[Collins, Michael] A lock of hair, said to be from Michael C...

Hammer

€4,400

[Collins, Michael] A lock of hair, said to be from Michael Collins, taped on a card with harp and ‘Erin Go Bragh’ device, inscribed rear, O’Connor, Clerk of Works, 1925.  (1)

Provenance:  This truly unique artifact was given after Collins death on 22 August, 1922 to his friend, Felix Cronin. Cronin was, 3 years later, to marry Kitty Kiernan, Collins fiancé at the time of his death.

Cronin who was a veteran of the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War who served as quarter master General of the Irish Free State army in the 1920s. The couple had two sons, Felix jnr, who died in 2000, and Michael Collins Cronin, who died in 2021.
Cronin was a dashingly handsome ex IRA man. Hearing anecdotes about his hunger strike, or the way he'd borrow a dress suit and gate crash a landlord's ball and dance with the most beautiful women there, you can see why Kitty might have liked him. Ostensibly, she played the role of wife: and mother in the Irish Free State - with style and conviction. But her family was not fooled. "My mother was cut out for something different," said her son Michael many years later. "She found it difficult to settle into her life as a housewife - she knuckled down and did it, but it was a chore."
Kitty had been raised to think of herself as special. Her family was part of the new Catholic bourgeoisie which was a rising force in late 19th century Ireland. The Kiernans ran various business concerns, centred around their hotel, the Greville Arms Hotel, Granard, Co. Longford. But despite their prosperity, the Kiernans suffered great personal tragedy, with both parents and Kitty's twin sisters dying within two years of each other while Kitty was still a teenager. Loss was to become a theme of her life.
Kitty's charisma was recognised at Saint Ita's, the innovative school for girls founded by Patrick Pearse as a partner to his boys' school, Saint Enda's. Kitty was School Captain, the Saint Ita's equivalent of head girl.