The Big Fellow

The Big Fellow

Michael Collins and the Irish Revolution

by Frank O'Connor

1937
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About
In 1916, a young man named Michael Collins returned to his native Ireland, after ten years in voluntary exile in London, to join one of the most impassioned and complicated revolutions in history. Playfully nicknamed "The Big Fellow," Collins began to take a key role in the uprisings, eventually becoming a revered revolutionary leader. Acclaimed writer Frank O'Connor, a man who himself fought in the Irish Civil War, traces Collin's life from the day he returned to Dublin to the day a young Irish soldier shot him dead on a country road. The Big Fellow achieves a narrative both probing and poetic as it chronicles the life of a man so charismatic that he made people "aware of his presence even when he was not visible, through that uncomfortable magnetism of the very air, a tingling of the nerves."

Discussion questions for The Big Fellow

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  1. 1

    How did O'Connor convey Michael Collins's extraordinary charisma and presence? Can you recall specific instances or descriptions that made you feel his "magnetic" influence, even as a reader, and have you ever encountered someone with such an almost palpable presence in your own life?

  2. 2

    Frank O'Connor fought in the Irish Civil War. How do you think his personal involvement shaped his portrayal of Collins and the revolution? Did you find his narrative to be objective, deeply empathetic, or something else entirely?

  3. 3

    The description calls the revolution "impassioned and complicated." In what ways did O'Connor illustrate this complexity, particularly concerning the difficult choices Collins and his contemporaries had to make? Were there moments that challenged your understanding of "right" and "wrong" in times of intense conflict?

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