Michael Collins Convoy Motorbike

A Famous Motorbike Is Re-discovered

About twenty five years ago the late Conor Murphy of the Western Garage in Clonakilty made contact with me and mentioned that he had parts of a Triumph motorbike that was passed onto him from his father Mick Murphy and that it was Michael Collins’ motorbike.

Conor however wasn’t sure what the connection to Michael Collins was, he wondered if in fact Collins had driven the bike himself.

In 2017 Conor Murphy donated the parts of what turned out to be a 1919 Triumph Model H to our Museum at Castleview.

Sadly Conor Murphy passed away in September 2024.

What followed were years of on and off research where I found a lot of evidence of Michael Collins riding a bicycle, but no evidence of Michael Collins ever riding a motorbike.

It is now my belief that the remains of the motorbike are not the remains of Michael Collins’ bike but rather the remains of the motorbike that led his convoy on the day that he was shot.

The lead vehicle in Michael Collins’ convoy on his final journey through West Cork on Tuesday August 22nd 1922 was a Model H Triumph motorbike driven by motorcycle scout Lieut John Joseph Smith.

During the battle at Béal na Blá, Smith was wounded in the neck while helping to lift the dying Michael Collins off the road with the officers of the convoy. Lieut Smith was then unable to drive the motorbike and it was abandoned at the ambush site.

Tom Hales the officer in charge of the Anti-Treaty ambush party took possession of the motorbike and some years later gave it to Bruno O’Donoghue who was working as a supervisor of milk testing for Bandon Co-Op, O’Donoghue used the motorbike traveling around to farms in the Bandon area.

Brono O’Donoghue was a founding member of a branch of the Fine Gael party in Bandon in 1933. In 1936 he went to Spain to fight under General Eoin O’Duffy on the Nationalist side in the Spanish Civil War.

He is better known today as the author of the book, “Parish Histories and Placenames Of West Cork “ one of the great studies of placenames in West Cork.

It was in 1936 that O’Donoghue gave the Triumph Model H to a friend Colonel PJ Coughlan from Manch near Ballineen who had once been a close associate of Michael Collins during the War of Independence and while serving as an officer in the National Army during the Civil War. In the 1930’s Coughlan was one of the national leaders of the Blueshirt movement and it’s associate organisations.

Col Coughlan later organised non-political annual Michael Collins commemorations at Béal na Blá, from the mid 1930’s until his death in the late 1950’s

Meanwhile Coughlan who was an engineer got involved in the 1940s setting up a number of small hydro-electric schemes in places like Castletown – Kenneigh, this was before rural electrification. During that time Coughlan dismantled the motorbike and used the engine and gearbox mounted on a part of the frame to power a water pump or generator.

Michael Dullea a relative of Col Coughlan remembered as a boy being shown “Michael Collins’ Motorbike” by Colonel Coughlan in a shed at the back of Coughlan’s house near Ballineen.

Before Col Coughlan’s death in 1957 he passed on the remains of the Triumph Motorbike to his great friend in Clonakilty Mick Murphy, who operated the Western Garage in the town. Later the parts of the famous motorbike were passed on to Conor Murphy Mick’s son, who took over running the garage after his father’s death.

The frame number on the Motorbike tells us that it was made in late 1918 and the number on the engine tell us that it was made in early 1919, both were made for military issue.

It is poignant to remember that this machine led the way for Michael Collins’ convoy on that faithful day in 1922 and was just yards away from Collins as he was dying on the roadside.

About 60% of the Motorcycle has survived and it will be on display at the Museum in Castleview throughout the 2025 season next to a more complete version of the same model H Triumph Motorbike.