Editing Michael Collins (Irish leader) (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Michael Collins by John Lavery.jpg|left|thumb|''Love of Ireland'' by [[John Lavery]]]]
Collins bequeathed to posterity a considerable body of writing: essays, speeches and tracts, articles and official documents in which he outlined plans for Ireland's economic and cultural revival, as well as a voluminous correspondence, both official and personal. Selections have been published in ''The Path to Freedom'' (Mercier, 1968) and in ''Michael Collins in His Own Words'' (Gill & Macmillan, 1997). In the 1960s, Taoiseach Seán Lemass, himself a veteran of the 1916 Rising and War of Independence, credited Collins' ideas as the basis for his successes in revitalizing Ireland's economy.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

Nine years after his death, the UK Parliament passed the [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]], which removed virtually all of London's remaining authority over the Free State and the other dominions. This had the effect of granting the Free State internationally recognised independence, thus fulfilling Collins' vision of having "the freedom to achieve freedom".

Collins and the IRA were a major source of inspiration for the leader of the [[Zionist]] insurgent [[Lehi (militant group)|Lehi]] group and future [[Prime Minister of Israel]] [[Yitzhak Shamir]]. During the [[1948 Palestine War]] Shamir adopted "Michael" as his ''[[nom de guerre]]''.<ref>{{Cite web   |date=2012-07-01 |title=Yitzhak Shamir dies at 96; former Israeli prime minister |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2012-jul-01-la-me-yitzak-shamir-20120701-story.html |access-date=2022-07-26 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Sinn Fein and the Zionists {{!}} {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2003/may/23/guardianletters |access-date=2022-07-26 |website=amp.theguardian.com|date=23 May 2003 }}</ref> Chinese leader [[Mao Zedong]] also studied Collins' practices of [[guerrilla warfare]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Weinraub |first=Bernard |date=1996-10-09 |title=An Irish Legend's Life And Mysterious Death |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/09/movies/an-irish-legend-s-life-and-mysterious-death.html |access-date=2022-07-26 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

The Collins 22 Society established in 2002 is an international organisation dedicated to keeping the name and legacy of Michael Collins in living memory. The patron of the society is Ireland's former Minister for Justice and TD [[Nora Owen]], grand-niece of Michael Collins.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.generalmichaelcollins.com/|title=Collins 22 Society|work=generalmichaelcollins.com|access-date=23 October 2024}}</ref>