Who was Michael Collins’ mother? Mary Anne O’Brien explored

Michael Collins’ siblings were Margaret (b.1876), John (“Seán”, b.1878), Johanna (“Hannie”, b.1879), Mary (b.1881), Ellen (“Helena”, b.1883), Patrick (“Pat”, b.1884) and Catherine (“Katie”, b.1887).

Born on 16 October 1890, Michael was the youngest child and was named after his father, then aged 75. Later, Mary recalled her 38-year-old mother’s stoicism just hours before Michael was born:

“I remember the night before Michael was born — I was then nine — I held the strainer while she [Mary Anne] poured the milk, fresh from the cow, from very heavy pails into the pans for setting the cream. She moaned occasionally and when I asked her was she sick she said she had a toothache and would go to bed when the cakes were made for tomorrow. I said nothing as in those days children were to be seen but not heard. The next morning there was the miracle of the baby. No doctor. No trained nurse and mother and baby well and comfortable!”

Domestic life in Woodfield

When Mary Anne moved to her husband’s home in Woodfield, his older bachelor brothers – Patrick (“Paddy”) and Thomas (“Tom”) – still resided there, though Tom died within a few short months of the wedding. It has been reported that another of Michael’s older bachelor brothers, Maurice, a retired RIC officer, also lived in the homestead. However, when he died in late 1877, he had been residing in Clonakilty town.

All of the rest of the Collins family members lived together in a small house (still standing today) on a sizeable farm of about 60 acres, containing a number of scattered holdings. Also part of the Collins household were a female maid (cailín aimsire), two “working boys” and a “working man”, who was a skilled ploughman (the latter lived in a separate cottage on the farm). Paddy leased the farm from Lord Carbery, but on his death in July 1891, aged apparently 91, Paddy bequeathed the lease to his brother, Michael (Snr).

All of the Collins children’s birth records list their father’s profession as “farmer”, probably indicating that Michael (Snr) ceased working as a carpenter soon after he was married and instead concentrated his attention on the family farm in Woodfield. He was described by his daughter Mary as austere and quiet.

Working alongside her husband, Mary Anne was also kept busy on the farm, milking cows and carding the wool from their sheep. Her many domestic duties at Woodfield included making butter, mending clothes, cleaning, and tending to the needs of Michael (Snr), his brothers and her children. Guests also received a warm welcome in Woodfield from Mary Anne, who was described as a “hostess in ten thousand”.

At some point, possibly when she was pregnant with Michael, Mary Anne fell and broke her ankle. It never set right and she was left with a limp, which made her daily tasks all the more laborious. Nonetheless, Woodfield thrived under Mary Anne’s influence and work ethic. Some of the children would later describe their family as a happy one, while the Skibbereen Eagle characterized the Collinses as “one of the most respected and respectable families in the West Riding” (20 Apr. 1907).

But the family were thrown into mourning when Michael (Snr) died on 7 March 1897. The cause on his death record is listed as “general debility old age”; he was then 81 and his youngest child, Michael, was only seven years old. Michael (Snr) was interred in the Collins family plot in Kilkerranmore medieval church site, the last family member to be buried there.

Building “Woodfield House”

Michael Collins (Snr) had bequeathed the farm at Woodfield to his wife Mary Anne and she soon set about making her mark on the place. In 1899–1900, a new house was built in the farmyard at Woodfield, close to their former dwelling.

Erected by the Cahalanes, the new farmhouse was a substantially larger, two-storey building. It was one of 22 second-class houses recorded in Woodfield townland in the 1901 census (a single first-class house was also recorded). There were five windows to the front of the house and at least eight rooms, the largest number of rooms in any house in the townland. The young Michael Collins now had his own bedroom, with a fine large window providing views of the surrounding landscape.

Owing to its large size, it became known as “Woodfield House” and its size seems to indicate that the Collins family were somewhat better off than most of their fellow Catholic neighbours. In April 1921, the Essex Regiment burnt the farmhouse and all that remains of it now are its footings.

However, the older, smaller dwelling – the house in which Michael Collins was born and lived for the first ten years of his life – is still extant. When the family moved into the new house, their old house was converted into an outbuilding for the farm.

In 1901 there were nine outbuildings and another had been added by 1911; there were two stables, a cow house, a calf house, a dairy, a piggery, a fowl house, a barn, a turf house and a shed. Again, the Collins homestead had the most outbuildings of all the houses in Woodfield townland, giving us an indication of the scale of the farm’s productivity.

Other facets of Mary Anne’s personality

Aside from her industrious nature, we know relatively little about Mary Anne’s personality though it is said she loved reading and spending time in her flower garden (a rather rare extravagance for the time); her children inherited this love of flowers. She also had a strong Catholic faith and there were several clerics and religious in the O’Brien and Collins families.

According to family tradition, the first steps of Mary Anne’s daughter Helena were delayed after she suffered an accident during which she was badly burnt. It is said Helena walked for the first time when she was five years old after her mother undertook pilgrimage rounds at a nearby shrine dedicated to the local patron saint, Fachtna. Helena would later become a nun and take the name Sr Mary Celestine.

We also know that Mary Anne was financially involved in several business ventures. Her eldest daughter, Margaret, married Patrick O’Driscoll, a journalist and editor with the Southern Star, who subsequently founded the Cork Sun. Due to O’Driscoll’s somewhat chequered past, he found it difficult to obtain financial backing for the new paper and so Mary Anne became a senior shareholder. The Cork Sun was described as “a vigorous Nationalist organ” (Kerry People, 30 May 1903). Mary Anne also helped to fund the West Cork People, another nationalist newspaper edited by O’Driscoll.

Mary Anne’s involvement in these nationalist publications perhaps speaks more of her sense of familial obligation and maybe a flare for business than any shared sentiments with her overtly nationalistic and sometimes controversial son-in-law. Indeed, historian Cal McCarthy has described Mary Anne as politically moderate.

Nonetheless, Mary Anne enjoyed reciting rabble-rousing, semi-nationalistic songs and poems such as “The Lament for O’Sullivan Beare” and O’Donovan Rossa’s “Jillen Andy”. She was recorded as an Irish speaker in the 1901 census and it is said she would converse in her native tongue secretly with her husband. But she refused to teach the language to her children. This reluctance probably stemmed from an awareness that English speakers had better work and emigration opportunities.

Ill health and death

By the time Michael Collins was in his early teens, his mother’s health had begun to deteriorate. In her ill health, Mary Anne grew anxious about her youngest son. She fretted to her daughter Mary, “he is head of the class and I am afraid he will get into mischief”. She also longed for him to earn a good living.

Consequently, he was sent to study for the post office exams in the boys’ national school in Clonakilty in c.1904 so he could go on to obtain stable employment in the civil service. In 1906, aged 16, Michael Collins got a job in the Post Office Savings Bank in West Kensington in London before switching to an American bank in the city.

A number of Mary Anne’s other children also became civil servants. Like her youngest brother, Hannie worked for the postal service in London, while Margaret, Mary and Katie all became teachers; Sr Mary Celestine was also a teacher. Pat emigrated to America and there he joined the police force.

In early 1907, soon after Michael Collins had left for England, his mother’s health took a further dive. For several weeks, Mary Anne suffered “a lingering and torturing illness”. Despite her devoutness to the Roman Catholic Church, Mary Anne was well respected in the Protestant community and it has been reported that her Protestant neighbours cared for her on her deathbed.

“To the last, her faculties were clear and bright. Though racked with pain and though cold water was her food and drink for seven weeks previous to her happy release, she spent all her time preparing her soul for her maker and she was sustained by the most intense religious fervour.” (West Cork People)