SNIPPET: Per Edward T. O'Donnell's "1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Irish American History" (2002) - the man most responsible for the success by the Irish Republic Army against the British was Michael COLLINS (1890-1922). Born into a farming family in Cork, he grew to embrace the Irish nationalism of his father and schoolmaster (the latter a member of the Irish Republic Brotherhood). At 16, he took a clerkship in London, where he learned finance and developed organizational and planning skills - all of which served him well after he joined the IRB. COLLINS participated in the Easter Rising of 1916, but was not recognized as a leader and spared execution. In 1919 the First Dail Eireann named him minister of finance. He also acted as a director of intelligence, a position that made him a key figure in the buildup of the Irish Volunteers (soon recognized as the Irish Republican Army). In these capacities COLLINS organized the acquisition and distribution of arms for the IRA and established an ingenious intelligence network that kept him informed of British operations. He also devised the successful guerrilla tactics employed with such effectiveness against the British army and Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). In the midst of the mounting violence, COLLINS engineered Eamon de VALERA's sensational escape from prison in April 1919. Unanimously elected president of the Dail, de VALERA immediately set about gaining international recognition of the Irish Republic founded by Sinn Fein. He sent Sean O'KELLY to the Versailles Peace Conference, where the great powers were meeting in the aftermath of WWI. He quickly discovered, however, that U. S. President Woodrow WILSON (grandson of Scotch-Irish immigrants from Co. Antrim) had no intention of upsetting his British allies by pushing for Irish independence. In response, de VALERA decided to tour the U. S. to arouse support for American recognition of the Irish Republic and gather financial donations from Irish Americans. Arriving in June of 1919, he toured the country for a year and a half, drawing widespread popular support and raising the astounding sum of six million dollars. But he failed in his primary goal of achieving official recognition by the American government. His stay in America also resulted in a rift with the leaders of Irish American nationalism, John DEVOY and Judge Daniel COHALAN, who resented his effort to organize Irish American support for the Republic independent of their control. Back in March 1916, during the first of three "Irish Race Conventions" convened in NYC by Clan Gael, a new nationalist organization was born, the Friends of Irish Freedom. Dedicated to seeing Ireland "cut off from England and restored to its rightful place among the nations of the earth," the FOIF played a major role in stirring up Irish nationalist sentiment in the U. S. and raising millions of dollars for the independence movement in Ireland. By the time de VALERA arrived in June 1919, membership in the organization had surged to more than 250,000. Statement issued at the Irish American Convention, NYC, May 14, 1917: "RESOLVED, that this assemblage of American citizens of Irish blood, loyal to the United States, and ready to defend her honor and interests, and recognizing that our Government is entitled to the best advice that Irishmen who understand the situation can give, urgently request the President and Congress to demand that England make good her promises in the only way possible in regard to Ireland, namely by according to the Irish people their indubitable right to be regarded as a sovereign people, and by granting to Ireland full national independence...and be it RESOLVED, that we therefore submit to the President and Congress that America's entry into the war for democracy and civilization gives our government the right, and imposes upon it the duty, to demand from England that she settle the Irish Question permanently and finally..." The guerrilla campaign waged by Michael COLLINS and the IRA was to take a severe toll on the Royal Irish Constabulary and British Army by the end of 1919.