MICHAEL COLLINS’S most inspirational legacy lies not in his achievements as a soldier but in his modernising vision of Ireland as a place of economic excellence, willing and able to compete in international markets, according to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney.
Mr Coveney said that when he was asked to give the annual Béal na mBláth oration in 2004, he read up widely on Collins, and what struck him was how much of a modernising visionary Collins was.
“What was so inspiring, actually, was not so much his extraordinary bravery and courage as a soldier, even though that was hugely impressive, but it was his mind as a modernist that was so impressive,” said Mr Coveney.
“Here was a man in his mid- 20s, thinking about how to raise huge sums of money for a country that was seeking to establish itself – he was talking about the need to adopt the metric system which, 60 years later, still hadn’t been adopted in Ireland.
“He was talking about the need for Irish people to, of course, cherish and practise their own language, but he was also talking about the need to speak French and German. He was talking about the need to build an Irish economy on the back of exports and competitiveness.”
Mr Coveney was speaking at the launch in Cork City Hall of a book of speeches and reports from commemorations at the site in west Cork where Collins was killed during an ambush 90 years ago.
On Sunday, Enda Kenny will become the first serving Taoiseach to deliver the annual oration. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan will travel to Collins Barracks in Cork on Wednesday to launch a special commemorative €10 coin issued by the Central Bank to mark the 90th anniversary.
