title: Military organization

text: The organizational structures of air forces vary between nations: some air forces (such as the United States Air Force and the Royal Air Force) are divided into commands, groups and squadrons; others (such as the Soviet Air Force) have an Army-style organizational structure. The modern Royal Canadian Air Force uses Air division as the formation between wings and the entire air command. Like the RAF, Canadian wings consist of squadrons.


title: Military organization

text: A task force is a unit or formation created as a temporary grouping for a specific operational purpose. Aside from administrative hierarchical forms of organization that have evolved since the early 17th century in Europe, fighting forces have been grouped for specific operational purposes into mission-related organizations such as the German Kampfgruppe or the U.S. Combat Team (Army) and Task Force (Navy) during the Second World War, or the Soviet Operational manoeuvre group during the Cold War. In the British and Commonwealth armies the battlegroup became the usual grouping of companies during the Second World War and the Cold War.


title: Military organization

text: Within NATO, a Joint Task Force (JTF) would be such a temporary grouping that includes elements from more than one armed service, a Combined Task Force (CTF) would be such a temporary grouping that includes elements from more than one nation, and a Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) would be such a temporary grouping that includes elements of more than one armed service and more than one nation.


title: Kelly LeBrock

text: Kelly LeBrock (born ) is an American actress and model. Her acting debut was in "The Woman in Red" (1984), alongside Gene Wilder. She also starred in the John Hughes film "Weird Science" (1985), and in "Hard to Kill" (1990), opposite Steven Seagal.


title: Kelly LeBrock

text: Kelly LeBrock was born in New York City, and was brought up in the upscale Kensington area of London. Her father was French-Canadian, and her mother, Maria, is British. LeBrock was named after her grandmother, Mary Helen Kelly, from Keady, County Armagh, who married John Traynor.


title: Kelly LeBrock

text: LeBrock began her career as a model at age 16 in her native New York City. Her breakthrough came at 19, when she starred in a 24-page spread in "Vogue" magazine. Shortly afterwards, she entered into a contract with Christian Dior to work for that fashion label for 30 days a year. She subsequently appeared on numerous magazine covers and in fashion spreads, and became one of Eileen Ford's most sought-after models. She became especially recognizable as the Pantene shampoo commercial spokeswoman whose line, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful", became a pop culture catchphrase.


title: Kelly LeBrock

text: LeBrock was cast as the "perfect" or "fantasy" woman in the films "The Woman in Red" (1984) and "Weird Science" (1985). As a result, she was considered one of the sexiest women in Hollywood in the 1980s, but took a hiatus from acting until 1990, when she starred opposite her then-husband, Steven Seagal, in "Hard to Kill". LeBrock also appeared in "Betrayal of the Dove" (1993), "Tracks of a Killer" (1995), and "Hard Bounty" (1995).


title: Kelly LeBrock

text: She had roles in the films "Wrongfully Accused" (1998), "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (2001), "Zerophilia" (2005), and "" (2006). LeBrock was in a thriller entitled "Hidden Affairs", released in 2013, and in 2015 she appeared in "A Prince for Christmas" as Queen Ariana.


title: Kelly LeBrock

text: In 2005, LeBrock was the captain of the team "Kelly's Bellies" on VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club" reality show. She also appeared on the third UK series of "Hell's Kitchen". She and her daughter Arissa were featured on the Lifetime docuseries "Growing Up Supermodel" which debuted in August 2017.


title: Kelly LeBrock

text: British band Bastille released the song "Good Grief" in 2016, which samples two of LeBrock's phrases from "Weird Science": "So what would you little maniacs like to do first?" and "If you want to be a party animal, you have to learn to live in the jungle. Now stop worrying and go and get dressed."


title: Kelly LeBrock

text: After the death of her brother Harold in 2008, LeBrock began devoting time to the terminally ill. She has been a spokeswoman for Club Carson, whose members are children suffering from cancer.


title: Kelly LeBrock

text: Her first marriage was to film producer and restaurateur Victor Drai, in 1984; they divorced in 1986. During this time she met actor and martial artist Steven Seagal. Their daughter Annaliza was born in spring 1987 and the couple married in September of that year. Their son Dominic was born in June 1990 and their daughter Arissa in 1993. The following year, LeBrock filed for divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences".


title: Kelly LeBrock

text: In July 2007, LeBrock married retired investment banker Fred Steck and divorced him the next year. As of 2011, LeBrock lives on a ranch in California's Santa Ynez Valley.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Michael Collins (; 16 October 1890 – 22 August 1922) was an Irish revolutionary, soldier and politician who was a leading figure in the early-20th century struggle for Irish independence. During the War of Independence he was Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a government minister of the self-declared Irish Republic. He was then Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State from January 1922 and commander-in-chief of the National Army from July until his death in an ambush in August 1922, during the Civil War.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins was born in Woodfield, County Cork, the youngest of eight children. He moved to London in 1906 to become a clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank at Blythe House. He was a member of the London GAA, through which he became associated with the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Gaelic League. He returned to Ireland in January 1916 and fought in the Easter Rising. He was taken prisoner and held in the Frongoch internment camp as a prisoner of war, but he was released in December 1916.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins subsequently rose through the ranks of the Irish Volunteers and Sinn Féin. He was elected as a Teachta Dála for South Cork in December 1918. Sinn Féin's elected members formed an Irish parliament, the First Dáil, in January 1919 and declared the independence of the Irish Republic. Collins was appointed Minister for Finance. In the ensuing War of Independence, he was Director of Organisation and Adjutant General for the Irish Volunteers, and Director of Intelligence of the IRA. He gained fame as a guerrilla warfare strategist, planning many successful attacks on British forces together with 'the Squad', such as the "Bloody Sunday" assassinations of key British intelligence agents in November 1920.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: After the July 1921 ceasefire, Collins was one of five plenipotentiaries sent by the Dáil cabinet at the request of Éamon de Valera, to negotiate peace terms in London. The resulting Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed in December 1921, would establish the Irish Free State but depended on an oath of allegiance to the Crown. This was the clause in the treaty de Valera and other republican leaders found hardest to accept. Collins viewed the treaty as offering "the freedom to achieve freedom", and helped persuade a majority of the Dáil to ratify the treaty. A provisional government was formed under his chairmanship in early 1922. During this time he secretly provided support for an IRA offensive in Northern Ireland. It was soon disrupted by the Irish Civil War, in which Collins was commander-in-chief of the National Army. He was shot and killed in an ambush by anti-Treaty forces on 22 August 1922.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins was born in Woodfield, Sam's Cross, near Rosscarbery, County Cork, on 16 October 1890, the third son and youngest of eight children. His father, Michael John (1816–1897), was a farmer and amateur mathematician, who had been a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) movement. The elder Collins was 60 years old when he married Mary Anne O'Brien, then 23, in 1876. The marriage was apparently happy. They brought up eight children on a farm called Woodfield, which the Collins family had held as tenants for several generations. Michael was six years old when his father died. Michael Collins (the younger) believed his family were descendants of the Uí Chonaill Gabra.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: He was a bright and precocious child with a fiery temper and a passionate feeling of Irish patriotism. He named a local blacksmith, James Santry, and his headmaster at Lisavaird National School, Denis Lyons, as the first nationalists to personally inspire his "pride of Irishness". Lyons was a member of the IRB, while Santry's family had participated in, and forged arms for, the rebellions of 1798, 1848 and 1867. There are a number of anecdotal explanations for the origin of his nickname "the Big Fellow". His family claim that he was called this as a child, as a term of endearment for an adventitious and bold youngest brother. The nickname was established by his teens, long before he became a political or military leader.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: At the age of thirteen he attended Clonakilty National School. During the week he stayed with his sister Margaret Collins-O'Driscoll and her husband Patrick O'Driscoll, while at weekends he returned to the family farm. Patrick O'Driscoll founded the newspaper "West Cork People" and Collins helped out with general reporting and preparing the issues.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Leaving school at fifteen, Collins took the British Civil Service examination in Cork in February 1906 and moved to the home of his sister Hannie in London, where he became a boy clerk in the Post Office Savings Bank at Blythe House. In 1910 he became a messenger at a London firm of stockbrokers, Horne and Company. While living in London he studied law at King's College London but did not finish. He joined the London GAA and, through this, the IRB. Sam Maguire, a republican from Dunmanway, County Cork, introduced the 19-year-old Collins to the IRB. In 1915 he moved to work in the Guaranty Trust Company of New York where he remained until his return to Ireland the following year joining part-time "Craig Gardiner & Co", a firm of accountants in Dawson Street, Dublin.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The struggle for Home Rule, along with labour unrest, had led to the formation in 1913 of two major nationalist paramilitary groups who later launched the Easter Rising: the Irish Citizen Army was established by James Connolly, James Larkin and his Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) to protect strikers from the Dublin Metropolitan Police during the 1913 Dublin Lockout. The Irish Volunteers were created in the same year by nationalists in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers (UVF), an Ulster loyalist body pledged to oppose Home Rule by force.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: An organiser of considerable intelligence, Collins had become highly respected in the IRB. This led to his appointment as financial advisor to Count Plunkett, father of one of the Easter Rising's organisers, Joseph Plunkett. Collins took part in preparing arms and drilling troops for the insurrection.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The Rising was Collins' first appearance in national events. When it commenced on Easter Monday 1916, Collins served as Joseph Plunkett's aide-de-camp at the rebellion's headquarters in the General Post Office (GPO) in Dublin. There he fought alongside Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and other members of the Rising leadership. The Rising was put down after six days, but the insurgents achieved their goal of holding their positions for the minimum time required to justify a claim to independence under international criteria.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Following the surrender, Collins was arrested and taken into British custody. He was processed at Dublin's Richmond Barracks by "G-Men", plain-clothes officers from Dublin Metropolitan Police. During his screening, Collins was identified as someone who should be selected for further interrogation, harsher treatment, or execution. However, he overheard his name being called out so he moved to the other side of the building to identify the speaker. In doing so, he joined the group that was transferred to Frongoch internment camp in Wales, a movement that historian Tim Pat Coogan describes as "one of the luckiest escapes of his life."


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins first began to emerge as a major figure in the vacuum created by the executions of the 1916 leadership. He began hatching plans for "next time" even before the prison ships left Dublin.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: At Frongoch he was one of the organisers of a program of protest and non-cooperation with authorities. The camp proved an excellent opportunity for networking with physical-force republicans from all over the country, of which he became a key organiser.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: While some celebrated the fact that a rising had happened at all, believing in Pearse's theory of "blood sacrifice" (namely that the deaths of the Rising's leaders would inspire others), Collins railed against the military blunders made, such as the seizure of indefensible and very vulnerable positions like St Stephen's Green, which were impossible to escape from and difficult to supply. Public outcry placed pressure on the British government to end the internment. In December 1916, the Frongoch prisoners were sent home.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Before his death, Tom Clarke, first signatory of the 1916 Proclamation and widely considered the Rising's foremost organiser, had designated his wife Kathleen Clarke as the official caretaker of Rising official business, in the event that the leadership did not survive. By June 1916, Mrs. Clarke had sent out the first post-Rising communiqué to the IRB, declaring the Rising to be only the beginning and directing nationalists to prepare for "the next blow." Soon after his release Mrs. Clarke appointed Collins Secretary to the National Aid and Volunteers Dependents Fund and subsequently passed on to him the secret organisational information and contacts which she had held in trust for the independence movement.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins became one of the leading figures in the post-Rising independence movement spearheaded by Arthur Griffith, editor/publisher of the main nationalist newspaper The United Irishman, (which Collins had read avidly as a boy.) Griffith's organisation Sinn Féin had been founded in 1905 as an umbrella group to unify all the various factions within the nationalist movement.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Under Griffith's policy, Collins and other advocates of the "physical-force" approach to independence gained the cooperation of Sinn Féin, while agreeing to disagree with Griffith's moderate ideas of a dual monarchy solution based on the Hungarian model. The British government and mainstream Irish media had wrongly blamed Sinn Féin for the Rising. This attracted Rising participants to join the organisation in order to exploit the reputation with which such British propaganda had imbued the organisation. By October 1917 Collins had risen to become a member of the executive of Sinn Féin and director of organisation for the Irish Volunteers. Éamon de Valera, another veteran of 1916, stood for the presidency of Sinn Féin against Griffith, who stepped aside and supported de Valera's presidency.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In the 1918 general election Sinn Féin swept the polls throughout much of Ireland, with many seats uncontested, and formed an overwhelming parliamentary majority in Ireland. Like many senior Sinn Féin representatives Collins was elected as an MP (for Cork South) with the right to sit in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London. Unlike their rivals in the Irish Parliamentary Party, Sinn Féin MPs had announced that they would not take their seats in Westminster but instead would set up an Irish Parliament in Dublin.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Before the new body's first meeting, Collins, tipped off by his network of spies, warned his colleagues of plans to arrest all its members in overnight raids. De Valera and others ignored the warnings on the argument that, if the arrests happened, they would constitute a propaganda coup. The intelligence proved accurate and de Valera, along with Sinn Féin MPs who followed his advice, were arrested; Collins and others evaded incarceration. Collins spent time hiding among Dublin's Jewish community, even posed as an Orthodox Jew and once cursed at the Black and Tans in Yiddish.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The new parliament, called Dáil Éireann (meaning "Assembly of Ireland", see First Dáil) met in the Mansion House, Dublin in January 1919. In de Valera's absence, Cathal Brugha was elected Príomh Aire ('First' or 'Prime' Minister but often translated as 'President of Dáil Éireann'). The following April, Collins engineered de Valera's escape from Lincoln Prison in England, after which Brugha was replaced by de Valera.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: No state gave diplomatic recognition to the Irish Republic, despite sustained lobbying in Washington by de Valera and prominent Irish-Americans and at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: De Valera appointed Collins as Minister for Finance in the Ministry of Dáil Éireann in 1919. At this time, most of the Dáil Éireann's ministries existed only on paper or as one or two individuals working in a room of a private house, as large gatherings of Irish republican politicians would be vulnerable to raid attempts by British Crown forces.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Despite that, Collins managed to produce a Finance Ministry that was able to organise a large bond issue in the form of a "National Loan" to fund the new Irish Republic. According to Batt O'Connor, the Dáil Loan raised almost £400,000, of which £25,000 was in gold. The loan, which was declared illegal by the British, was lodged in the individual bank accounts of the trustees. The gold was kept under the floor of O'Connor's house until 1922. The Russian Republic, in the midst of its own civil war, ordered Ludwig Martens the head of the Soviet Bureau in New York City to acquire a "national loan" from the Irish Republic through Harry Boland, offering some jewels as collateral. The jewels remained in a Dublin house until 1938, when they were handed over to de Valera.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The Irish War of Independence in effect began on the day that the First Dáil convened, 21 January 1919. On that date, an ambush party of IRA Volunteers from the 3rd Tipperary Brigade including Séumas Robinson, Dan Breen, Seán Treacy and Seán Hogan, attacked a pair of Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) men who were escorting a consignment of gelignite to a quarry in Soloheadbeg, County Tipperary. The two policemen were shot dead during the engagement, known as the Soloheadbeg ambush. This ambush is considered the first action in the Irish War of Independence. The engagement had no advance authorisation from the nascent government. The legislature's support for the armed struggle soon after became official, with the Dáil ratifying the IRA's claim to be the army of the Irish Republic. From that time Collins filled a number of roles in addition to his legislative duties.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: On 7 April 1919, Eamon Broy smuggled Collins into G Division's archives in Great Brunswick Street, enabling him to identify "G-Men", six of whom would be killed by the IRA. That summer he was elected president of the IRB (and therefore, in the doctrine of that organisation, President of the Irish Republic). In September, he was made Director of Intelligence for the Irish Republican Army which now had a mandate to pursue an armed campaign, as the official military of the Irish nation. With Cathal Brugha as Minister of Defence, Collins became Director of Organisation and Adjutant General of the Volunteers. Collins spent much of this period helping to organise the Volunteers as an effective military force, and concentrating on forcing the RIC – which represented British authority in Ireland – out of isolated barracks and seizing their weapons. Collins was determined to avoid the massive destruction, military and civilian losses for merely symbolic victories that had characterised the 1916 Rising. Instead, he directed a guerrilla war against the British, suddenly attacking then just as quickly withdrawing, minimising losses and maximising effectiveness.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The Crown responded with escalation of the war, with the importation of special forces such as the "Auxiliaries", the "Black and Tans", the "Cairo Gang", and others. Officially or unofficially, many of these groups were given a free hand to institute a reign of terror, shooting Irish people indiscriminately, invading homes, looting and burning.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: As the war began in earnest, de Valera travelled to the United States for an extended speaking tour to raise funds for the outlawed Republican government. It was in publicity for this tour that de Valera (who had been elected Príomh Aire by the Dáil) was first referred to as "President". While financially successful, grave political conflicts followed in de Valera's wake there which threatened the unity of Irish-American support for the rebels. Some members of the IRB also objected to the use of the presidential title because their organisation's constitution had a different definition of that title.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Back in Ireland, Collins arranged the "National Loan", organised the IRA, effectively led the government, and managed arms-smuggling operations. Robert Briscoe, an Irish Jew was sent by Collins to Germany in 1919 to be the chief agent for procuring arms for the IRA. Mr Bewley in Berlin. Four Courts Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-85182-559-2</ref> While in Germany in 1921 Briscoe purchased a small tug boat named Frieda to be used in transporting guns and ammunition to Ireland. On 28 October 1921 the Frieda slipped out to sea with Charles McGuinness at the helm and a German crew with a cargo of leftover World War I weapons - 300 guns and 20,000 rounds of ammunition. Other sources cite this shipment as "the largest military shipment ever to reach the I.R.A." consisting of 1,500 rifles, 2,000 pistols and 1.7 million rounds of ammunition smuggled hidden in potatoes. Local guerrilla units received supplies, training and had largely a free hand to develop the war in their own region. These were the "flying columns" who comprised the bulk of the War of Independence rank and file in the south-west. Collins, Dick McKee and regional commanders such as Dan Breen and Tom Barry oversaw tactics and general strategy. There were also regional organisers, such as Ernie O'Malley and Liam Mellows, who reported directly to Collins at St Ita's secret basement GHQ in central Dublin. They were supported by a vast intelligence network of men and women in all walks of life that reached deep into the British administration in Ireland.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: It was at this time that Collins created a special assassination unit called The Squad expressly to kill British agents and informers. Collins was criticised for these tactics but cited the universal war-time practice of executing enemy spies who were, in his words, "hunting victims for execution." Campaigning for Irish independence, even non-violently, was still targeted both by prosecutions under British law entailing the death penalty and also by extrajudicial killings such as that of Tomás Mac Curtain, nationalist mayor of Cork City.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In 1920 the British offered £10,000 (equivalent to GB£300,000 / €360,000 in 2010) for information leading to Collins' capture or death. He evaded capture and continued to strike against British forces, often operating from safe-houses near government buildings, such as Vaughan's and An Stad.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In 1920, following Westminster's prominent announcements that it had the Irish insurgents on the run, Collins and his Squad killed several people in a series of coordinated raids, including a number of British secret service agents. Members of the Royal Irish Constabulary went to Croke Park, where a G.A.A. football match was taking place between Dublin and Tipperary. The police officers opened fire on the crowd, killing twelve and wounding sixty. This event became known as Bloody Sunday. Many British operatives sought the shelter of Dublin Castle next day. About the same time, Tom Barry's 3rd Cork Brigade took no prisoners in a bitter battle with British forces at Kilmichael. In many regions, the RIC and other crown forces became all but confined to the strongest barracks in the larger towns as rural areas came increasingly under rebel control.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: These republican victories would have been impossible without widespread support from the Irish population, which included every level of society and reached deep into the British administration in Ireland. In May 1921, elections were held in the Northern part of Ireland under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act which separated the governance of six counties in Ulster from the rest of Ireland. Collins was elected to a seat in Armagh, demonstrating popular support for the republican movement.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: At the time of the ceasefire in July 1921 a major operation was allegedly in planning to execute every British secret service agent in Dublin, while a major ambush involving eighty officers and men was also planned for Templeglantine, County Limerick.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In 1921 General Macready, commander of British forces in Ireland, reported to his government that the Empire's only hope of holding Ireland was by martial law, including the suspension of "all normal life." Westminster's foreign policy ruled out this option: Irish-American public opinion was important to British agendas in Asia. In addition, Britain's efforts at a military solution had already resulted in a powerful peace movement, which demanded an end to the unrest in Ireland. Prominent voices calling for negotiation included the Labour Party, "The Times" and other leading periodicals, members of the House of Lords, English Catholics, and famous authors such as George Bernard Shaw.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Still, it was not the British government that initiated negotiations. Individual English activists, including clergy, made private overtures which reached Arthur Griffith. Griffith expressed his welcome for dialogue. The British MP Brigadier General Cockerill sent an open letter to Prime Minister David Lloyd George that was printed in the Times, outlining how a peace conference with the Irish should be organised. The Pope made an urgent public appeal for a negotiated end to the violence. Whether or not Lloyd George welcomed such advisors, he could no longer hold out against this tide.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In July, Lloyd George's government . Arrangements were made for a conference between British government and the leaders of the yet-unrecognised Republic. There remains uncertainty as to the two sides' capability to have carried on the conflict much longer. Collins told Hamar Greenwood after signing the Anglo-Irish Treaty: "You had us dead beat. We could not have lasted another three weeks. When we were told of the offer of a truce we were astonished. We thought you must have gone mad". However he stated on the record that "there will be no compromise and no negotiations with any British Government until Ireland is recognised as an independent republic. The same effort that would get us Dominion Home Rule will get us a republic." At no time had the Dáil or the IRA asked for a conference or a truce.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: However, the Dáil as a whole was less uncompromising. It decided to proceed to a peace conference, although it was ascertained in the preliminary stages that a fully independent republic would not be on the table and that the loss of some northeastern counties was a foregone conclusion.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Many of the rebel forces on the ground first heard of the Truce when it was announced in the newspapers and this gave rise to the first fissures in nationalist unity, which had serious consequences later on. They felt they had not been included in consultations regarding its terms.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: De Valera was widely acknowledged as the most skillful negotiator on the Dáil government side and he participated in the initial parlays, agreeing the basis on which talks could begin. The first meetings were held in strict secrecy soon after the Custom House battle, with Andrew Cope representing Dublin Castle's British authorities. Later, de Valera travelled to London for the first official contact with Lloyd George. The two met one-on-one in a private meeting, the proceedings of which have never been revealed.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: During this Truce period, de Valera sued for official designation as President of the Irish Republic and obtained it from the Dáil in August 1921, in place of the title which had previously been used of President of Dáil Éireann. Not long after, the Cabinet was obliged to select the delegation that would travel to the London peace conference and negotiate a treaty. In a departure from his usual role, de Valera adamantly declined to attend, insisting instead that Collins should take his place there, along with Arthur Griffith.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins resisted the appointment, protesting that he was "a soldier, not a politician" and that his exposure to the London authorities would reduce his effectiveness as a guerrilla leader should hostilities resume. (He had kept his public visibility to a minimum during the conduct of the war; up to this time the British still had very few reliable photographs of him.) The Cabinet of seven split on the issue, with de Valera casting the deciding vote. Many of Collins' associates warned him not to go, that he was being set up as a political scapegoat.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The Irish delegates sent to London were designated as "plenipotentiaries", meaning that they had full authority to sign an agreement on behalf of the Dáil government. The Treaty would then be subject to approval by the Dáil. The majority of the delegates, including Arthur Griffith (leader), Robert Barton and Eamonn Duggan (with Erskine Childers as Secretary General to the delegation) set up headquarters at 22 Hans Place in Knightsbridge on 11 October 1921. Collins shared quarters at 15 Cadogan Gardens with the delegation's publicity department, secretary Diarmuid O'Hegarty, Joseph McGrath as well as substantial intelligence and bodyguard personnel including Liam Tobin, Tom Cullen, Eamon Broy, Emmet Dalton and Joseph Dolan of The Squad.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The British team were led by their Prime Minister Lloyd George, the Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill and F. E. Smith. During two months of arduous negotiations the Irish delegates made frequent crossings between London and Dublin to confer with their Dáil colleagues, and Collins' correspondence reflects his frustration at Dáil debates and the Irish delegate's inability to agree clear instruction as to whether or not they should accept a treaty.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In November, with the London peace talks still in progress, Collins attended a large meeting of regional IRA commanders at Parnell Place in Dublin. In a private conference he informed Liam Deasy, Florence O'Donoghue and Liam Lynch that there would have to be some compromise in the current negotiations in London. "There was no question of our getting all the demands we were making." He was advised by Lynch not to bring this out in the full assembly. Reviewing subsequent events, Deasy later doubted the wisdom of that advice.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The negotiations ultimately resulted in the Anglo-Irish Treaty which was signed on 6 December 1921. The agreement provided for a Dominion status "Irish Free State", whose relationship to the British Commonwealth would be modelled after Canada's. This was a compromise, half-way between an independent republic and a province of the Empire. The Treaty was signed under considerable pressure from the British. The negotiators had agreed at the cabinet meeting in Dublin that they would not sign the Treaty without bringing it back for the Dáil cabinet to ratify. But once back in London on 5 December at 7:30 pm, Lloyd George told them it was immediate signature or "immediate and terrible war" and that he had to know by the next day. The Treaty was signed at 2:20 am, 6 December 1921.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The settlement overturned the Act of Union by recognising the native Irish legislature's independence. Under a bicameral parliament, executive authority would remain vested in the king, represented in Ireland by a Governor General, but exercised by an Irish government elected by Dáil Éireann as a "lower house". British forces would depart the Free State forthwith and be replaced by an Irish army. Along with an independent judiciary, the Treaty granted the new Free State greater independence than any Irish state, and went well beyond the Home Rule which had been sought by Charles Stewart Parnell or by his Irish Parliamentary Party successors John Redmond and John Dillon.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The Treaty acknowledged the partition of Ireland. Before Treaty negotiations had concluded, executive powers had already been passed to the government of Northern Ireland created under the Government of Ireland Act in 1920. Northern Ireland, which had a majority unionist population, could opt out of the Free State, a year after the signing of the Treaty. An Irish Boundary Commission was to be established to draw a border, "in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants' and ‘economic and geographic conditions". Collins anticipated a redrawing of the border would result in much of the south and west of Northern Ireland becoming part of the Free State, making Northern Ireland economically non-viable, and facilitating the reunification of the 32 counties in the near future.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins argued that he had signed the Treaty as the alternative was a war that the Irish people did not want. "I say that rejection of the Treaty is a declaration of war until you have beaten the British Empire, apart from any alternative document. Rejection of the Treaty means your national policy is war…. The Treaty was signed by me, not because they held up the alternative of immediate war. I signed it because I would not be one of those to commit the Irish people to war without the Irish people committing themselves to war." While the Treaty fell short of the republic for which he had fought, Collins concluded that the Treaty offered Ireland "not the freedom that all nations desire and develop to, but the freedom to achieve it."


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Nonetheless, he knew that elements of the Treaty would cause controversy in Ireland. Upon signing the treaty, F. E. Smith remarked "I may have signed my political death warrant tonight". Collins replied "I may have signed my actual death warrant".


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: This remark encapsulated his acknowledgement that the Treaty was a compromise that would be vulnerable to charges of "sell-out" from purist Republicans. It did not establish the fully independent republic that Collins himself had shortly before demanded as a non-negotiable condition. The "physical force republicans" who made up the bulk of the army which had fought the British to a draw would be loath to accept dominion status within the British Empire or an Oath of Allegiance that mentioned the King. Also controversial was the British retention of Treaty Ports on the south coast of Ireland for the Royal Navy. These factors diminished Irish sovereignty and threatened to allow British interference in Ireland's foreign policy. Collins and Griffith were well aware of these issues and strove tenaciously, against British resistance, to achieve language which could be accepted by all constituents. They succeeded in obtaining an oath to the Irish Free State, with a subsidiary oath of fidelity to the King, rather than to the king unilaterally.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Éamon de Valera, the President of the Dáil objected to the Treaty on the grounds that it had been signed without cabinet consent and that it secured neither the full independence of Ireland nor Irish unity. Collins and his supporters argued that de Valera had refused strenuous pleas from Collins, Griffith and others to lead the London negotiations in person. He had refused the delegates' continual requests for instruction, and in fact had been at the centre of the original decision to enter negotiations without the possibility of an independent republic on the table.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The Treaty controversy split the entire nationalist movement. Sinn Féin, the Dáil, the IRB and the army each divided into pro- and anti-Treaty factions. The Supreme Council of the IRB had been informed in detail about every facet of the Treaty negotiations and had approved many of its provisions, and all but one voted to accept the Treaty – the single exception being Liam Lynch, later Chief-of-Staff of the anti-Treaty IRA.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The Dáil debated the Treaty bitterly for ten days until it was approved by a vote of 64 to 57. Having lost this vote, de Valera announced his intent to withdraw his participation from the Dáil and called on all deputies who had voted against the Treaty to follow him. A substantial number did so, officially splitting the government.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: A large part of the Irish Republican Army opposed the Treaty and in March 1922 voted at an Army Convention to reject the authority of the Dail, Collins' GHQ and to elect their own Executive. Anti-Treaty IRA units began to seize buildings and take other guerrilla actions against the Provisional Government. On 14 April 1922, a group of 200 anti-Treaty IRA men occupied the Four Courts in Dublin under Rory O'Connor, a hero of the War of Independence. The Four Courts was the centre of the Irish courts system, originally under the British and then the Free State. Collins was charged by his Free State colleagues with putting down these insurgents, however, he resisted firing on former comrades and staved off a shooting war throughout this period.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: While the country teetered on the edge of civil war, continuous meetings were carried on among the various factions from January to June 1922. In these discussions the nationalists strove to resolve the issue without armed conflict. Collins and his close associate, Teachta Dála (TD) Harry Boland were among those who worked desperately to heal the rift.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: To foster military unity, Collins and the IRB established an "army re-unification committee", including delegates from pro- and anti-Treaty factions. The still-secret Irish Republican Brotherhood continued to meet, fostering dialogue between pro- and anti-Treaty IRA officers. In the IRB's stormy debates on the subject, Collins held out the Constitution of the new Free State as a possible solution. Collins was then in the process of co-writing that document and was striving to make it a republican constitution that included provisions that would allow anti-Treaty TDs to take their seats in good conscience, without any oath concerning the Crown.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Since June 1920, communal conflict had been raging in north-east Ulster between the Protestant unionist majority there, who wanted to remain part of the UK, and the Catholic Irish nationalist minority, who backed Irish independence. Belfast saw "savage and unprecedented" sectarian violence. Protestant loyalists attacked the Catholic community in retaliation for IRA actions. More than 500 people were killed, more than 8,000 workers were driven out of their jobs, and more than 10,000 became refugees – mostly from the Catholic minority (see The Troubles in Northern Ireland (1920–1922)). After the death of Collins, his concern for plight of the northern Catholics was made clear by the Belfast IRA commander Seamus Woods "Of all the Dublin government ministers, Collins had been most deeply concerned about the fate of northern Catholics." In May 1921, Ireland was partitioned under British law, creating Northern Ireland, and unionists formed a Northern government. In early 1922, there were clashes along the new border between the IRA on the Southern side and Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) on the Northern side, as well as a resurgence of sectarian violence in Belfast.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins strongly opposed partition, but he was ambiguous about his policy for undoing it. On one hand, he told the Dáil during the Treaty debates: "We have stated we would not coerce the North-East … Surely we recognise that the North-East corner does exist … The Treaty has made an effort to deal with it … on lines that will lead very rapidly to goodwill, and the entry of the North-East under the Irish Parliament". The pro-Treaty side argued that the proposed Irish Boundary Commission would give large swathes of Northern Ireland to the Free State, leaving the remaining territory too small to be economically viable.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: However, in private Collins told the northern divisions of the IRA, early in 1922 that, "although the Treaty might have seemed an outward expression of partition, the [Irish] Government plans to make it impossible … Partition would never be recognised, even if it meant smashing the Treaty". In January 1922, six months after the ceasefire (truce), Collins helped to form an 'Ulster Council' within the IRA, which included the commanders of its five northern divisions, to co-ordinate IRA activity in the North. Collins' Provisional Government also funded Northern county councils and paid the salaries of teachers in Northern Ireland who recognised the Free State.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In March, Collins met Sir James Craig, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, in London. They signed an agreement declaring peace in the North, which promised cooperation between Catholics and Protestants in policing and security, and a generous budget for restoring Catholics to homes which had been destroyed. The day after the agreement was published, violence erupted again in the Arnon Street killings. A policeman was shot dead in Belfast and in reprisal, police broke into Catholic homes nearby and shot residents in their beds, including children. There was no response to Collins' demands for an inquiry. He and his Cabinet warned that they would deem the agreement broken unless Craig took action. In his continual correspondence with Churchill over violence in the North, Collins protested repeatedly that such breaches of the truce threatened to invalidate the Treaty entirely. The prospect was real enough that on 3 June 1922 Churchill presented to the Committee of Imperial Defence his plans "to protect Ulster from invasion by the South".


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In spring 1922, Collins, along with other IRB and IRA leaders, developed secret plans for a guerrilla offensive in Northern Ireland. It was to involve "both" pro- and anti-Treaty IRA units. Collins hoped the offensive would undermine the Northern Ireland government and unite the pro- and anti-treaty IRA in a shared goal. Collins and National Army GHQ secretly supplied weaponry and equipment for the offensive, and some British arms that had been supplied to the Provisional Government were passed on to the IRA. Because of this, most northern IRA units supported Collins and 524 individual volunteers came south to join the National Army in the Irish Civil War.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The offensive was to begin on 2 May 1922, but most of the IRA divisions had to postpone until later in the month. The 1st, 4th and 5th divisions, based in Southern territory, did not take part. This, and the staggered start to the offensive, made it easier for the Northern authorities to tackle. The Northern government launched a massive security crackdown and introduced internment, which would cripple the IRA in Northern Ireland. The offensive saw the Battle of Pettigo and Belleek in early June, which ended with British troops shelling IRA positions on the border. Collins chided pro-Treaty IRA units who became embroiled in the fighting and the Provisional Government issued an order that their policy was "peaceful obstruction … and no troops from the twenty- six counties either official or attached to the executive [anti-Treaty] should be permitted to invade the six county area".


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: However, in early August Collins wrote to Cosgrave: "I am forced to the conclusion that we may yet have to fight the British in the north-east". At the same time he told northern IRA officers he would "use the political arm against Craig so long as it is of use. If that fails, the treaty can go to hell and we will all start again".


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: After the death of Collins, aid from the Provisional Government to the northern IRA was cut off. Belfast Brigade (IRA) leader Roger McCorley stated: "When Collins was killed the northern element [of the IRA] gave up all hope".


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: De Valera resigned the presidency and sought re-election but Arthur Griffith replaced him after a close vote on 9 January 1922. Griffith chose as his title President of Dáil Éireann, rather than President of the Republic as de Valera had favoured. The Dáil Éireann government did not hold legal status in British constitutional law. The provisions of the Treaty required the formation of a "new" government, which would be recognised by Westminster as pertaining to the Free State dominion that had been established by the Treaty. Despite the abdication of a large part of the Dáil, the Provisional Government (Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann) was formed with Michael Collins as Chairman of the Cabinet (effectively Prime Minister). Collins retained his position as Minister for Finance. The Provisional Government operated concurrently with the Dáil Éireann government under Griffith.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In British legal tradition, Collins was now a Crown-appointed prime minister of a Commonwealth state, installed under the Royal Prerogative. To be so installed he had to formally meet the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Viscount FitzAlan the head of the British administration in Ireland. The republican view of the same meeting is that Collins met FitzAlan to accept the surrender of Dublin Castle, the official seat of British government in Ireland. Having surrendered, FitzAlan still remained in place as viceroy until December 1922.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The Provisional Government's first obligation was to create a Constitution for the Free State. This was undertaken by Collins and a team of solicitors. The outcome of their work became the Irish Constitution of 1922. He drew up a republican constitution which, without repudiating the Treaty, would include no mention of the British King. His object was that the Constitution would allow participation in the Dáil by dissenting TDs who opposed the Treaty and refused to take any oath mentioning the Crown. Under the Treaty, the Free State was obliged to submit its new Constitution to Westminster for approval. Upon doing so, in June 1922, Collins and Griffith found Lloyd George determined to veto the provisions they had fashioned to prevent civil war.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The meetings with Lloyd George and Churchill were bitter and contentious. Collins, although less diplomatic than Griffith or de Valera, had no less penetrating comprehension of political issues. He complained that he was being manipulated into "doing Churchill's dirty work", in a potential civil war with his own former troops.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Negotiations to prevent civil war resulted in, among others, "The Army Document" published in May 1922 which was signed by an equal number of pro- and anti-Treaty IRA officers including Collins, Dan Breen, and Gearóid O'Sullivan. This manifesto declared that "a closing of ranks all round is necessary" to prevent "the greatest catastrophe in Irish history." It called for new elections, to be followed by the re-unification of the government and army, whatever the result.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In this spirit and with the organising efforts of moderates on both sides the Collins-de Valera "Pact" was created. This pact agreed that new elections to the Dáil would be held with each candidate running as explicitly pro- or anti-Treaty and that, regardless of which side obtained a majority, the two factions would then join to form a coalition government of national unity.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: A referendum on the Treaty was also planned but it never took place. The Pact elections on 16 June 1922 therefore comprise the best quantitative record of the Irish public's direct response to the Treaty. The results were pro-Treaty 58 seats, anti-Treaty 36, Labour Party 17, Independents 6, Farmers party 7, plus 4 Unionists from Trinity College, Dublin.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Six days after the Pact elections, Sir Henry Wilson was assassinated by Reginald Dunne and Joseph O'Sullivan—two London-based IRA volunteers, who had served in World War I, in which O’Sullivan had lost a leg—outside Wilson's home at 36 Eaton Place at approximately 2:20 pm. He was in full uniform as he was returning from unveiling the Great Eastern Railway War Memorial at Liverpool Street station at 1:00 pm. He had six wounds, two of them fatal, to the chest. Two police officers and a chauffeur were also shot as the two assassins sought to avoid capture. They were then surrounded by a crowd and arrested by other policemen after a struggle. Dunne and O'Sullivan were convicted of murder and hanged on 10 August 1922.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: A British Army field marshal, Wilson had recently resigned his commission and been elected an MP for a constituency in Northern Ireland. He had a long history as one of the chief British leaders opposing Collins in the Irish conflict. At that time Wilson had served as military advisor to the Northern Ireland government led by James Craig, in which role he was seen to be responsible for the B-Specials and for other sources of loyalist violence in the north. The debate concerning Collins' involvement continued in the 1950s, when a number of statements and rebuttals on the subject were published in periodicals. These were re-printed with additions in Rex Taylor's 1961 book, "Assassination: the death of Sir Henry Wilson and the tragedy of Ireland". Participants in that discussion were Joe Dolan, Florence O'Donoghue, Denis P. Kelleher, Patrick O'Sullivan, and others.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The death of Sir Henry Wilson caused a furore in London. Lloyd George, the Prime Minister, sent a letter to Collins saying that the 'ambiguous position' of the Provisional Government with regard to the IRA in the Four Courts could no longer be tolerated. The British cabinet met the day after the assassination and agreed that Collins’ reply had not given a 'definite enough commitment' to disperse the Four Courts occupation. They ordered Nevil Macready, commander of the British garrison still in Dublin, to attack the Four Courts, whose republican garrison they blamed for the shooting of Wilson. The plan was put on hold at the last minute when Macready advised the government, on 26 June, to give Collins' Provisional Government one more chance to act against the Four Courts.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins himself was in Cork at the time of the crisis. President Arthur Griffith and military officer Emmet Dalton met with British officials to discuss 'the continued occupation of the Four Courts by the Irregulars under Rory O'Connor'. There is little documentation of the decision taken by the Provisional government, headed by Collins, to attack the Four Courts; Historian Michael Hopkinson writes, 'the scarcity of evidence is explained by the acute sensitivity of the subject, both at the time and since'. When Collins arrived back in Dublin, his forces began to act against the anti-Treatyites. On 27 June they arrested anti-Treaty IRA officer Leo Henderson as he was enforcing the Belfast Boycott by seizing cars. In retaliation the anti-Treaty IRA men abducted J. J. "Ginger" O'Connell, a Free State general, and held him in the Four Courts.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: These two developments led to the Provisional Government's 27 June 1922 order serving notice on the Four Courts garrison to surrender the building, their arms and release O'Connell, that night or face military action "at once". According to historian Charles Townsend, 'Collins must have consented to this though the actual decision seems to have been taken by Griffith'. Peter Hart similarly writes, 'it was Griffith rather than Collins who took the lead in this decision'. However cabinet member Ernest Blythe recalled that, 'the decision to attack the Four Courts was almost automatic once Collins had agreed to it.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins' position in this conflict was extraordinary indeed. A majority perhaps of the IRA he had helped lead in the War of Independence, were now ranged against the Provisional Government, which he represented. In addition, the force which by the will of the electorate he was obliged to lead had been re-organised since the Truce. Formed from a nucleus of pro-Treaty IRA men, it had evolved into a more formal, structured, uniformed National Army that was armed and funded by Britain. Many of the new members were World War I veterans and others who had not fought on the nationalist side before. Collins' profoundly mixed feelings about this situation are recorded in his private and official correspondence.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Artillery was provided to Richard Mulcahy, as Minister for Defence and the Free State Army by the British for the purposes of attacking the Four Courts. Emmet Dalton, an Irishman who had served in the British Army and the IRA, who was now a leading Free State commander and close associate of Collins, was placed in charge of it. The Four Courts surrendered after three days of fighting.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Heavy fighting broke out in Dublin between the anti-Treaty IRA Dublin Brigade and the Free State troops. Much of O'Connell Street suffered heavy damage; the Gresham Hotel was burned and the Four Courts reduced to a ruin. Still, under Collins' direction, the Free State rapidly took control of the capital. By July 1922 anti-Treaty forces held much of the southern province of Munster and several other areas of the country. At the height of their success, they administered local government and policing in large regions. Collins, Richard Mulcahy, and Eoin O'Duffy decided on a series of seaborne landings into republican held areas, which re-took Munster and the west in July–August.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: That July, Collins set aside his title as Chairman of the Provisional Government to become Commander-in-Chief of the National Army. However, according to Charles Townshend, he became 'a kind of generalissimo, combining military and political supremacy. Griffith had no desire or capacity to dispute the day to day conduct of government with him and while Mulcahy had great administrative capacity, he deferred to Collins as a strategist and thinker'. He also prorogued the meeting of the Dail until the end of hostilities, a move that historians such as John Regan have seen as an unconstitutional concentration of power in Collins himself and his military colleagues.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Roughly two weeks after Cork city had been taken by Provisional Government forces, Collins travelled there to attempt to seize large sums of money that the anti-Treaty Republicans had lodged in various banks, under the account of the Land Bank.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: There is also considerable evidence that Collins' journey to Cork in August 1922 was made in order to meet republican leaders with a view to ending the war.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins also conducted a series of meetings, regarding the possibility of peace talks in Cork on 21–22 August 1922. In Cork city, Collins met with neutral IRA members Seán O'Hegarty and Florence O'Donoghue with a view to contacting Anti-Treaty IRA leaders Tom Barry and Tom Hales to propose a truce. The anti-Treaty side had called a major convocation of officers to Béal na Bláth, a remote crossroads, with ending the war on the agenda.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: De Valera was present there. However, Michel Hopkinson writes that 'there is no evidence that there was any prospect of a meeting between de Valera and Collins. The People's Rights Association, a local initiative in Cork City, had been mediating a discussion of terms between the Provisional Government and the anti-Treaty side for some weeks.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins' personal diary outlined his proposals for peace. Republicans must "accept the People's Verdict" on the Treaty, but could then "go home without their arms. We don't ask for any surrender of their principles". He argued that the Provisional Government was upholding "the people's rights" and would continue to do so. "We want to avoid any possible unnecessary destruction and loss of life. We do not want to mitigate their weakness by resolute action beyond what is required". But if Republicans did not accept his terms, "further blood is on their shoulders".


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In August 1922, it seemed as though the Civil War was winding down. The Free State had regained control of most of the country, and Collins was making frequent trips to inspect areas recently recovered from anti-Treaty forces.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: His plan to travel to his native Cork on 20 August was considered particularly dangerous, and he was strenuously advised against it by several trusted associates. County Cork was an IRA stronghold as much of it was still held by anti-Treaty forces. Yet he was determined to make the trip without delay. He had fended off a number of attempts on his life in the preceding weeks and had acknowledged more than once, in private conversation, that the Civil War might end his life at any moment. On several occasions, Collins assured his advisors "they won't shoot me in my own county," or words to that effect.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: On 22 August 1922 Collins set out from Cork City on a circuitous tour of West Cork. He passed first through Macroom then took the Bandon road via Crookstown. This led through Béal na Bláth, an isolated crossroads. There they stopped at a local pub named 'Long's Pub', now known as The Diamond Bar, to ask a question of a man standing at the crossroad. The man turned out to be an anti-Treaty sentry. He and an associate recognised Collins in the back of the open-top car.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: As a result, an ambush was laid by an anti-Treaty column at that point, on the chance that the convoy might come through again on their return journey. Between 7:30 and 8:00 pm, Collins' convoy approached Béal na Bláth for the second time. By then most of the ambush party had dispersed and gone for the day, leaving just five or six men on the scene. Two were disarming a mine in the road, while three on a laneway overlooking them, provided cover. A dray cart, placed across the road, remained at the far end of the ambush site.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The 'Irregulars' in the laneway opened fire with rifles on the convoy. Emmet Dalton, the Free State commander for the county, ordered the driver of the touring car to 'drive like hell', but Collins said 'no, stop and we'll fight 'em'. He then jumped from the vehicle along with the others. At first the group took cover behind a low grass bank bordering the road, but Collins then jumped up and ran back along the road to begin firing with his Lee Enfield rifle from behind the armoured car. The Vickers machine gun in that car had also been firing at the attackers but then stopped because a badly loaded ammunition belt caused it to jam.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Apparently, to get a better view of the laneway up which he had seen the enemy running, Collins left the protection of the armoured car and moved even farther back around a bend in the road out of sight of his comrades. Now standing in the open, he fired a couple of shots and as he was once more working the bolt of his rifle he was struck in the head by a bullet believed to have been fired by one of the ambushing party – Denis "Sonny" O'Neill, a former British Army sniper.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins was the only fatality sustained in the ambush, although another member of his party suffered a neck wound. After he was shot the fire from the ambushing party quickly fell off and they withdrew from the scene. Collins was found, face down, on the roadway. One of his men whispered an Act of Contrition into his ear, but Collins was clearly close to death if not already dead. He was lifted into the back of the touring car with his head resting against Dalton's shoulder. The convoy cleared the dray cart obstruction and resumed its journey to Cork.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The lengthy time the convoy took to cover the back to Cork City was because many of the roads were blocked and the convoy had to travel across muddy fields and through farms to circumnavigate the obstacles, all in darkness. At times, when the vehicles became bogged down, members of the convoy had to carry Collins' body on their shoulders. The touring car eventually had to be abandoned because of mechanical trouble.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: There was no autopsy. Collins' field diary was taken by Dalton who had been with him during his tour of the south. The body was first presented at Shanakiel Hospital in Cork, a small military establishment, and then shipped around the coast to Dublin where it was laid out in St Vincent's Hospital Dublin. From there it was removed to the City Hall beside Dublin Castle where it was laid in state.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Numerous questions remain about the events surrounding the death of Collins because the only witnesses to his death were the members of the Free State Army convoy and the anti-Treaty ambushers. As no two stories match and participant statements from both sides are contradictory and inconsistent, unanswered questions linger about what happened that day.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The man generally believed to have fired the fatal shot at Béal na Bláth, Denis "Sonny" O'Neill, was a former officer from the RIC who served as a sniper in the British Army during the First World War, joined the IRA in 1918 and had met Collins on more than one occasion. However, when the Irish Civil War started in June 1922, O'Neill joined the Anti-Treaty IRA.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: O'Neill remains a mysterious figure because of the contradictions in his biography: such as serving in the British Army but then joining the IRA. He provided them with information concerning the Igoe Gang that worked for the British Army Intelligence Centre. Twenty years after Collins' death, the Irish State granted O'Neill a captain's military pension in the 1940s.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins lay in state for three days. Tens of thousands of mourners filed past his coffin to pay their respects, including many British soldiers departing Ireland who had fought against him. His funeral mass took place at Dublin's St Mary's Pro-Cathedral where a number of foreign and Irish dignitaries were in attendance. Some 500,000 people attended his funeral, almost one fifth of the country's population at that time.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: No official inquiry was ever undertaken into Collins' death and consequently, there is no official version of what happened, nor are there any authoritative, detailed contemporary records.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: De Valera is alleged to have declared in 1966, "It is my considered opinion that in the fullness of time history will record the greatness of Michael Collins; and it will be recorded at my expense."


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins' elderly father, who was 75 when his youngest child was born, inspired his fondness and respect for older people. His mother, who had spent her youth caring for her own invalid mother and raising her own brothers and sisters, was a powerful influence. The entire management of the Collins farm fell to her, as her husband succumbed to old age and died. In a society which honoured hospitality as a prime virtue, Mrs Collins was eulogised as "a hostess in ten thousand." Her five daughters avowedly doted on their youngest brother. He enjoyed rough-housing and outdoor sports. Having won a local wrestling championship while he was still a boy, he is said to have made a pastime of challenging larger, older opponents, with frequent success. A very fit, active man throughout life, in the most stressful times he continued to enjoy wrestling as a form of relaxation and valued friendships which afforded opportunities to share athletic pursuits. He could be abrasive, demanding, and inconsiderate of those around him, but frequently made up for it with gestures such as confectionery and other small gifts.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Unlike some of his political opponents, he had many close personal friendships within the movement. It has been justly said that while some were devoted to "the idea of Ireland", Collins was a people person whose patriotism was rooted in affection and respect for the people of Ireland around him. Among his famous last words is the final entry in his pocket diary, written on the journey which ended his life, "The people are splendid."


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In 1921–22, he became engaged to Kitty Kiernan. Under Kiernan's influence, he would resume Catholic religious practice (though retaining secularism as a political position), despite his previous hostility to the Irish Catholic hierarchy. He made a general confession before his departure for London to negotiate the Anglo-Irish Treaty. While in London, his practice of lighting votive candles for Kiernan developed a habit of attending mass daily, usually at the Brompton Oratory. In letters between the two, he credits Kiernan as having given him a newfound appreciation of Confession and Communion. Collins attended mass regularly throughout the ensuing civil war.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins was a complex man whose character abounded in contradictions. He seems never to have pursued personal profit. This characteristic was exemplified by a letter he wrote on 4 August 1922 to his canvassing agent; offering to pay half the bill for a hired election car because some of the journeys had been for personal trips. While clearly fond of command and keen to take charge, he had an equal appetite for input and advice from people at every level of the organisation, prompting the comment that "he took advice from his chauffeur." Although acknowledged by friends and foes as "head centre" of the movement, he continually chose a title just short of actual head of state; becoming Chairman of the Provisional Government only after the abdication of half the Dáil forced him to do so. While his official and personal correspondence records his solicitous care for the wants of insurgents in need, during the war he showed no hesitation in ordering the death of opponents who threatened nationalist lives.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Certainly a man of fierce pride, his pride was tempered by a sense of humour that included a keen sense of the absurd in his own situation. While mastermind of a clandestine military, he remained a public figure. When official head of the Free State government, he continued to cooperate in the IRA's secret operations. He was capable of bold, decisive actions on his own authority, which caused friction with his colleagues, such as his falling out with Cathal Brugha; but at critical junctures he could also bow to majority decisions which were profoundly disadvantageous and dangerous to his own interests (such as his appointment to the Treaty negotiating team).


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: An annual commemoration ceremony takes place each year in August at the ambush site at Béal na Bláth, County Cork, organised by The Béal na mBláth Commemoration Committee. In 2009, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson gave the oration. In 2010 the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan Jnr became the first Fianna Fáil person to give the oration. In 2012 on the 90th anniversary of the death of Collins, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave the oration, the first serving head of government to do so.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: There is also a remembrance ceremony at Collins' grave in Glasnevin Cemetery on the anniversary of his death every year.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Michael Collins House museum in Clonakilty, Cork is a museum dedicated to Michael Collins and the history of Irish Independence. Situated in a restored Georgian House on Emmet Square, where Collins once lived, the museum, tells the life story of Collins through guided tours, interactive displays, audiovisuals and historical artefacts.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The Central Bank of Ireland released gold and silver commemorative coins on 15 August 2012 which feature a portrait of Michael Collins designed by Thomas Ryan based on a photograph taken not long before his death.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins bequeathed to posterity a considerable body of writing: essays, speeches and tracts, articles and official documents in which he outlined plans for Ireland's economic and cultural revival, as well as a voluminous correspondence, both official and personal. Selections have been published in "The Path to Freedom" (Mercier, 1968) and in "Michael Collins in His Own Words" (Gill & Macmillan, 1997). In the 1960s, Taoiseach Seán Lemass, himself a veteran of the 1916 Rising and War of Independence, credited Collins' ideas as the basis for his successes in revitalizing Ireland's economy.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Nine years after his death, the UK Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, which removed virtually all of London's remaining authority over the Free State and the other dominions. This had the effect of granting the Free State internationally recognised independence, thus fulfilling Collins' vision of having "the freedom to achieve freedom."


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins and the IRA were a major source of inspiration for the leader of the Zionist insurgent Lehi group and future Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Shamir. During the Israeli War of Independence Shamir adopted "Michael" as his "nom de guerre". Chinese leader Mao Zedong also studied Collins' practices of guerrilla warfare.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The Collins 22 Society established in 2002 is an international organisation dedicated to keeping the name and legacy of Michael Collins in living memory. The patron of the society is Ireland's former Minister for Justice and TD Nora Owen, grand-niece of Michael Collins.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: “That volley which we have just heard is the only speech which it is proper to make over the grave of a dead Fenian.”


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: “Think—what I have got for Ireland? Something which she has wanted these past 700 years. Will anyone be satisfied at the bargain? Will anyone? I tell you this—early this morning I signed my death warrant.”


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Written in a letter dated 6 December 1921 after the signing of the treaty that established the Irish Free State.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Said by Collins on 16 January 1922 when arriving at Dublin Castle for the handover by British forces after being told that he was seven minutes late.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The 1936 film "Beloved Enemy" is a fictionalised account of Collins' life. Unlike the real Michael Collins, the fictionalised "Dennis Riordan" (played by Brian Aherne) is shot, but recovers. "Hang Up Your Brightest Colours", a British documentary by Kenneth Griffith, was made for ITV in 1973, but refused transmission. It was eventually screened by the BBC in Wales in 1993 and across the United Kingdom the following year.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In 1969, Dominic Behan wrote an episode of the UK television series "Play for Today" entitled "Michael Collins". The play dealt with Collins' attempt to take the gun out of Irish politics and took the perspective of the republican argument. At the time of writing the script, the Troubles had just begun in Northern Ireland and the BBC were reluctant to broadcast the production. An appeal by the author to David Attenborough (Director of Programming for the BBC at that time) resulted in the play eventually being broadcast; Attenborough took the view that the imperatives of free speech could not be compromised in the cause of political expediency.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: An Irish documentary made by Colm Connolly for RTÉ Television in 1989 called "The Shadow of Béal na Bláth" covered Collins' death. A made-for-TV film, "The Treaty", was produced in 1991 and starred Brendan Gleeson as Collins and Ian Bannen as David Lloyd George. In 2007, RTÉ produced a documentary entitled "Get Collins", about the intelligence war which took place in Dublin.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Collins was the subject of director Neil Jordan's 1996 film "Michael Collins", with Liam Neeson in the title role. Collins' great-grandnephew, Aengus O'Malley, played a student in a scene filmed in Marsh's Library.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: In 2005 Cork Opera House commissioned a musical drama about Collins. "Michael Collins" by Brian Flynn had a successful run in 2009 at Cork opera house and later in the Olympia Theatre in Dublin.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: "Infamous Assassinations", a 2007 British documentary television series, devoted its eighth episode to the death of Collins.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The 2016 miniseries, "Rebellion", focused on the 1916 Easter Rising. Collins appeared as a background character, taking part in the uprising, played by Sebastian Thommen.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Irish-American folk rock band Black 47 recorded a song entitled "The Big Fellah" which was the first track on their 1994 album "Home of the Brave". It details Collins' career, from the Easter Rising to his death at Béal na Bláth. Irish folk band the Wolfe Tones recorded a song titled "Michael Collins" on "A Sense of Freedom" (1983) about Collins' life and death, although it begins when he was about 16 and took a job in London. Celtic metal band Cruachan recorded a song also titled "Michael Collins" on their 2004 album "Pagan" which dealt with his role in the Civil War, the treaty and his eventual death. Also a song by Johnny McEvoy, simply named "Michael", depicts Collins' death and the sadness surrounding his funeral.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: The poem "The laughing boy" by Brendan Behan lamenting the death of Collins was translated into Greek in 1961 by Vasilis Rotas. In October of the same year, Mikis Theodorakis composed the song "Tο γελαστό παιδί" ("The laughing boy") using Rotas' translation. The song was recorded by Maria Farantouri in 1966 on the album "Ένας όμηρος" ("The hostage") and became an instant success. It was the soundtrack of the movie "Z" (1969). "The laughing boy" became the song of protest against the dictatorship in Greece (1967–1974) and remains to date one of the most popular songs in Greek popular culture.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Journalist Eamonn O'Neill wrote the play "God Save Ireland Cried the Hero" about Collins' last night alive. Set in his hotel room, the one-man production started Liam Brennan in the role of Collins and was produced by the Wiseguise Company. It was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1996.


title: Michael Collins (Irish leader)

text: Mary Kenny wrote a play "Allegiance", about a meeting between Winston Churchill and Collins. The play premiered in 2006 for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Mel Smith playing Churchill and Michael Fassbender, a great-great-grandnephew of Collins, playing him.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a 2007 first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment in the "Call of Duty" series. The game breaks away from the World War II setting of previous entries and is instead set in modern times. Developed for over two years, "Modern Warfare" was released in November 2007 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows, and was ported to the Wii as "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Reflex Edition" in 2009.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: The story takes place in the year of 2011, where a radical leader has executed the president of an unnamed country in the Middle East, and an ultranationalist movement ignites a civil war in Russia. The conflicts are seen from the perspectives of a U.S. Marine Force Recon sergeant and a British SAS commando and are set in various locales, such as the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Ukraine. The multiplayer portion of the game features various game modes and contains a leveling system that allows the player to unlock additional weapons, weapon attachments, and camouflage schemes as they advance.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: The game received universal acclaim from critics, with praise towards the gameplay and story, but criticism for the lack of innovation. The game won numerous awards from gaming websites, including "IGN" "Best Xbox 360 Game". The game is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. It was the top-selling game worldwide for 2007, selling around sevenmillion copies by January 2008 and almost sixteenmillion by November 2013. It was followed by two sequels that continue the storyline: "" (2009) and "" (2011).


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: A remastered version of the game, "", was released as part of special edition bundles of "" in November 2016, and as a standalone game in June 2017. A reboot of the "Modern Warfare" games, "", was released in October 2019.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" is a first-person shooter. A character can be positioned in one of three stances: standing, crouching, or prone, each affecting the character's rate of movement, accuracy, and stealth. Using cover helps the player avoid enemy fire or recover health after taking significant damage. As such, there are no armor or health power-ups. When the character has taken damage, the edges of the screen glow red and the character's heartbeat increases. If the character stays out of fire, the character can recover. When the character is within the blast radius of a live grenade, a marker indicates the direction of the grenade, helping the player to either flee or toss it back to the enemy.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: The game is the first in the "Call of Duty" series to feature modern equipment. The game also introduces new features, particularly multiplayer mechanics such as "killstreaks" where the player gains access to special abilities for killing enemies without dying.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: The player takes on the role of various characters during a single-player campaign. The characters' involvement in the plot occurs simultaneously and overlaps the events in the game. As such, the player's perspective changes from one character to another between missions. Each mission features a series of objectives; the player is led to each objective with the heads up display, which marks its direction and distance. Some objectives require that the player arrives at a checkpoint, while other objectives require the player to eliminate enemies in a specified location, stand their ground to defend an objective, or plant explosive charges on an enemy installation. After completing the campaign, a special epilogue mission is unlocked for play. The mission itself has no bearing on the campaign plot, and focuses on an SAS squad fighting terrorists that have hijacked an airplane and taken a VIP hostage. The main campaign features 30 collectible pieces of intel that award the player with game cheats and visual filters such as infinite ammunition, cluster grenades, and increased contrast.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" features team-based and deathmatch-based multiplayer modes on various maps. Each mode has an objective that requires unique strategies to complete. Players can call in UAV reconnaissance scans, airstrikes, and attack helicopters, when they achieve three-, five-, and seven-enemy kill streaks respectively. A game ends when either a team or player has reached a predefined number of points, or the allotted time expires in which case the team or player with the most points wins. If the points are even when the time expires, Sudden Death mode is activated in which there is no re-spawning and the team who either has the last man standing, or achieves the objective first are the winners. If the player is in either of the two matches, then there is an Overtime match, in which the next team to win is rewarded the victory.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: The player's performance in the multiplayer mode is tracked with experience points, which can be earned by killing opposing players, completing challenges, completing objectives, or by completing a round or match. As the player gains experience, they advance in level, unlocking new weapons, perks, challenges, and gameplay modes. The highest obtainable level is 55, but on the console versions of the game, the player has the option to enter "Prestige" mode, which returns their level to one and removes all accumulated unlockables. This process can be repeated up to 10 times with a different insignia being given each time.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: As the player advances in levels and goes up higher in prestige, they earn the ability to customize their classes; this includes selecting their main weapon, sidearm and special grenade type. Additionally, the player can select 3 perks, one from each of the three "Tiers", that can customize their character further. Perk effects include, but are not limited to, extra ammunition, increasing bullet damage by the player, or dropping a live grenade when the player is killed. The player is also given the choice to complete challenges in order to receive even more experience points; challenges include achieving a certain number of kills with a specific weapon, shooting down a helicopter or performing a number of headshots. Additionally, when the player attains a certain number of headshots with a specific weapon, excluding sidearms, the player unlocks extra weapon "camos", or camouflage, to use for that specific weapon.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: During the single-player campaign, the player controls six different characters from a first-person perspective. The player assumes the role of recent recruit to the British Special Air Service (SAS), Sergeant John "Soap" MacTavish for most of the game, starting with his induction into the 22nd SAS Regiment. Sergeant Paul Jackson is a member of the U.S. Marine Corps 1st Force Recon Company deployed to the Middle East, who the player controls during five levels of Act 1. Captain John Price (voiced by actor Billy Murray) is an SAS officer who is playable in two flashback missions from 1996 in which he is a Lieutenant. The player also assumes the role of an American thermal-imaging TV operator aboard a Lockheed AC-130 gunship during one level, and a British SAS operative infiltrating a hijacked airliner to save a VIP in a secret level titled "Mile High Club". Finally, the player may control Yasir Al-Fulani, the president of an unnamed Middle Eastern country in the game before he is executed, although he has no freedom of action beyond turning his head.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: The game's non-playable characters (NPCs) feature prominently in the story: Captain Price and his right-hand man, Gaz (voiced by Craig Fairbrass), serve as mentors to Soap. Jackson's platoon is led by Lieutenant Vasquez (voiced by David Sobolov) and Staff Sergeant Griggs (voiced by and modeled after Infinity Ward lead animator Mark Grigsby); Griggs later accompanies Soap in Russia. Sergeant Kamarov (voiced by Mark Ivanir) leads the Russian loyalists that aid the SAS and USMC forces. "Nikolai" (voiced by Sven Holmberg) is a Russian informant who helps the SAS. Captain MacMillan (voiced by Zach Hanks) is Price's mentor and commanding officer during a flashback.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: The antagonists in the story include Imran Zakhaev (voiced by Yevgeni Lazarev), the leader of the Russian ultranationalist party and the main antagonist of the game; Khaled Al-Asad, the commander of the revolutionary forces in the Middle East and an ally of Imran Zakhaev; and Victor Zakhaev, the son of Imran Zakhaev and a priority figure in the ultranationalist party.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: In 2011, a civil war breaks out in Russia between its government and Ultranationalists. Meanwhile, a separatist group led by Khaled Al-Asad, who holds anti-Western views, seizes power in an unnamed country in the Middle East through a coup d'état. In response, the United States invades the country. A platoon of U.S. Marines from 1st Force Recon Co, led by Lieutenant Vasquez, fail to capture Al-Asad and later engage in urban combat in a nearby city with support from an M1 Abrams tank.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: Meanwhile, new British Special Air Service operator Sergeant John "Soap" MacTavish is recruited into Captain Price's team, which conducts two operations; the first leads them to infiltrate a cargo ship in the Bering Strait. Neutralizing the armed Russians on board, the team secure a nuclear device labeled in Arabic. Enemy MiGs scuttle the ship, but the SAS escapes by helicopter.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: The second operation tasks the SAS with rescuing an ally, a Russian informant named Nikolai working within the Ultranationalist party. Assisted by Russian loyalist forces, Price's team extracts Nikolai. However, their helicopter is brought down, forcing the team to make their way through enemy territory with support from an AC-130 gunship before they are extracted. Intelligence gathered from these two missions indicates that Al-Asad may be in possession of a Russian nuclear device.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: The U.S. launches a full-scale assault on Al-Asad's presidential palace, aware of the possible nuclear device. As SEAL Team 6 raids the palace, the USMC engage Al-Asad's ground forces. However, the assault ends in catastrophe when the nuclear device suddenly detonates, wiping out most of the city along with everyone in it.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: Refusing to assume Al-Asad dead, Price's team supported by Russian loyalists raids a safe house in Azerbaijan where they locate and capture Al-Asad. During the interrogation, Price answers Al-Asad's phone before executing him, revealing that the caller was the leader of the ultranationalists: Imran Zakhaev. Price reveals that in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Zakhaev profited from nuclear proliferation and used his new wealth to lure Soviet Army soldiers to form his ultranationalist party. Price and his superior Captain MacMillan were ordered to assassinate Zakhaev in Pripyat, Ukraine in 1996, where Price fired upon Zakhaev with a sniper rifle from a hotel; however, the shot only severed Zakhaev's arm. Price and MacMillan barely escaped Zakhaev's forces.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: Following Al-Asad's death, Price's team hold off against Ultranationalist forces who arrive to avenge him. A joint task force composed of the SAS, Force Recon, and the loyalists then attempt to capture Zakhaev's son, Victor, to learn Zakhaev's whereabouts. After ambushing him, Victor flees but is cornered on the roof of an apartment building. Refusing to surrender, he commits suicide. Enraged, Zakhaev retaliates by taking control of a nuclear launch facility.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: An operation is launched by the task force to take back the site. However, Zakhaev promptly launches nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles at the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, with the potential of causing 41 million casualties. The SAS and Force Recon manage to breach the facility and remotely destroy the missiles over the Atlantic Ocean. They escape in military trucks with Zakhaev's forces in pursuit.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: An ultranationalist Mi-24 Hind helicopter destroys a bridge and traps the joint force. In the ensuing fight, a tanker explodes, and many of the group are either killed or injured. Zakhaev himself arrives and begins killing wounded soldiers when arriving loyalists in a Mi-28 Havoc destroy his Mi-24 Hind. Distracted, Zakhaev turns to the loyalists and Price gives a pistol to Soap, who kills Zakhaev and his escort. Loyalist forces start tending to the wounded immediately.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: In the epilogue, the missile incident and the ultranationalists' support of Al-Asad are covered up, .


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" was developed by a team of a hundred people, over the course of two years. After "Call of Duty 2", the Infinity Ward team decided to move away from the World War II environment of previous games in the series. This resulted in three game concepts: "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare", "" and "". While developing the story for "Call of Duty 4", Infinity Ward chose to avoid referencing current, real-life wars, and keep the series' common theme of two opposing forces of similar strength. To enhance the realistic feel of the game, the development team attended a live-fire exercise at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, a training facility in the California desert. This helped the developers to simulate the effects of being near an Abrams tank when it fires. The team also talked with U.S. Marines who were recently in combat to get a feel for the background, emotions, and attitude of Marines in combat. Veterans were also recruited to supervise motion capture sessions and the artificial intelligence design of the game.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: The development team designed the online multiplayer component to be balanced and rewarding for new players while still offering something for experienced players. An early idea to implement air support (air strikes and attack helicopters) involved players fighting over special zones to access a trigger for air support against enemies. This idea was discarded because it discouraged the type of deathmatch gameplay they intended. The killstreak reward system was put in its place to encourage the improvement of player skills. Players were allowed to select weapons before matches to get accustomed to weapons more easily and minimize weapon hunting. Maps were designed primarily for deathmatch games—the developers felt such designs suited other types of gameplay as well. Map layouts were designed to minimize locations players could hide from enemy gunfire.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: Most of the music for "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" was written by British composer Stephen Barton, who had also contributed to film scores by Harry Gregson-Williams, to whom, composed the main theme of the game. Several music tracks from the game are available on Infinity Ward's "7 Days of Modern Warfare" website, and some are available at Barton's own web site. The rap song played during the end credits is performed by "Call of Duty 4"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s lead animator, Mark Grigsby.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" runs on the IW engine, specifically IW 3.0, featuring true world-dynamic lighting, HDR lighting effects, dynamic shadows and depth of field. Bullet penetration is calculated by the engine, taking into account factors such as surface type and entity thickness. The game runs in a native resolution of 600p on the Xbox 360 and PS3.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: Certain objects, such as cars and some buildings, are destructible. This makes distinguishing cover from concealment important, as the protection provided by objects such as wooden fences and thin walls do not completely protect players from harm. Bullet stopping power is decreased after penetrating an object, and the decrease is dependent on the thickness and surface type of the object. The game makes use of a dynamic physics engine, not implemented in previous "Call of Duty" titles. Death animations are a combination of pre-set animations and ragdoll physics. Console versions of "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" run at a consistent 60 frames per second, and the Wii version runs at 30 frames per second. Code was included to determine spawning points based on the nearby weapons and the relationship between enemy positions and line of sight to the points. The various criteria are meant to minimize players dying immediately after rejoining a match, or being "spawn-killed" due to players simply waiting for others to "respawn". However, enemies may still respawn infinitely, a notable feature in Call of Duty game engines.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: The game engine has also been used for the development of two other Activision games. An enhanced version of the original engine was used in "", the fifth installment in the "Call of Duty" series after "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare", while a slightly altered version has been used for the James Bond video game "", as well as "GoldenEye 007" using a heavily modified version.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: On April 27, 2007, the day before the release of the game's trailer, Infinity Ward launched a website called "Charlie Oscar Delta" to provide information on the game. Charlie Oscar Delta features a ranking system that allows users to complete missions to increase their rank and compete for prizes. Charlie Oscar Delta is derived from the NATO phonetic alphabet and the initials of "Call of Duty". The first "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" trailer featuring game footage was released on April 28. An Xbox 360 "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" public beta test was announced on August 30. The beta test was designed to test the servers, find glitches, and help balance out the weapons. It was originally only for residents of the U.S., but was later available to other countries. The beta concluded on September 30. The maximum rank for the beta was initially level 16, but was increased to level 25 towards the end of the beta. Three multiplayer maps were available for play: "Crash", "Vacant", and "Overgrown". A single-player demo for the PC was released on October 11 as a Yahoo! download. The demo includes one level, "The Bog", which showcases the advanced night vision and associated graphics capabilities.


title: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

text: The game was released as a standard version and a collector's edition. The Collector's Edition contains the standard retail game and a DVD containing a documentary film entitled "Great SAS Missions", which consists of archive footage of the SAS in action and accounts from former SAS members. The DVD contains a "making-of" featurette and a level walkthrough by the developers. Also included is a limited edition poster and a hardcover art book featuring never-before-seen concept, development, and final artwork. These elements were packaged in a larger cardboard version of the standard retail box. The collector's edition was originally only available in the U.S., but was later released in other countries. A "Game of the Year" edition was later released on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The PlayStation 3 version included the Variety map pack on the disc, and while the Xbox 360 Game of the Year edition initially included an insert in the packaging which could be redeemed on Xbox Live Marketplace to download the Variety map pack, later releases did not contain the inserts, and so were no different from the original release of the game.