Michael Collins' walking stick sells for £52,000

A walking stick owned by Irish republican leader Michael Collins has been sold in Belfast for £52,000, a price five times higher than that expected by auctioneers.

The century-old item, which has a silver collar and tip, is accompanied by a letter of provenance.

On Monday evening, the bidding stood at £8,200, just shy of the expected selling price of £10,000.

It was among a series of historical lots going under the hammer.

Police files tracking Collins' activities during Ireland's War of Independence were also being auctioned at Bloomfield Auctions in east Belfast.

Auctioneer Karl Bennett said he was "absolutely shocked" at the price the stick sold for and "delighted" for the owner.

"[He was] jumping around the room listening to the auction, shouting and yee-hawing and woo-hooing," he said.

"All sorts, both him and his wife. They just had absolutely no idea."

The stick had been held by a private collector for the past 42 years and Mr Bennett said his client felt it was time to see the stick go into the right hands, especially coming up to 100 years since Collins' death.

He confirmed the stick had sold to an institution in the Republic of Ireland and, while he could not reveal their identity, he was confident the stick would go on public display.

Museums and private collections had expressed an interest in the walking stick before it went up for auction on Tuesday afternoon.

Prior to the auction, Mr Bennett said a politician in Cork had asked the Irish government to buy the rosewood stick.

The auctioneer described the stick as "unremarkable" bar its owner.

"Michael Collins was the man," he said.

"People respected Michael Collins back then and still do. He was hailed by many people in Ireland as the real hero in Ireland at that particular time."

One of the major figures who brought about Ireland's independence from Britain and the partition of the island into what would become Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

He led the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the War of Independence with Britain, which lasted from January 1919 until July 1921. His leadership came to be known for his use of guerrilla tactics by the vastly outnumbered rebel forces.

During peace talks with Britain in 1921, he led a delegation which negotiated and agreed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which would create an independent Irish Free State. The treaty also confirmed the partition of Ireland.

It was hugely divisive in Ireland - when it was passed by the Irish parliament, it set the stage for the Irish Civil War. Collins would be the commander-in-chief of the Irish National Forces during the war, but was assassinated by anti-Treaty forces in 1922.

Other items in the police and military-themed sale at Bloomfield Auctions include a service medal from the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin complete with its original box.

The intelligence reports on Collins are contained in a dossier of Royal Irish Constabulary documents that cover the period 1920 to 1922.

"Within those documents we have a plethora of information that was received," said Mr Bennett.

"It was amazing how good the intelligence was back in 1921."

Mr Bennett said the papers had sold to a private individual for £6,800, which he described as an "astonishing" figure.

"Again I think the current owners are flabbergasted, we expected maybe an estimate on those of maybe £1,000-£2,000 at the very early days," he said.

The BBC News NI website has a dedicated section marking the 100th anniversary of the creation of Northern Ireland and partition of the island.

There are special reports on the major figures of the time and the events that shaped modern Ireland available at bbc.co.uk/ni100.

Year '21: You can also explore how Northern Ireland was created a hundred years ago in the company of Tara Mills and Declan Harvey.

Listen to the latest Year '21 podcast on BBC Sounds or catch-up on previous episodes.