yeah, my friend who's a modern Irish historian and a comrade is no fan of him at all and neither am I. i mean like i said he was a force for good at times, but it's not like left wing anti-imperialist nationalism hadn't been invented yet, James Connolly being the shining example of that on this island. Collins' nationalism was qualitatively different and of a vulgar, right-wing nature.

I don't know what you mean by "benefit of the doubt", we can acknowledge Collins' material contribution to the struggle while criticising his significant shortcomings and reactionary tendencies. no need to let him off the hook because he was effective at killing Brits.

and again, signing the treaty was unforgivable in my view. after which he led his guys to fight on the wrong side of the civil war (the bourgeois counter-revolution), violently enforcing the will of the British crown against his fellow Irish people. playing an active role in dooming the nation to a century of rule by a bourgeois comprador class. these aren't things you can just handwave away, it's clear you don't know much of the history here. he tends to be upheld these days by social chauvinist and right-wing nationalists, and it's not some great contradiction, they kind of are his inheritors. he was a bad guy and frankly a traitor.