#michael colins

1920 - the year of terror - dublin, ireland - michael collins

éamon de valera (henceforth known as dev) is captured along with the other rebels after the easter rising

16 of them get shot

the rest of them get sent to wales on life sentences

dev is gonna get shot too (because he signed the proclamation) except the british officials find out that he was born in america

therefore he is an american citizen

america would be Extremely Pissed Off to know one of their citizens was executed by the british army

so they give him a life sentence instead

lock him in kilmainham gaol, a high security prison in dublin, and pretty much forget about him

cut to around a year and a half later, in 1917, the prisoners from wales are coming back to ireland because of pressure from the american government and clan na gael

among them some foot soldiers of the irb who have now become de facto leaders of the irish republic (harry boland, mick collins)

britain doesn't know they need to watch out for these dudes because they're just foot soldiers, right?

wrong

dev is getting pretty liked in prison bc u know he's a pleasant guy, mild-mannered, nice, nerdy

he becomes an altar boy to the prison chaplain

STEALS THE CHAPLAIN'S KEYS OFF OF HIS PERSON

MAKES A WAX IMPRESSION OF THE MASTER KEY AND THE ONE TO HIS CELL IN A FUCKING CANDLE

AND REPLACES THEM BEFORE THE CHAPLAIN KNOWS THEY'RE GONE

draws pictures of himself with the keys and some pretty hilarious description

"how shall i get out of this prison"

calm down dev

his wife gets these pictures and is like wtf and just puts them on the table or whatever

the drawings are found by the de valera children's babysitter

guess who their babysitter is

Glasnevin Cemetery,