MICHAEL COLLINS was killed in an ambush at Beal Na mBlath outside Cork on August 22, 1922.
Having fought for Irish Independence he was later involved in the creation of the Irish Free State.
Born in Clonakilty, Co. Cork in 1890, he lived in London for a time after finishing school. It was here that his interest in Irish politics and the republican movement began.
A member of Sinn Féin, he returned to Ireland and took part in the 1916 Easter Rising, for which he was imprisoned but later released.
In the 1918 general election Collins won his seat for South Cork and in January 1919 Ireland's government was declared a sovereign parliament - Dáil Éireann.
Collins was appointed minister of home affairs and later minister of finance.
Violence between the British and the Irish was at a high during this time, but a truce was agreed in 1921 when Collins led an Irish delegation to London.
This resulted in the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which created the Irish Free State but ultimately split the republican movement - those for and those against.
Collins was shot on August 22, 1922 - assassinated by anti-treaty supporters during an ambush in Co. Cork.
He was was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin on August 28, 1922.
See our gallery of archive pictures from the state funeral of Michael Collins here...
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