the English ruled. The Normans sailed across the sea from Wales. The invaders were the soldiers of a Baron of England, the Earl of Pembroke, also known as "Strongbow;" they had been invited over by the Irish king of Leinster, Dermot Macmurrough. Macmurrough wanted the amazingly superior Norman military technology unknown in Ireland: knights in armor, and archers. The earl then moved in to claim his rewards for his aid in training the Irish soldiers. Strongbow captured Dublin for Macmurrough and married his daughter. When the Irish king died, Strongbow became king of Leinster. After this, Henry II, king of England, intervened; thus beginning the British control over Ireland.
             The English forbid the Irish language (to be spoken or written), inter-marriage of the two societies, and, consequently, confiscated their land and denied the Irish public office. These "laws" were all spelled out in the Statutes of Kilkenny. All rebellions against the British were crushed, and Irish suffrage was denied. While Protestant landowners grew wealthy, the Catholics lived on potatoes.
             Great leadership requires a great vision, one that inspires a leader and enables him to inspire the nation. Michael Collins, the Irish politician and Sinn Fein leader, was born near Clonakilty, County Cork on October 16, 1980 to Michael John Collins and Marianne O'Brien. Collins' father was sixty years old when he married twenty-three Marianne; despite their large age differences they were apparently happy as they went on to have eight children. Michael Senior was seventy-five years old when Michael Junior, the youngest, was born; Michael Junior was six when his father, a farmer, died. The family lived and worked on ninety acres called Woodfield. He was educated in the local primary schools and his schoolmaster, Daniel Lyon, was the first to give him a sense of pride for the Irish as a race. When Collins was sixteen, he w...