Discover the soldier and peacemaker that was Michael Collins! Michael Collins was born in County Cork and was the youngest of eight children. He moved to London as a teenager but returned to Ireland to fight in the Easter Rising of 1916. By 1919 he was Minister for Finance in the First Dáil. After the Irish War of Independence, Michael went back to London to negotiate peace. The resulting Anglo-Irish Treaty established the Irish Free State but depended on an oath of allegiance to the Crown. And so the Irish Civil War began … Michael Collins is the sixth book in Gill’s Little Library series. Other books in the series are Granuaile, Brian Boru, Mary Robinson, Tom Crean and Constance Markievicz. When your collection is complete you’ll have a Little Library – and big knowledge! By John Burke and Kathi Burke Kathi ‘Fatti’ Burke is an Irish illustrator. She lives in Lisbon. John Burke is Fatti’s dad. He is a retired primary school teacher and principal.  He lives in Waterford. Together they also created the award-winning, bestselling series of books Irelandopedia, Historopedia and Foclóiropedia.