Cork is known as the Rebel County. Our new Taoiseach Micheal Martin is a rebel. So too was Michael Collins, the leader that Ireland lost in an ambush in his home county on 22 August 1922.

Growing up the youngest of eight children, Collins fought in the 1916 Easter Rising and was imprisoned for his troubles.

Following his release in December 1916, Collins set about organising a second rising, what became known as the War of Independence.

This time there was to be no storming of the General Post Office. Collins had learned the lessons of 1916.

As Director of Intelligence for the Irish Republican Army (IRA), he conducted a guerilla war against the occupying British forces.

He was the man behind the initial deaths of Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920, when his team of assassins killed 16 men, mostly British Army Intelligence officers.

Retaliation from British forces took place later that day at a Gaelic football match in Croke Park when 14 people were killed.

The War of Independence ended on 11 July 1921 when a truce was agreed.

When it came time to negotiate the terms for Irish Independence, Collins was a member of the Irish delegation that travelled to London in order to negotiate with Prime Minister Lloyd George and his team.

The result of those talks was the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 6 December 1921, an agreement that divided Ireland in two.

An agreement that also led to the Irish Civil War, an unhappy chapter in our countrys history.

Collins fought on the side of the pro-Treaty forces in the Civil War, the side that eventually prevailed in May 1923.

He did not live to see that day, however, killed in an ambush on 22 August 1922 in his native Cork.

Michael Collins is seen as the great lost leader of Ireland.

Outgoing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar kept a portrait of Collins in his office.

He is still a hero to many.