"I think I would prefer to rely on the records rather than your continuous blustering."
I do wish you's stop this Iains
That statement was a political one made for public consumption at the time when a decision that was to bring about a Civil War was pushed through
There are at least a dozen biographies of Collins and hundreds more on the issues of independence
All of them now fully accept that the Treaty was a forced compromise and all of them contain the information that Lloyd George forced through the Treaty at gunpoint, specifically stating that "if the Treaty was not accepted within three days he could not guarantee preventing an invasion by armed Unionist forces on Dublin"
Please don't treat me as if my hair was still wet from crossing over on the cattle boat.
I do know a little of this and don't have to rely on hastily grabbed cut-'n-pastes
My family was involved in both the War of Independence and the Civil War (in one case, in an official capacity, connected with Collins)
I now live in a part of Ireland that was steeped in these events - part of our collecting work involved recording reminiscences from people who were there at the time and they gave us first-hand accounts of what was happening.
Since the 150th anniversary of the Famine Ireland has been inundated with a veritable Tsunami of books on the period from 1850 to Independence
I must have attended dozens of lectures at out various history societies, as visitors, both before we moved here and through the twenty years we have now lived her
THere has just been published a massive history of The Irish Revolutionary War - a huge doorstep of a book, which covers this period in minute detail.
Please stop trying to force-feed me the official British view of Ireland, those days are over.
And please, please stop sliding back into your "talking down to" persona
In somody as devoid of knowledge and experience as you appear to be, it makes you look somewhat foolish - if not ridiculous
Jim Carroll