Michael Collins (politique) citations

Michael James Collins est un leader révolutionnaire républicain irlandais. Il a été ministre des Finances de la République irlandaise, leader de l'Irish Republican Brotherhood, Directeur des services secrets de l'IRA, membre de la délégation irlandaise durant les négociations du traité anglo-irlandais, président du Gouvernement provisoire et Commandant en chef de l'Armée nationale irlandaise. Il est plutôt reconnu en tant que chef militaire, mais il a aussi fait partie de plusieurs comités politiques.

Il meurt lors d'une embuscade dressée par les anti-traité, en août 1922, pendant la guerre civile irlandaise.



Wikipedia  

✵ 16. octobre 1890 – 22. août 1922
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Michael Collins (politique): 10   citations 0   J'aime

Michael Collins (politique) Citations

Michael Collins (politique): Citations en anglais

“There is a simple test. Those who are left in possession of the battlefield have won”

Contexte: The Treaty is already vindicating itself. The English Die-hards said to Mr. Lloyd George and his Cabinet: "You have surrendered". Our own Die-hards said to us: "You have surrendered". There is a simple test. Those who are left in possession of the battlefield have won.

“In my opinion it gives us freedom, not the ultimate freedom that all nations desire and develop to, but the freedom to achieve it”

Regarding the Anglo-Irish Treaty during a parliamentary debate ( Dáil Éireann - Volume T - 19 December, 1921 (DEBATE ON TREATY) http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.T.192112190002.html)
Contexte: Now as one of the signatories of the document I naturally recommend its acceptance. I do not recommend it for more than it is. Equally I do not recommend it for less than it is. In my opinion it gives us freedom, not the ultimate freedom that all nations desire and develop to, but the freedom to achieve it.

“We have to learn that freedom imposes responsibilities”

A Path to Freedom (2010), p. 14
Contexte: There is no British Government anymore in Ireland. It is gone. It is no longer the enemy. We have now a native government, constitutionally elected, and it is the duty of every Irish man and woman to obey it. Anyone who fails to obey is an enemy of the people and must expect to be treated as such. We have to learn that attitudes and actions which were justifiable when directed against alien administration, holding its position by force, are wholly unjustifiable against a native government which exists only to carry out the people's will, and can be changed the moment it ceases to do so. We have to learn that freedom imposes responsibilities.

“The European War, which began in 1914, is now generally recognized to have been a war between two rival empires, an old one and a new, the new becoming such a successful rival of the old, commercially and militarily, that the world-stage was, or was thought to be, not large enough for both. Germany spoke frankly of her need for expansion, and for new fields of enterprise for her surplus population. England, who likes to fight under a high-sounding title, got her opportunity in the invasion of Belgium. She was entering the war 'in defense of the freedom of small nationalities'. America at first looked on, but she accepted the motive in good faith, and she ultimately joined in as the champion of the weak against the strong. She concentrated attention upon the principle of self-determination and the reign of law based upon the consent of the governed. "Shall", asked President Wilson, "the military power of any small nation, or group of nations, be suffered to determine the fortunes of peoples over whom they have no right to rule except the right of force?" But the most flagrant instance of violation of this principle did not seem to strike the imagination of President Wilson, and he led the American nation- peopled so largely by Irish men and women who had fled from British oppression- into the battle and to the side of the nation that for hundreds of years had determined the fortunes of the Irish people against their wish, and had ruled them, and was still ruling them, by no other right than the right of force.”

A Path to Freedom (2010), p. 38

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