{{short description|Irish politician (1881–1937)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = Con Collins.jpg | caption = Collins in 1923 | office = Teachta Dála | term_start = May 1921 | term_end = August 1923 | constituency = Kerry–Limerick West | term_start2 = December 1918 | term_end2 = May 1921 | constituency2 = Limerick West | birth_name = Cornelius Collins | birth_date = {{birth date|1881|11|13|df=y}} | birth_place = Newcastle West, County Limerick, Ireland | death_date = {{death date and age|1937|11|23|1881|11|13|df=y}} | death_place = Dublin, Ireland | party = Sinn Féin | spouse = | children = | alma_mater = |}} '''Cornelius Collins''' ({{langx|ga|Conchobhar Ó Coileáin}}; 13 November 1881 – 23 November 1937), known as '''Con Collins''', was an Irish Sinn Féin politician.<ref name=IrishTimes>{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/tv-takes-its-best-shot-yet-at-taboo-war-1.126930|title=TV takes its best shot yet at taboo war|newspaper=The Irish Times|date=22 January 1998}}</ref><ref name=Christianname>{{cite web|url=http://www.kilmainhamgaolautographbooks.ie/people/cornelius-collins/|title=The Office of Public Works. Cornelius Collins.|work=Kilmainham Gaol Autograph Books|access-date=6 August 2022}}</ref><ref name=Firstname>{{cite web|url=https://www.thejournal.ie/1918-election-your-constituency-4388399-Dec2018/|title=Who was your Irish MP in 1918?|work=Thejournal.ie|date=14 December 2018}}</ref>
He was born in Arranagh, Monagea, Newcastle West, County Limerick. He had joined the Gaelic League by 1910 when working in London for the civil service, as had Michael Collins the previous year. He was a member of the Irish Volunteers and of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He and Austin Stack had been on their way to meet Sir Roger Casement at Banna Strand in County Kerry in 1916 when they were arrested by the British authorities on Easter Saturday. They spent Easter Week in Tralee Barracks and in solitary confinement on Spike Island, County Cork; they were then held with Terence MacSwiney, Arthur Griffith and others in Richmond Barracks before being sentenced to penal servitude for life.<ref>Souvenir Booklet, Tralee Silver Jubilee Remembrance Week, 1941: reproduction of account of Austin Stack published in the ''Kerry Champion'' in 1929</ref> He was deported to Frongoch in Wales where he spent the rest of the year and much of 1917.
He was elected as a Sinn Féin MP for Limerick West at the 1918 general election.<ref name=oireachtas_db>{{cite web|url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Conor-Collins.D.1919-01-21/|title=Con Collins|work=Oireachtas Members Database|access-date=11 April 2009}}</ref> In January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs who had been elected in the Westminster elections of 1918 refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled at the Mansion House in Dublin as a revolutionary parliament called Dáil Éireann.<ref> {{cite web |url=http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.F.O.191901210004.html |language=Irish |title=Roll call of the first sitting of the First Dáil |work=Dáil Éireann Historical Debates |date=21 January 1919 |accessdate=11 April 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071119184338/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.F.O.191901210004.html |archive-date=19 November 2007 }}</ref> At the 1921 Irish elections he was elected for the constituency of Kerry–Limerick West. He opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty and voted against it.
He refused an offer of the Ministry for Posts and Telegraphs if he would switch to the pro-Treaty side. Having been sworn to non-violence – together with Richard Mulcahy – by the Augustinians, he did not join the anti-Treaty forces. He was again re-elected for Kerry–Limerick West at the 1922 general election, this time as anti-Treaty Sinn Féin Teachta Dála (TD). He did not contest the 1923 general election and retired from politics.<ref name=elecs_irl>{{cite web|url=http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1133|title=Conor Collins|work=ElectionsIreland.org|access-date=11 April 2009}}</ref> He died in Dublin in 1937, aged 56, and is buried in Mount St. Lawrence cemetery, Limerick.
He and Piaras Béaslaí share a distinction in that they contested and were elected in three Irish general elections unopposed by any other candidates.<ref name=elecs_irl/><ref name=beaslai> {{cite web|url=http://www.electionsireland.org/candidate.cfm?ID=1018|title=Piaras Béaslaí|work=ElectionsIreland.org|accessdate=6 June 2009}}</ref>
==See also== *List of members of the Oireachtas imprisoned during the Irish revolutionary period
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110607070232/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.T.192201070002.html Contribution to Dáil Treaty debate]
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{s-bef|before = Patrick O'Shaughnessy}} {{s-ttl|title = Member of Parliament for Limerick West |years = 1918–1922}} {{s-non|reason = Constituency abolished}} {{s-par|ie/oi}} {{s-new|constituency}} {{s-ttl|title = Teachta Dála for Limerick West |years = 1918–1921}} {{s-non|reason = Constituency abolished}} {{s-end}} {{Kerry–Limerick West (Dáil constituency)/TDs}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Con}} Category:1881 births Category:1937 deaths Category:Early Sinn Féin TDs Category:Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood Category:Members of the 1st Dáil Category:Members of the 2nd Dáil Category:Members of the 3rd Dáil Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Limerick constituencies (1801–1922) Category:UK MPs 1918–1922 Category:Politicians from County Limerick