IF we could leave aside, just for a moment, the heated exchanges in the press surrounding Neil Jordan's film, Michael Collins, there is another - although much lighter - side to the Michael Collins story that many people might never have heard of.
Indeed, very few people - including many eminent historians who have published works on Michael Collins - have ever come across the aspect of the Big Fella's life detailed below that says so much about the man himself.
Up till 1920, all dog events in Ireland were held under licence from the English Kennel Club. On October 16th, 1920, the recently founded Dublin Blue Terrier Club held a breed show in the Dublin suburb of Summerhill. This club eventually became the Irish Kennel Club.
Oliver St John Gogarty and Michael Collins were members of the Dublin Blue Terrier Club - so too was the Under Secretary for Ireland, Sir James McMahon, and a Capt Wyndham Quinn from the Vice Regal Lodge in the Phoenix Park.
Remarkable membership
Considering that Collins, who had a £10,000 price on his head, and whose men were effectively at war with the British security forces at the time, sat on the "extreme" nationalist side of the fence, and that McMahon and Wyndham Quinn would probably have gladly had Collins removed from the face of the earth, it seems remarkable that these men belonged to the same club.
Tony O'Neill, secretary of the Irish Kennel Club, says the club's first members came from both sides of the political divide. However unlikely it may sound, Mr O'Neill is also adamant that Collins, McMahon and Wyndham Quinn knew who each other were, and "out of respect as dogs' men" never let politics "interfere with their participation in the club".
The club's first show was held on a Saturday evening in October, 1920, while an after dark curfew operated in Dublin. The curfew was just one of a host of measures taken by Dublin Castle to circumscribe the activities of Michael Collins and his associates.
At that first dog show, Michael Collins entered a dog named Convict 224 in a class for the Wyndham Quinn trophy. The trophy was presented to the winner by an army captain of the same name attached to the Vice Regal Lodge. Convict 224, however, did not win.
In fact, the names of the dogs on display that night bore testimony to the political persuasions of their owners. Names like Munster Fusilier, Markavich, Trotsky, and Dawn of Freedom are just a few examples.
Increased in popularity
Tony O'Neill says the popularity of the Kerry Blue - or "the Blue Terrier as it was known back then - dramatically increased in the Dublin area as a result of it being associated with Michael Collins.
"The Kerry Blue became," he says, the macho symbol for Dublin's young blades in the early 1920s. In fact, Michael Collins was the 18th person to register a dog with the then Dublin Blue Terrier Club. He also gave the club a cup - the Miceal O Coileain cup - which is still competed for to this day by Irish dog fanciers."
The historian, T. Ryle Dwyer, who has written a number of books about Michael Collins, says. It would not surprise me in the least to find out that Michael Collins came into such close contact with high ranking members of the crown's forces in social circumstances. He breezed about Dublin with an abandon that might, at first glance, appear like recklessness, But the air of normality he exuded was his best disguise, T. Ryle Dwyer said.