structural:expansion, linguistic:voice_change, quality:correction, information:extraction
Legacy

Collins bequeathed to posterity a considerable body of writing: essays, speeches and tracts, articles and official documents in which he outlined plans for Ireland's economic and cultural revival, as well as a voluminous correspondence, both official and personal. Selections have been published in The Path to Freedom (Mercier, 1968) and in Michael Collins in His Own Words (Gill & Macmillan, 1997). In the 1960s, Taoiseach Seán Lemass, himself a veteran of the 1916 Rising and War of Independence, credited Collins' ideas as the basis for his successes in revitalizing Ireland's economy.

Nine years after his death, the UK Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, which removed virtually all of London's remaining authority over the Free State and the other dominions. This had the effect of granting the Free State internationally recognised independence, thus fulfilling Collins' vision of having "the freedom to achieve freedom".

Collins and the IRA were a major source of inspiration for the leader of the Zionist insurgent Lehi group and future Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Shamir. During the 1948 Palestine War Shamir adopted "Michael" as his nom de guerre. Chinese leader Mao Zedong also studied Collins' practices of guerrilla warfare.