ICI Writing

The heroic representation of Michael Collins by B.Antía

Michael Collins is a 1996 biopic directed by Neil Jordan. It dramatizes the life of Michael Collins, the leader of the IRA who wages a guerrilla campaign against British rule during the War of Independence. Although Michael Collins’ actions first legitimize the use of force as the only means to resist imperialist domination, he later supports the Anglo-Irish Treaty in order to avoid engendering further violence. However, the ratification of the Treaty gives place to fierce disagreement among Republicans and, eventually, the Civil War breaks out. In MC, the main character is depicted as a hero who is determined to pay the price of liberation with his own life. As stated in the closing titles of the film, Collins “died, paradoxically, in an attempt to finally remove the gun from Irish politics.”

Neil Jordan’s epic biography Michael Collins approaches these crucial events in the Irish struggle for independence by narrating the deeds of a great man. It is not the historical forces governing the period which are brought into focus in this production, then, but the impact of a single prominent leader. By stressing the role of the individual in the development of history, Jordan conceives Michael Collins as the brave man in charge of successfully leading the land and its people towards freedom. In this way, Collins is portrayed as a hero, who fully devotes himself to the Republican cause and is determined to die for the sake of liberating his nation. He is shown as a true patriot who resorts to violence only because the British have left him with no other choice. This is clear when he claims “I hate them [the British] for making hate necessary. And I’ll do what I have to end it.” Thus, Michael Collins is represented as a man of conviction who remains loyal to his land until the end of his life.

In all, the representation of Michael Collins in the film exalts his strong commitment to the Irish cause as well as his courage and intelligence as a military leader. He is pictured as a heroic man willing to pay the price of freedom and peace with the blackening of his name by his enemies and even with his life. He is regarded as an outstanding fighter who greatly shaped the history of Irish independence and died while trying to make his country a better place to live in. As stated in the opening lines, “his life and death defined the period, in its triumph, terror and tragedy.” This powerful representation of Michael Collins turns him into an epic figure and a history-maker.

 Explain the title of Fools of Fortune in reference to one character by B. Antía

 William Trevor’s novel Fools of Fortune is mostly set in the first decades of the 20^th century in Co. Cork, Ireland, at the time of the War of Independence and the Civil War. The Quintons, an affluent Anglo-Irish family, have their Kilneagh estate burned out by the Black and Tans in retaliation for the death of a local informer to the Tans at the hands of Republicans working at Mr. Quinton’s mill. This attack results in Mr. Quinton’s, his two little daughters’, and several servants’ deaths. Unable to bear her enormous grief, Mrs. Quinton becomes an alcoholic and eventually commits suicide. Willie Quinton, the family’s son and heir, has witnessed the destruction of his family by the Tans and feels compelled by his mother’s death to take revenge. Thus, he murders sergeant Rudkin, the Tan in charge of the squad that burned Kilneagh, and goes into exile for forty years. In the meantime, Marianne, his cousin and childhood love, gives birth to their child Imelda, who will seek refuge from suffering in insanity and silence. Trapped by these dramatic events which have shadowed his life, Willie is one of the characters who best represent a “fool of fortune.”

The Anglo-Irish war directly influences Willie Quinton’s life as he becomes a participant in the recurring the pattern of violence that has affected his native land for centuries. Thus, the young man becomes a tragic figure and a victim of his grim national and domestic destiny. The historical forces at work in Ireland, set in motion seven hundred years before, highly exceed Willie’s control. Having lost his family as a consequence of the War, Willie is doomed from the very beginning to misfortune. Although eager at first to forget the massacre of his family, after his mother’s death he is constrained to take revenge. Thus, even suspecting Marianne is pregnant with their child, he vanishes from Cork to retaliate against the Quintons’ murderer. From then on, he wanders from one country to another, without anybody at Kilneagh talking about his whereabouts. However, as a “fool of fortune”, Willie “will never escape the shadows of destruction that pervade Kilneagh” (Trevor, 1983:166). Instead, he will keep on ruining his life and that of his loved ones, bound by the cycle of pain and brutality which has governed Ireland the Quintons’ lives for so many years.

In Fools of fortune, Willie Quinton is caught by tragedy, both national and personal, which leads him to renounce his happiness. The same devastating forces which have dominated Ireland for so many centuries prevent him from enjoying his life with Marianne and Imelda. As Marianne puts it, “destruction casts shadows which are always there” (Trevor, 1983:165). Willie, as well as the rest of the characters in the novel, cannot escape from “the battlefield continuing” (Trevor, 1983:169) which has become part of their lives, full of sorrow and havoc. In all, Willie Quinton, apparently, can do nothing but remain subjected to the disastrous effects that the War of Independence has had in his life. The same violence that has wrecked Ireland affects Willie’s private sphere and makes him a “fool of fortune” unable to avoid his fate.