Historical Roots and Ideological Foundations of Terrorism - Research Paper Example

Historical Roots and Ideological Foundations of Terrorism Table of Contents Introduction 2 Life of Collins 2 Michael Collins: A Terrorist or a Patriot 3 Consistency of Collin’s Political Model 5 Reference 6 Bibliography 6 Introduction Michael Collins was an Irish patriot and a revolutionary who died in the Irish civil war. A hard-core revolutionist, the contribution of Collins for the establishment of the modern Irish state is beyond comprehension and this is recognized by most of the political regimes in Ireland. However, the supporters of Fine Gael commemorate his contributions in particular and regard him as the father of their movement. Life of Collins Michael Collins was politically multi-faceted and excellent in diplomatic skills. He was the Minister of Finance and also an MP for Cork South in the year 1919 for the First Dail. Apart from these designations, he was also the Director of Intelligence on behalf of the IRA and became the member of the Irish delegation during the period of Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. He was the Chairman of both Provincial Government and Commander-in-Chief of the National Army subsequently. During this period itself, he became the President of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and this was his last contribution as an office-bearer in the year 1919. He was shot in the year 1922 during the sever battle of civil war. Michael’s political stand point, outlook, revolutionary tactics often club him into a regime of terrorist. He was an extremist but his mission, vision and agenda was completely political. Every step initiated or battle combated by Michael was for a free, liberal Republic of Ireland and so his contribution for brotherhood, humanity and his fight for the cause of his motherland cannot be narrowed down to any paradigm of terrorism. Michael Collins: A Terrorist or a Patriot To analyze whether the activities executed by Michael Collins was pertaining to terrorism or patriotism, it is quite essential to gaze the trajectory of Michael’s political career. His ideology, war tactics and revolutionary ideals paves the way for reaching into a contention that Michael whether was a terrorist or a patriot. The path of any uprising is considered from the point of inception. Michael Collins became prominent as a leader during the period of the Easter rising in the year 1916. As a skilled organizer, Collins showed a great amount of intelligence and gained high admiration and respect in IRB. The stature of Collins was increased to the extent that he was consequently made the financial advisor to Count Plunkett. On the day of Easter Monday itself, the uprising took place and Collins fought for Patrick Pearse. The uprising ended into a form of military disaster. Many believed that Pearse’s theory of “blood sacrifice” inspired the uprising but Collins desperately rallied against it. Along with his soldiers, he operated the agitation and attacks in the manner of Guerrilla warfare and utterly avoided “sitting targets” and ensured his soldiers operation as “flying columns”. He was the one to wage guerrilla warfare against the British regime all of a sudden and this extremist tactics and war strategy gained Collins considerable success. The pattern of war strategy framed by Collins was later followed by Che to a great extent and inspired him undoubtedly too. But Collins definitely had a democratic outlook which releases him from the blame of being a terrorist or inhuman. His activity or political ideology was neither autocratic nor was inhuman. Collins believed in organized politics and hence became one of the prominent leaders after Easter Rising. Collins like most of the other participants of the uprising was arrested and was about to be executed but he was able to save himself somehow. During the time of general release, Collins already appeared as one of the important figure in the post-rising of Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein was a small nationalist party which was held responsible by the British Government and the Irish media as responsible and wrongly blamed for the uprising. The party was soon infiltrated by the survivors of the rising in order to capitalize the “notoriety’ of the movement earned by the British attacks. By the October 1917, Collins was the executive member of the Sinn Fein along with the position of Director of the organization of the Volunteers of Irish regime. They were called the Irish Volunteers. Along with the senior members of the Sinn Fein, Collins was also nominated during the General Elections held in the year 1918 in order to elect Member of Parliaments in the British House of commons at London. This again proves his interest in democracy and his effective participation and role in the electoral process always prove that he was a strong supporter of the process and not against it at all. In the year 1919 Collins played numerous roles. In the summer of 1919 itself, Collins was elected as the President of the IRB. In the month of September he was elected as the Director of the Intelligence in the Irish republican Army. The Irish War of Independence began on the same day, the First Dail gathered on 21st January 1919. Later on Collins showed his tremendous expertise as the Finance Minister and in framing and executing the Anglo-Irish Treaty (Fleming, 2004). Consistency of Collin’s Political Model The political model and the revolutionary ideals followed by Collins were undoubtedly effective at the contemporary perspective. The model was framed by perseverance and tenacity on one hand but at the same time, it also encapsulated strong revolutionary tactics which included Guerilla warfare. Collins effectively provided the scope for the democracy and he encouraged the electoral process by showing enough participation in it. He believed in the process of wait and watch and when all the moderate means failed, he went up for the extreme measures perfectly according to the need of time. This kind of perseverance and tenacity was lagging in the political models followed by Che Guevara or Carlos Marighella later. The war tactics or revolutionary model and its way of execution and implementation were religiously followed by these predecessors of Michael Collins but they effectively lacked the tenacity of Collins. Reference Fleming, D. (2004). Examining Irish leader's youthful past. BBC. Retrieved Online on May 21, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3915341.stm Bibliography White, J. R. (2005). Terrorism and Homeland Security: An Introduction. Wadsworth Publishing. Read More