Michael Clifford's efforts to link Michael Collins with Fine Gael (News, 22 August) was a rather feeble attempt to say the least. "His grand-nieces, Owen and Banotti, both served the party [Fine Gael] with distinction, Owen as minister for justice in the 1990s," Clifford tells us.
The link goes much deeper than Clifford reveals: Collins's sister, Margaret Colllins-O'Driscoll, was a Cumann na nGaedheal/ Fine Gael TD for a Dublin constituency in the 1930s and 1940s, while his nephew, Seán Collins, was Fine Gael TD for West Cork between 1948 and 1969. Incidentally, Seán Collins's maternal uncle was Seán Hurley, the only Corkman to die in action during the 1916 Rising. There is a further link, as Skibbereen native Gearóid O'Sullivan, the man who raised the national flag over the GPO on Easter Monday, 1916, was married to a sister of Kitty Kiernan who was engaged to Collins at the time of his death. In fact, arrangements were being made for a double wedding when Collins met his untimely end. O'Sullivan was also a Cumann na nGaedheal/Fine Gael TD for a Dublin constituency in the 1920s and 1930s.
D O Cinnseamhain,
Inse an Duine,
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