Collins (a 29-year-old post office clerk) and Co were up against not only Lloyd George - a tough enough politician on his own - but also several other of the toughest politicians in the British Empire including Austin Chamberlain, Lord Birkenhead and Winston Churchill. For Dev not to lead the Irish delegation was folly. Or given his disposition, sheer bloody-minded arrogance.

The British delegates had the dilemma of being in a coalition government that depended on continued support from the Tories, then led by a man who was probably clinically mad (Bonar Law). The Tory conference coincided with the treaty negotiations, and a powerful faction were in favour of bringing down the government and going for war with Ireland. What our guest calls "shenanigans" were put to the vote in the independent Irish parliament, over which Dev presided. Dev should not have allowed that if he was not prepared to abide by the result.

The treaty won majority support in the Dail (parliament) and Dev, instead of recognising he'd lost the argument, opted for a catastrophic civil war, in which Collins and many thousands of Ireland's finest died. Hindsight supports Collins and the treaty. Few would try to argue now that the civil war did anything but set back the cause of a united Ireland. It would have been achieved long since, much as Collins foresaw, but for Dev's fantastic petulance.