Ireland’s longest serving public representative Noel Collins who died on Monday repeatedly topped the poll for over half a century despite shunning modern technology such as mobile phones and computers.
The Cork County councillor was in his late 80s when he died at Oaklodge Nursing Home in East Cork. He was a public representative for 55 years, representing the people of Midleton and East Cork on Midleton Urban District Council and Cork County Council.
“Noel was unique,” said his close friend, Cllr Michael Hegarty of Fine Gael. “He never drove, he had a landline but never gave out the number, he never had a mobile phone or used a computer and shunned social media and yet he topped the poll time after time in East Cork in the county council elections.”
Cllr Collins was, to use his own phrase “of Blueshirt stock”, but he went his own way as an Independent in 1969 when he failed to get a party nomination for the next general election.
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“Noel used to use a typewriter for all his official correspondence to the council, but he would send handwritten letters to his constituents – he did a pile of work in his own quiet way for people who might be going through tough times – he was like a charity worker at times,” said Cllr Hegarty.
A past pupil of Mount Melleray, Cllr Collins studied for the priesthood but abandoned the clerical life to go working in the UK as a professional social worker before returning to Ireland to work in a grocer’s shop in Midleton from where he began his political career in the late 1960s.
But as fellow Independent, Cllr Alan Coleman recalled, Cllr Collins never quite left his clerical training behind him. “He used to come in with his motions typed out and he was a brilliant orator as he proposed his motion – it was like listening to a bishop and you would listen through to the end.”
While he was deeply religious, Cllr Collins was far from judgmental and had a commitment to social justice that made him popular across the chamber, garnering him huge respect from political colleagues and great affection from council staff.
“I think everyone in the council, colleagues and officials will be very sad at Noel’s passing because there was great affection for him – I will remember him as a close friend and colleague but more so, he will be remembered for the great work he did for the people of East Cork and beyond,” Cllr Hegarty said.
Mayor of Cork County Cllr Gillian Coughlan led the formal tributes, pointing out that the late Cllr Collins was “the longest sitting councillor since the establishment of Cork County Council and the longest serving public representative in the State”.
Cllr Coughlan pointed out that when Cllr Collins celebrated 50 years of unbroken service as a public representative in 2017, his fellow councillors remarked on his unwavering dedication to social justice, his uncanny local knowledge and his generous support and advice to younger councillors.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin also paid tribute to Cllr Collins, whom he described as a friend whose great commitment to helping the less well off and his tireless dedication to fighting for the most vulnerable in society were qualities that he greatly admired.
His body will be lying in repose at the Church of the Most Holy Rosary in Midleton after 6pm on Tuesday, June 14th with requiem mass taking place at 11am on Wednesday, June 15th after which his remains will be transferred at his instruction to University College Cork for medical research.
