Strange thing to say from someone who seems to have based their impression of Irish nationalism on a movie.
The case of Michael Collins was a complicated one, and he was by no means universally regarded as honourable within the nationalist movement.

That aside, well of course many of those involved in nationalism were arrested on any excuse and imprisoned for all sorts of things. They certainly did make appeals to the USA - described by your predecessors as " begging appeals". Similarly, the Irish would be described by those who opposed nationalism in very similar terms to those you have applied to this man.

No doubt they felt, as you appear to, that it was safer to hold onto the apron strings of a foreign power than demand home rule and risk any difficulties which might arise from that. It's fairly clear to me where you would have stood in that conflict, despite the fact that you no doubt have some romantic delusion on the matter. That's perfectly okay though - I don't mean to put you down for your honestly held opinions - but I do think it's hard for you to justify the inconsistency in your view of the matter of national sovereignty and rebellious individuals in different times and places.