As part of the Dublin Festival of History 2022, the National Archives invited Diarmaid Ferriter to meet with Michael Collins biographers William Murphy and Anne Dolan in the Royal Irish Academy. As this was recorded with a live audience there is some background noise and the sound quality is not perfect, nevertheless, we hope you enjoy the discussion.
From 1918 to 1922 Michael Collins kept working diaries of his busy revolutionary life. They are a collection of hurried notes, necessary lists, names and appointments, things to do, and things not done. They are a record of his long working days, and they got him to where he needed to be on time. Though these diaries do not contain conventional lengthy entries in which Collins finally reveals his innermost thoughts, they still tell us much about this extraordinary man. Anne and Will have captured this new source in a book published by the Royal Irish Academy in collaboration with the National Archives, entitled : Days in the life reading the Michael Collins Diaries 1918 to 1922
