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Neil Jordan movie sparks French woman’s devotion to Michael Collins

Lecturer with no connections to Ireland is infatuated with IRA leader

CATHAL DERVAN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Monday, January 2, 2012, 5:47 AM

Updated Monday, January 2, 2012, 9:04 AM

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Michael Collins in London

Photo by Google Images

A French woman has spoken of her unbelievable devotion to the memory of Michael Collins – thanks to the Neil Jordan bio-pic of the Irish leader.

Veronique Crombe has spent a small fortune paying homage to the man who signed the Treaty even though she has no connections with Ireland.

Her 10-year long love affair with the IRA leader began when she saw the movie, starring Liam Neeson and produced by Neil Jordan

She is now known as the ‘mysterious French lady’ who regularly places flowers on the grave of the revolutionary in Dublin’s Glasnevin cemetery.

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Speaking to the Sunday Independent newspaper, the 50-year-old lecturer and guide at the French National Museum, struggled to explain her ‘overwhelming’ desire to keep Collins’ memory alive.

Crombe admitted to the paper that she regularly visits Ireland to place flowers at the grave and also holds commemorations celebrating the life and times of Michael Collins.

“The draw of seeing the Jordan film three years after it was released appeared to me that it was more than an excellent actor giving a great performance, Michael’s life story was finally being told to the world,” said Crombe who plans to hold a candlelight ceremony at the grave on October 29th, 2012.

Veronique told the Sunday Independent how she was attending an Indian classical dance workshop in the south of France in August 2000 when she felt the inexplicable need to rush to a nearby cathedral and light a candle for Collins.

“On the 22nd, the date he was shot dead, was the decisive moment which helped me understand that definitely, sooner of later I would have to go to Ireland to know more and that going to his grave would show me the way. That Michael himself was drawing me to continue on his story,” she said.

“I’m not the only one who feels that way, my friend, author Chrissy Osborne, told me time and again, when she published her first book about Michael, Michael Collins Himself and also the second one, Michael Collins, A Life in Pictures, that she had always felt that it was Michael who wanted those two books to be written and published because both were a different approach to recounting his life.

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ciaradexy | Mar 22, 2012, 04:03 PM EDT

Merefalow, Im glad theres no massive monument to him. I was down there in November and the feeling I got standing there was unreal. I got a shiver down my spine and a massive sense of pride. A ridiculous monument would have taken away from that. I stood there in the rain and imagined how it was back 90 years ago. A monument would detract from that feeling.

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ciaradexy | Mar 22, 2012, 04:01 PM EDT

I love how Ancavker and george actually KNEW Collins and how he thought! its just brilliant! It must be amazing to read his private diary or to have conversed with him back over 90 years ago!

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merefalow | Mar 20, 2012, 04:14 PM EDT

i have never understood irish denuncification of michael collins,no one understood the military situation better,with the brits flooding back at the close of war,outgunned and devoid of weaponry and ammunition he reluctantly accepted the best deal available,if he had not, Ireland would probably not be a republic now.as is well know he also realized he was signing his own death warrant.he deserves a better and bigger monument than the one at beal na blah,sorry if i have spellt it wrong. better to settle for something than nothing,tomorrow is another day.

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ancavker | Jan 04, 2012, 01:33 PM EST

George: I agree that De Valera had no real influence in stopping the civil war, but had he spoke out against it, it could have helped. As far as the Free State starting it, remember Collins pact with the anti-treaty side, enraged Churchill, who than stopped the with drawl of British forces from the 26 counties. Collins was stuck between a rock and a hard place. And remember the civil war was not over partition as so many seem to believe.

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GeorgeDillon | Jan 04, 2012, 07:58 AM EST

IrelandNorth: Good point. It also has come out that Collins usually had a glass of whisky in his hand during the negotiations. No wonder he was such a patsy for the British. And at night he usually went AWOL, because he was in close contact, very close contact, with Lady Lavery in London. But the worst element of that stupid Neil Jordon movie (leaving out Julia Roberts) was its portrayal of the anti_Treaty side and their arguments. There were perfectly good reasons for opposing the Treaty, and indeed a substantial part of the Irish people opposed it. Had ALL the newspapers and almost all the Catholic clergy not abused their position to do propaganda for the treaty, the number against it would surely have been even higher. The anti-Treaty side is reduced to a bloodthirsty caricature in the movie. While I am no admirer of De Valera, the depiction of him as a ruthless villain is absurd. Dev didn't have much to do with the Civil War once the Free Staters started it, and he was a million miles from the silly cartoon figure of the movie. Remember if Dev and the anti-Treatyites were so awful, how come they came to power in elections within a decade of the Civil War? Indeed they might have taken power even earlier, in 1927, except for a series of events.

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IrelandNorth | Jan 04, 2012, 07:05 AM EST

Read recently Ruth Dudley-Edwards' biography of Pearse. She describes that Collins, as Plunkett's aid-de-camp in the GPO in 1916 was more impressed by Connolly's intellect than with Pearse's. Sadly, he seems to have become cross-contaminated by English acendency's class discrimination.

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ancavker | Jan 03, 2012, 11:04 AM EST

George D: hey at least she honors the man, as opposed to so many Irish who ignore him. And while the movie took some historical liberties with the facts, it did a good job at portraying Collins and the times he lived in.

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GeorgeDillon | Jan 03, 2012, 03:28 AM EST

Posted by Murph46 on Jan 02, 2012, 08:47 PM EST Just glad she did't see Lassie Come Home! ------Very Good, Murph.

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maireadinmelb | Jan 03, 2012, 03:14 AM EST

based on a true story!

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Murph46 | Jan 02, 2012, 08:47 PM EST

Just glad she did't see Lassie Come Home!

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myhomenj | Jan 02, 2012, 03:50 PM EST

what was dishonest about the movie? I thought it was a true story !