Free Michael Collins and the Women Who Spied For Ireland by Meda Ryan Page A

people who guided me from the surface to the depth of Michael Collins’ work and especially his reliance on women to help him towards his goal of independence for Ireland.
    The late Tom Barry was the first to tell me of Leslie’s (his wife’s) involvement with Michael Collins. This led me to interviews with Leslie Price, with Máire Comerford and Dave Neligan and I am most grateful for their assistance. I am also indebted to Madge Hales-Murphy who gave me some useful information some years ago, as did Todd Andrews and Emmet Dalton after much persuasion. Gratitude is also due to other contemporaries of Michael Collins: the late: Peg Barrett, Dell Barrett, Bill Stapleton, Vinny Byrne, Dan Bryan, Ernest Blythe, Seán Collins-Powell, Seán MacBride, Ned Barrett, Seán Hyde, Bill Hales, Siobhán Lankford, Mary Collins-Pierce and Kitty Collins O’Mahony. All these people gave me first-hand information and without them this book would be incomplete.
    I am indebted to Michael Collins (nephew of Michael Collins) who gave me the diary found on Michael Collins’ body, and Michael Collins-Powell who gave me other treasured documentation, as did Mary Clare O’Malley; to John Collins-Pierce, who trusted me with the Memoirs of Helena Collins and Mary Collins-Powell; to Liam Collins for his reminiscences; also to Liam O’Donoghue for the Nancy O’Brien letters. A further dimension was added to the book when Dorothy Heffernan and Máire Molloy willingly gave of their time and supplied letters and documentation in relation to their mothers – Dilly Dicker and Susan Killeen respectively. I also found original insights in the letters of Moya Llewelyn Davies, given to me by Diarmuid Brennan.
    I am extremely grateful to Iosold Ó Deirg who let me see Michael Collins’ journals, which were written in Sligo jail in 1918 and given to her mother Sinéad Mason during a subsequent raid. I am also grateful to Maura Hales-Murphy and Eily Hales MacCarthy for access to their family letters in relation to Michael Collins.
    A sincere word of gratitude to Domhnall MacGiolla Phoil, to his wife Mary, also to Eily Hales MacCarthy and her husband, Gus, who have been most generous with their time and advice.
    I owe a special word of gratitude to Peter Barry, who generously allowed me access to the Kitty Kiernan collection of letters and gave permission to reproduce material from it.
    I greatly appreciate the assistance and courtesy of the staff of the following bodies and thank them for access to and permission to quote from the archives in their care: Seamus Helferty, Kerry Holland and staff at the Archives Department of University College, Dublin; the Mulcahy Trust (the papers of Richard Mulcahy); Commandant Peter Young, Military Archivist and his staff; Gerry Lyne and staff at the National Library; Dr Bernard Meehan and staff of the manuscript department, Trinity College, Dublin; the Director and staff of the National Archives, the State Paper Office and Public Records Office; Niamh O’Sullivan, Archivist, and staff at Kilmainham Museum; Stella Cherry, Curator, Samantha Melia and other staff in the Cork Public Museum; the British Library Newspaper Board; Noel Crowley and staff at Ennis County Library; John Eustace and the library staff at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick; also Bríd Frawley at the University of Limerick.
    I valued the positive response of the many people who gave interviews and helped me over my years of research: Dan Cahalane, Frank Aiken, Dr Ned Barrett, Jim Kearney, Bill Powell, John Toolan, Tom McCarthy, Tony Killeen, Josephine Griffin, Mary Banotti, Andy Tierney, John L. O’Sullivan, Todd Andrews, Ernest Blythe, D. V. Horgan, Margaret Helen, Criostóir de Baróid, Seán MacBride, Dave Neligan.
    I realised that finding photographs of those who lived in the early part of this century would be difficult. Therefore I am most grateful to those who went out of