developed from Regan, ‘Southern Irish nationalism’; see also Bew, P., Ideology and the Irish question (Oxford, 1994), pp ix–xix.

57 O’Hegarty, P.S., A history of Ireland under the Union (London, 1952), p. vii.

58 See MacManus, S., The story of the Irish race (New York, 1922); Macardle, , Irish republic; Curtis, E., A history of Ireland from the earliest times to 1922 (London, 1937); O’Hegarty, , Ireland under the Union; Gallagher, F., The invisible island (London, 1957); Kee, R., The green fag (London, 1972).

59 Murphy, , ‘Identity’, p. 152.

60 Fanning, R., Independent Ireland (Dublin, 1983), p. viii.

61 Ibid., pp 6, 14, 43, 212.

62 Keogh, D., Twentieth-century Ireland: nation and state (Dublin, 1994).

63 Murphy, J.A., Ireland in the twentieth century (Dublin, 1975); Fanning, , Independent Ire. ; Harkness, D.W., Northern Ireland since 1920 (Dublin, 1983); Keogh, , Twentieth-century Ire.

64 Keogh, , Twentieth-century Ire., pp 10–11.

65 Ibid.

66 Ibid., p. 11.

67 Regan, , Counter-revolution, pp 114–18.

68 Bew, P., Ireland the politics of enmity (Oxford, 2007), p. 440.

69 Keogh, , Twentieth-century Ire., p. 15.

70 Fanning, , Independent Ire., p. 43.

71 Lyons, F.S.L., Ireland since the famine (London, 1971), p. 438.

72 Ó Broin, L., Revolutionary underground (Dublin, 1976), pp 200–5, passim.

73 Fanning, , Independent Ire., pp 43–60.

74 Ibid., pp 45–7.

75 J.O’Beirne-Ranelagh, , ‘The I.R.B.: from the Treaty to 1924’ in I.H.S., xx, no. 77 (1976), p. 27.

76 Regan, J., ‘Michael Collins, general commanding-in-chief, as a historiographical problem’ in History, 92/307 (July 2007), pp 318–46.

77 Seán Ó Murthuile memoir (U.C.D.A.D., Mulcahy papers, P7a/209); Provisional gov ernment minutes, 18 Aug. 1922 (N.A.I., Provisional government minutes, G 1/3).

78 See Regan, , ‘Collins’, pp 330–46.

79 See O’Brien, Conor Cruise, ‘Ireland will not have peace’ in Harper’s Bazzar (Dec. 1976), pp 36–7.

80 Keogh, , Twentieth-century Ire., p. 19.

81 O’Beirne-Ranelagh, J., bibliographical note in Boyce, D.G. (ed.), The revolution in Ireland, 1879–1923 (Basingstoke, 1988), p. 241.

82 Ó Murthuile memoir.

83 Ó Broin, , Revolutionary, p. 203.

84 Ó Murthuile memoir.

85 Regan, , Counter-revolution, p. 69.

86 Macardle, , Irish republic, pp 740–1, 746–7; Gallagher, F., The Anglo-Irish Treaty (London, 1965), pp 179–80 (see also pp 64–5); the earl of Longford, and O’Neill, T.P., Eamon de Valera (London, 1970), p. 186; Akenson, D.H. and Fallin, J.F., ‘The Irish Civil War and the drafting of the Irish Free State Constitution: part iv, capitulation to the British’ in Éire–Ireland, 5, no. 4 (winter 1970), pp 53–70; Lyons, F.S.L., ‘The great debate’ in Farrell, B. (ed.), The Irish parliamentary tradition (Dublin, 1973), pp 251–3; O’Malley, E., The singing fame (Dublin, 1978), p. 90; cf. O’Halpin, E., ‘Politics and the state, 1922–32’ in Hill, J.R. (ed.), A new history of Ireland, vii: Ireland, 1921–84 (Oxford, 2003), pp 86–92.

87 Garvin, , 1922, p. 48.

88 Collins, M., The path to Irish freedom (Dublin, 1995 ed.), p. 31.

89 Regan, , ‘Southern Irish nationalism’, pp 211–12.

90 English, R., Irish freedom (London, 2006), p. 310, citing Kissane, , Politics, p. 237.

91 O’Halpin, , Defending Ire., p. 350.

92 Charles Townshend, review of Curran’s The birth of the Irish Free State in E.H.R., 98/386 (Jan. 1983), pp 228–9; idem, ‘The meaning of Irish freedom: constitutionalism in the Free State’ in R. Hist. Soc. Trans., sixth series, viii (Cambridge, 1998), p. 57; idem, Ireland: the 20th century (London, 1999), p. 115.

93 Michael Laffan, , The resurrection of Ireland (Cambridge, 1999), p. 465; cf. Regan, , Counter-revolution, pp 53–60.

94 Irish Times, 7 Sept. 1991.

95 Lyons, F.S.L., ‘The meaning of independence’ in Farrell, (ed.), Irish parliamentary tradition, pp 223–33.

96 Lyons, , ‘Meaning of independence’, p. 224.

97 The paper was delivered on 27 August 1975 at the International Congress of Historical Sciences (I.C.S.H.) in San Francisco: it ‘marked the frst occasion, since Ireland became affliated to the I.C.S.H. in 1938, when a paper on Irish history has been presented’. The paper has been cited or referenced on few occasions. Garvin and Lee do so without refer encing its historiographical critique. Jeffrey Prager quotes an extract relating to the ‘new’ history’s affrmation of the democratic tradition in Irish politics. Fanning, R., ‘Leadership and transition from the politics of revolution to the politics of party: the example of Ireland, 1914–1939’ in Reports: 14th International Congress of the Historical Sciences (3 vols, New York, 1977), iii, 1741–68; ‘Thirty-seventh annual report of the Irish Committee of Historical Sciences, November 1974–December 1975’ in I.H.S ., xx, no. 77 (Mar. 1976), p. 63; Garvin, T., The evolution of Irish nationalist politics (Dublin, 1980), p. 199 n. 44; Lee, , Ireland, p. 87 n. 127; Prager, J., Building democracy in Ireland (Cambridge, 1986), p. 15; Gallagher, M., ‘The pact general election of 1922’ in I.H.S., xxi, no. 84 (Sept. 1979), pp 405; Murphy, John A., ‘The Anglo-Irish Treaty and after: the Canadian model and context’ in O’Driscoll, R. and Reynolds, L. (eds), The untold story (Toronto, 1988), p. 891.

98 Fanning, , ‘Leadership’, p. 1743.

99 Ibid.

100 Farrell, , Founding of Dáil Éireann, p. 7, quoted in Fanning, , ‘Leadership’, p. 1743.

101 Ibid., p. 1743.

102 Ibid., quote taken from Lyons, ‘Meaning of independence’, p. 224.

103 Ibid., p. 1743.

104 Curran, , Birth of the Irish Free State; Prager, , Building democracy, Lee, , Ireland; Keogh, , Twentieth-century Ire.; Garvin, , 1922; Richard English, , Ernie O’Malley: IRA intellectual (Oxford, 1996); Laffan, , Resurrection of Ire.; Townshend, C., Ireland: the 20th century (London, 1999); O’Halpin, , Defending Ire.; Girvin, B., From Union to Union (Dublin, 2002).

105 Fanning, , Independent Ire., p. 14.

106 Cf. Regan, , Counter-revolution, pp 68–9; idem, ‘Southern Irish nationalism’, pp 213–15.

107 Fanning, , ‘Leadership’, p. 1760.

108 Idem, Independent Ire ., p. 14.

109 Idem, ‘Leadership’, p. 1761.

110 Dáil and Provisional government minutes, 12 July (morning) 1922 (N.A.I., Dáil and Provisional government minutes, G1/3).

111 Mulcahy’s status within the I.R.B. is contested where David Fitzpatrick writes, ‘Regan … repeat[s] the common but erroneous assertion that Mulcahy was “not a senior” member of the I.R.B. in its decline’: see Fitzpatrick, D., ‘Review article’ in History Ireland, 8/2 (2000), p. 49. Dáil and Provisional government minutes, 12 July (evening) 1922 (N.A.I., Dáil and Provisional government minutes, G1/3).

112 For a detailed consideration, see Regan, , ‘Collins’, pp 318–46.

113 Ibid., pp 345–6, passim .

114 Fanning, , Independent Ire., p. 43.

115 Mulcahy to Cosgrave, 28 Mar. 1923 (U.C.D.A.D., Mulcahy papers, P7/C/42).

116 Kennedy to Cosgrave, 3 Apr. 1923, quoted in Fanning, , Independent Ire., p. 46.

117 Fanning sourced Collins’s appointment as commander-in-chief not in the government minutes but in an extract found in the Cabinet fle ‘Army appointments 1922’. In this fle, the appointments are incorrectly prefaced with ‘P.G. Decision 12th July, 1922 (P.G. 57)’: see Fanning, , Independent Ire., p. 18 n. 37.

118 Idem, Independent Ire., p. 46.

119 Ibid., p. 18 n. 37 (see also p. 33).

120 Kennedy to Cosgrave, 3 Apr. 1923, quoted in Fanning, , Independent Ire., p. 45.

121 Curran, , Birth of the Irish Free State, pp 239–40; Lee, , Ireland, pp 61, 68; for a revision, see Lee, in Sunday Tribune (Dublin), 17 Sept. 2000; Michael Hopkinson, , Green against green (Dublin, 1988), pp, 113, 117124; Valiulis, M., Portrait of a revolutionary (Dublin, 1992), pp 159, 163; Hart, , Mick, pp 400–4 (elsewhere, I argue, Hart misinterprets commu nications between Collins and the government identifying military/I.R.B. dominance over the ministers (Regan, , ‘Collins’, pp 330–3); Hart makes no reference to the contradictory interpretation offered in Regan’s Irish counter-revolution (or, indeed, to the book); Fearghal McGarry, , Eoin O’Duffy (Oxford, 2005), pp 106–7.

122 O’Halpin, , Defending Ire., p. 47.

123 Claims Collins rededicated himself to the I.R.B. are corroborated by senior Treatyite offcer Joe Sweeney’s testimony: ‘After the civil war [began]’, Sweeny recalled, ‘Collins called a number of us up to Dublin for a meeting the purpose of which was the reorganisa tion of the IRB in the army’. Joseph Sweeny (O’Malley notebooks, UCDA, P17b/97), quoted in Regan, , Counter-revolution, p. 189. Curran, , ‘The decline and fall of the I.R.B.’ in Éire–Ireland, 10/1 (1975), pp 14–23.

124 Gavin, consulted the memoir when researching his study The evolution of Irish national ist politics (Dublin, 1981), citing it once (p. 230 n. 38), but overlooks it in his Nationalist revolutionaries in Ireland, 1858–1928 (Oxford, 1986), and again in his book 1922 (op. cit.)

125 Fitzpatrick, D., Harry Boland’s Irish revolution (Cork, 2003), pp 313–16.

126 Ibid., p. 316.

127 Ibid., p. 313 n. 44.

128 McMahon, D., ‘Michael Collins – his biographers Piaras Béaslaí and Rex Taylor’ in Doherty, & Keogh, (eds), Collins, p. 133.

129 Collins’s note quoted by Taylor but omitted by Fitzpatrick reads: ‘At Gov. meeting this evening Council of War appointed M.C[ollins]. C in C; R. J. M[ulcahy]. M[inster of]. D[efence] & C[hief] of S[taff]; G.[sic ] O’D[uffy] C[hief] of S[taff (sic)] & G[eneral]. C[(sic) Offcer?]. C[ommanding]. South W[est]. Command’ (my expansions). While the appointments were made at a government meeting, there is nothing here to indicate the appointments were made by the government. Taylor, R., Michael Collins (Dublin, 1958), p. 237; Fanning, , Independent Ire., p. 145.

130 Fitzpatrick, , Two Irelands, p. 130.

131 Fanning, , Independent Ire., p. 33.

132 Béaslaí, P., Micheal Collins and the making of a new Ireland (2 vols, London, 1926), ii, 429; Costello, M.J. in Irish Press, 8 Oct. 1982. On the enforcement of licensing laws, including Collins’s chastisement of Cosgrave for non-attention to detail, see Collins to Cosgrave, 31 July, and esp. 3 Aug. 1922 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/B/29); chairman [Collins] to acting chairman on ‘Prisoners on hunger strike in Derry jail’, 31 July 1922 (U.C.D.A., Blythe papers, P24/65); Collins [from ‘chairman’s offce’] to Churchill, 27 July 1922, ‘on administration of the diseases of animals acts’ (U.C.D.A., Blythe papers, P24/65).

133 Cf. Ryan, M., The day Michael Collins was shot (Dublin, 1991), pp 24–5; Hopkinson, , Green against green, p. 136

134 Kuhn, , Structure, p. 24.

135 Fanning sourced Collins’s appointment not in the copies of government minutes but in an extract found in the Cabinet fle ‘Army appointments 1922’; in this, ‘Collins told the provisional government …’ is prefaced incorrectly with ‘P.G. Decision 12th July, 1922 (P.G. 57)’. This contradicts Kennedy’s assertion of army autonomy and, indeed, the govern ment minutes: see Fanning, , Independent Ire., p. 18 n. 37.

136 Collins to Griffth, 14 July 1922 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/B/30). A copy is located in ‘SPO S’1318’, cited above. Inexplicably, Hart postdates this letter to 14 August 1922, which undermines its immediate relevance to the July army appointments. Griffth’s death on 12 August, properly, should have alerted Hart to the incorrect date he attributes to it. Hart, , Mick, p. 469.

137 Sheila Lawlor, , Britain and Ireland, 1914–23 (Dublin, 1983), p. 197.

138 Eadem, , ‘Civil-military relations in Ireland 1921–23’ (M.A. thesis, University College, Dublin, 1976), p. 302.

139 Ibid., p. 105.

140 Cf. O’Beirne-Ranelagh, , ‘I.R.B.’, p. 27 n. 11.

141 For writers citing the memoir, see Ó Broin, , Revolutionary: Michael Collins (Dublin, 1980); Gaughan, J., Austin Stack (Dublin, 1977); Dwyer, T., Michael Collins and the Treaty (Dublin, 1981); Garvin, , Evolution of Irish nationalist politics; Valiulis, , Almost a mutiny (Dublin, 1985); Hopkinson, , Green against green; Coogan, , Collins; Murphy, B.P., Patrick Pearse and the lost republican ideal (Dublin, 1991); Mitchell, A., Revolutionary government in Ireland (Dublin, 1995); Regan, , Counter-revolution; Costello, F.J., The Irish revolution and its aftermath (Dublin, 2003); Fitzpatrick, , Harry; Hart, , Mick; McGarry, , Eoin O’Duffy; McGee, O., The IRB (Dublin, 2005).

142 Reviewing Fearghal McGarry’s biography, Eoin O’Duffy, Regan commented: ‘the argument that a treatyite dictatorship of some order was in place before Collins’s death, on 22 August 1922, should not be dismissed out of hand. Not, that is, without frst addressing the interpretation, and the supporting evidence’. Responding, McGarry made no refer ence to this. Review no. 583, at: http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/reganJresp.html (accessed 19 May 2009).

143 Coogan, , Collins, p. 333.

144 Hopkinson, M., ‘Biography of the revolutionary period: Michael Collins and Kevin Barry’ in I.H.S., xxviii, no. 111 (1993), p. 312.

145 Williams, , ‘Irish Republican Brotherhood’, p. 148; Garvin, , 1922, p. 129; Lee, , Ireland, p. 68; see Fanning, , Independent Ire., p. 43; Keogh, , Twentieth-century Ire., pp 10–11.

146 Jordan, N., Michael Collins (London, 1996), p. 104.

147 Ibid., p. 145.

148 Independent (London), 7 Nov. 1996

149 Morning Ireland, RTÉ Radio 1, 15 Jan. 1996.

150 Lyons, F.S.L., ‘The dilemma of the Irish contemporary historian’ in Hermathena, 115 (1973), pp 53–4; cf. Brady, C., ‘“Constructive and instrumental”: the dilemma of Ireland’s first “new historians”‘ in Brady, C. (ed.), Interpreting Irish history (Dublin, 1994), p. 23.

151 The phrase is, again, O’Hegarty’, s (Victory, p. 141); Kissane, , Politics, p. 207.

152 Ferriter, , Judging Dev.

153 See McAleese, President Mary, ‘1916 – a view from 2006’, Irish Times, 28 Jan. 2006.

154 Doherty, G., ‘The commemoration of the ninetieth anniversary of the Easter Rising’ in idem and Keogh, D. (eds), 1916: the long revolution (Dublin, 2007), p. 407. The volume contains the proceedings relating to a conference held at University College, Cork, 27–28 Jan. 2006.

155 Making history: the Irish historian, dir. Seán Ó Mordha, , RTÉ, 27 Nov. 2007.

156 For a debate around some of these issues, see the author’s review of Richard English’s Irish freedom (London, 2006), and English’s response: Reviews in history, http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/paper/regan2.html (accessed 17 July 2009).

157 I wish to acknow ledge the support of the British Academy and Carnegie Trust while researching this article, and also Deirdre McMahon and Sean Kane for their comments on early drafts.