1st Edition
Michael Collins and the Financing of Violent Political Struggle
Michael Collins was a pivotal figure in the Irish struggle for independence and his legacy has resonated ever since. Whilst Collins’ role as a guerrilla leader and intelligence operative is well documented, his actions as the clandestine Irish government Minister of Finance have been less studied. The book analyses how funds were raised and transferred in order that the IRA could initiate and sustain the military struggle, and lay the financial foundations of an Irish state.
Nicholas Ridley examines the legacy of these actions by comparing Collins’ modus operandi for raising and transferring clandestine funds to those of more modern groups engaged in political violence, as well as the laying of foundations for Irish financial and fiscal regulation.
PART I – Violent Undercurrents pre-1914 Europe
- Violence in pre-1914 Europe
- Ireland - peaceful, patient and hopeful
- Cork, London, Dublin - and 1916 debacle
- Collins reorganises the Volunteers…
- And de Valera enlists America
- The Anglo-Irish War 1919-1921
- Collins’ Intelligence War
- Treaty and Civil War
- Preparing in London, active in Dublin
- Filling the war chest - the National Loan
- Funds from America, funds in America
- Collins, Minister of Finance
- The Anglo-Irish Treaty- Ireland’s fiscal autonomy
- The North
- The Sinews of Civil War and the Republicans hamstrung
PART II – Michael Collins and the struggle for Irish independence
PART III – The Sinews of War
PART IV – Later Political Violence and Insurgency and their Financing
PART V – Michael Collins
Appendix I - Historians and de Valera’s US funds
Appendix II – Collins and Connelly
Bibliography and Works Consulted
Biography
Nicholas Ridley is Senior Lecturer in Policing and Security at London Metropolitan University. He has previously worked as an Intelligence Analyst at New Scotland Yard, Criminal Intelligence Department and Anti-Terrorist Unit and at Europol.He has been a trainer in intelligence and anti-terrorism for police forces in Africa, and has lectured on combating terrorist financing on courses at NATO Centre of Excellence – Defence against Terrorism.
"The comparative analysis of terrorist financing will be of value to both practitioners and academics."
Dr Anthony Richard, Reader in Criminology University of East London
"It has become somewhat twee to speak of the need to inform present day actions by referring to the historical past. However, as Dr Ridley ably demonstrates, through his comprehensive and lucid analysis of Michael Collins, there is clearly a great deal to learn about the characteristics and mitigation of modern day terrorist financing from an exploration of the life of arguably one of its earliest proponents."
Professor Rob McCusker, De Montfort University
"The historical account is fascinating, the analysis of insurgency financing invaluable"
Professor Chizu Nakajima, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London