For more than a century, Ireland has never issued an official death certificate for General Michael Collins — the man who helped create the Irish State and gave his life in its service.

Collins was killed on 22 August 1922 at Béal na Bláth. No inquest was ever held. No formal autopsy was completed. No medical certification was preserved. And no death certificate was ever registered.

Today, the Irish Government acknowledges that no certificate exists, yet refuses to issue one — claiming that too much evidence has been lost. But the cause of death is not in dispute: Collins died from a gunshot wound to the head. This is universally accepted by historians, by the State, and by every surviving account.

Irish law allows late registration of a death even when original documents are missing, provided the Registrar General is satisfied as to the facts. The State’s failure to conduct an inquest in 1922 cannot now be used as a justification for continued inaction.

Michael Collins deserves the same recognition in death that every Irish citizen is entitled to.

We, the undersigned, call on:

The Oireachtas Petitions Committee
The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
The General Register Office
to finally issue an official death certificate for General Michael Collins.

A century of silence is long enough.

General Collins is  a national hero and the dignity,respect and honor he so well deserves in Irish history and in death has been overlooked by the Irish government.

Michael Collins was a key figure in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War, serving as the Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Free State Army and an original founder of the Irish State.

Today, most serious historians regard Collins as:

a central architect of Irish independence,
a founder of the Free State,
and one of the most important figures in modern Irish history.

The debate is usually not whether he mattered — it is whether Ireland has honored him enough relative to his contribution.

That feeling of unfinished recognition is one reason discussions about:

his death,

missing records,

the ambush at Béal na Bláth,

and his place in Irish history
continue to resonate more than a century later.