We will never know what Collins dreams were for the new Ireland, that he by signing the treaty created.....He was certainly a good military organiser and he was a master at creating contacts (agents) in vital places.....He never say much action on the military front apart from the burning of the Customs house ( which Dev ordered) and what a disaster that was, and the terrible decisions he made on the day of his death.....

Although Collins signed the treaty and fought for it in the Dail, he was at the same time organising and arming the IRA in the north, He gave the order for the execution of Henry Wilson while at the same time promoting the free state....We will never know what Collin's plans for Ireland's future were, that bullet in the head will always leave future generations guessing.....

I believe that Collin's loyalty to the republic was real and that ultimately , if he had lived he would have proved it....He was already moving away from the cosy free state cartel before he set out on his fatal voyage.....I believe that collins genuinely signed the treaty because he say it as a stepping stone to a republic....I believe that he would have used the boundary commission to make the northern state unworkable...that his ultimate loyalty was to the republic /Sinn Fein and the IRA.....

Sadly his untimely death probably robbed the republic of its greatest asset.......