Recently re-reading the book entitled "Rambles in Eirinn" by William Bulfin, I came across the following and I quote.
"I was sitting on a green hillside over Dublin with two friends not long since, and one of them told how there are people strong in the belief that a child was born in Ireland a few years ago who is to be the deliverer of the land. Did we laugh? Not we. There are many things at which you do not laugh in Eirinn. Many strange and mystic and glorious things are believed in this hopeful land whose story is so old and sad, but whose heart is still so fresh and young."

"So what?" I hear you explain. Just the fact that the series of articles by Bulfin regarding his Irish travels were first published in the South American newspaper the "Southern Cross" in the early 1900's and only published in book form in 1907. Michael Collins would have been a teenager.