Editing Michael Collins (Irish leader) (section)

==Aftermath==
[[File:Sean Collins behind the coffin of his brother Michael.jpg|left|thumb|Sean Collins behind the coffin of his brother Michael.]]

Collins [[lay in state]] for three days. Tens of thousands of mourners filed past his [[coffin]] to pay their respects, including many British soldiers departing Ireland who had fought against him. His funeral mass took place at Dublin's [[St Mary's Pro-Cathedral]] where a number of foreign and Irish dignitaries were in attendance. Some 500,000 people attended his funeral, almost one-fifth of the country's population at that time.<ref name="Coogan, TP Michael Collins 1990"/>{{page needed|date=July 2020}}

No official inquiry was ever undertaken into Collins' death and consequently, there is no official version of what happened, nor are there any authoritative, detailed contemporary records.<ref name="ReferenceL"/>{{page needed|date=August 2020}}

[[File:Collinsfuneral.jpg|right|thumb|Funeral of Michael Collins in the [[St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral|Pro-Cathedral]], Dublin (contemporary newspaper depiction of the [[List of Irish state funerals|state funeral]])]]

De Valera is alleged to have declared in 1966, "It is my considered opinion that in the fullness of time history will record the greatness of Michael Collins; and it will be recorded at my expense." However, there is no evidence he ever made this remark.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dolan|first=Anne|title=Commemorating the Irish Civil War: History and Memory, 1923–2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iS_3r0vHMxsC&pg=PA87|series=Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare|volume=13|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-02698-7|page=87|access-date=5 October 2020|archive-date=23 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923035122/https://books.google.com/books?id=iS_3r0vHMxsC&pg=PA87|url-status=live}}</ref>