Editing Michael Collins (Irish leader) (section)

===Civil War peace moves===
Roughly two weeks after Cork city had been taken by Provisional Government forces, Collins travelled there to attempt to seize large sums of money that the anti-Treaty Republicans had lodged in various banks, under the account of the Land Bank.<ref>Dermot Keogh, Michael Collins, the making of the Irish Free State, (2006) p.67-68</ref>

There is also considerable evidence that Collins' journey to Cork in August 1922 was made in order to meet republican leaders with a view to ending the war.<ref name="ReferenceL">Feehan, John M. ''The Shooting of Michael Collins: Murder or Accident?'', Cork, Mercier 1981</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2020}}

Collins also conducted a series of meetings, regarding the possibility of peace talks in Cork on 21–22 August 1922. In Cork city, Collins met with neutral IRA members [[Seán O'Hegarty]] and Florence O'Donoghue with a view to contacting Anti-Treaty IRA leaders Tom Barry and [[Tom Hales (Irish republican)|Tom Hales]] to propose a truce. The anti-Treaty side had called a major convocation of officers to Béal na Bláth, a remote crossroads, with ending the war on the agenda.<ref name="ReferenceF"/>
[[File:Michael Collins Risteard Mulcahy Glasnevin Cemetery at the funeral of Arthur Griffith.jpg|right|thumb|Michael Collins and [[Richard Mulcahy]] at [[Arthur Griffith]]'s funeral, a few days before Collins's own death.]]
De Valera was present there. However, Michel Hopkinson writes that 'there is no evidence that there was any prospect of a meeting between de Valera and Collins.<ref name=h177>Hopkinson, Green Against Green, p.177</ref> The People's Rights Association, a local initiative in Cork City, had been mediating a discussion of terms between the Provisional Government and the anti-Treaty side for some weeks.<ref name="Coogan, TP Michael Collins 1990"/>{{page needed|date=July 2020}}<ref name="ReferenceK"/>

Collins' personal diary outlined his proposals for peace. Republicans must "accept the People's Verdict" on the Treaty, but could then "go home without their arms. We don't ask for any surrender of their principles".<ref name=h177/> He argued that the Provisional Government was upholding "the people's rights" and would continue to do so. "We want to avoid any possible unnecessary destruction and loss of life. We do not want to mitigate their weakness by resolute action beyond what is required". But if Republicans did not accept his terms, "further blood is on their shoulders".<ref>Hopkinson, Green against Green, p. 177-178</ref>