For example, when in March 1920, a British magistrate Alan Bell was getting close to locating some of the proceeds of the loan that were deposited in the Banks, Collins had him taken from a tram in Sandymount Avenue and shot dead. Another example was when British forces raided the Finance offices and arrested Ernest Blythe (a future Minister for Finance), Collins had the responsible detective shot dead - although another contributing factor was that the same detective had picked MacDiarmada out for the filing squad after 1916 (Coogan 1991:117). One other example is worth noting. On 23rd September 1920, less than 2 months before 'Bloody Sunday' many of the British officers that were to be killed on 'Bloody Sunday' shot John Lynch from Kilmallock, County Limerick in the Exchange Hotel in Dublin. Lynch was the local Sinn Fein organiser of a loan and was in Dublin to hand over £23,000 in subscriptions to Collins - (Coogan 1991:157-8).

The loan campaign was an outstanding success, although at times Collins doubted it saying that he "never imagined there would be so much cowardice, dishonesty, hedging, insincerity, and meanness in the world, as my experience of this work has revealed" (Coogan 1991:127).

The uptake of the Loan was helped by the use of high profile public endorsements. In Ireland, Archbishops Harty of Cashel and Walsh of Dublin plus Bishop Fogarty of Killaloe supported the loan (Costello 1997:47 and Carroll 2002:8). At the other side of the Atlantic, "Captain Robert Monieth, of Roger Casement's Irish Brigade and Peter Golden the poet and leader of the Irish Progressive League were hired as organisers" (Carroll 2002:20).
By the end of July 1920, the internal loan had raised £355,000 and the figure rose to £370,163 by September when it closed down. The geographical source of the non-American funds was dominated by the counties of Munster as Table 1 illustrates.

The fundraising efforts by Eamon deValera and Harry Boland in America were even more successful in terms of the amount of money raised. A total of $5,123,640 (just over £1million sterling) bond certificates were sold in the United States before mid-1921. While De Valera's visit to America was unsuccessful in that it failed to get American diplomatic recognition for the Irish Republic and contributed to the split in the Irish-American nationalist movement/ it more than achieved its target in terms of fund raising. For this De Valera was primarily responsible. A second bond drive in America in the latter part of 1921 raised only $622,720. It was cut short by the Treaty signing of 6th Dec of that year. £500.000 sterling was returned to the Loan Fund from American sources creating a fund totaling approx £875,000 Sterling.
(Ref. "Michael Collins in his own words" Dr Francis Costello, Gill & Macmillan 1997)

The Consequences of the National Loan
While the Irish Free State government had passed 'The Dail Eireann Loans and Funds Act, 1924' providing for the repayment of internal and external loans, the Act was overtaken by events in the legal arena. Because of its purpose and organisation the National Loan gave rise to a number of problems. Subscriptions were sought with a promised repayment once the Republic was recognized internationally. As the Republic was not established did the pro-Treaty side have a right of access to the monies? This question was to be the subject of legal dispute in the Irish and American courts.

The Irish case went to trial in the High Court in Dublin during July 1924. The republican anti-Treaty side argued that the Free State government was not the successor of the first Dail Eireann but got its legitimacy from the Crown. They also argued that the replacement of DeValera and O'Mara as Trustees was illegal. However, their arguments were unsuccessful and they subsequently lost on appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Irish Free State government were hopeful that the Irish judgement might influence proceedings in the American Courts. The American case was complicated by the intervention of a bondholder's committees seeking to lay claim to the monies. The judgement of May 1927 presented the Irish Free State and the Republicans with a dilemma. While agreeing with the republican side that a Republic was never established, and that the Irish Free State government was the successor to the British government and not the Dail Judge Peters also concluded that DeValera and O'Mara had no right to the funds. The Bondholders Committees were granted their rights to the funds".