Davebhoy, describing Collins as a soldier shafted by politicians is a bit simplistic. In the IRB I think he was probably a more astute politician than even Dev, and he was also quite an administrator, but above all he was a realist. We had to wait decades till the combined forces of Lemass and Whitaker had anything like the same impact on real-world problems.

Hope I haven't relaunched the Civil War on Mudcat...