Did you know literary genius and nobel prize winner George Bernard Shaw and patriotic hero Michael Collins, were pen friends? Though they never met in person their lives and perspectives intertwined in surprising ways. Shaw admired Collins deeply. During the War of Independence, he called him “the man who won the war”, praising his daring and political skill. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, Shaw began writing to Collins, first offering congratulations. This was a rare gesture from the famously sharp-tongued playwright and pacifist. Collins, in turn, replied with warmth and respect. There’s evidence that Collins was familiar with Shaw’s work long before their brief correspondence. Among the Big Fella`s papers was found a handwritten copy, likely from his teenage years, of an extract from Shaw’s The Man of Destiny. The future revolutionary had engaged with Shaw’s ideas early on. Following Collins’s death in 1922, Shaw sent a letter of condolence to Collins’s sister, Hannie. “I rejoice in his memory, and will not be so disloyal to it as to snivel over his valiant death,” he wrote, refusing to mourn conventionally but making clear the depth of his admiration. Their paths never crossed in person. But through letters, literature, and a shared sense of Irish destiny, they recognised something powerful in each other. Two very different men, each reshaping Ireland in his own way.

Posted by Fred Bassett