Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is interesting that Senator Malcolm Byrne should end his commentary on local government because I want to spend my few moments today paying tribute to one of the most distinguished county councillors this country has ever seen. We learned last night of the death of the Independent Councillor Noel Collins from Cork County Council. He was a wonderful man who represented east Cork first and was elected over 54 years ago. Many may not know but he started off as a Fine Gael councillor for a short period of time and he remained a poll topper. He was a true and remarkable gentleman and I valued him as one of my greatest friends in politics.

Councillor Noel Collins was one of the longest serving councillors representing this State and I visited him two weeks ago, which was the last time I spoke to him, at Oaklodge Nursing Home. One of the abiding memories of that was that he took my hand, held on to it and asked me if I was going home.I took that as a sort of a prompt to wonder whether I had overstayed my time or talked too much. Our entire conversation was about politics. Indeed, he welcomed by thanking me, as the "county clerk", for coming to see him, and I said, "I ain't the county clerk." He said, "I know you're not; you're Victor. I'm only joking." We had a chat and, interestingly, he spoke about the former Labour Party Councillor Jane Dillon Byrne, so he could think far back. He asked me to take him home, and he said there was nothing better than being at home in one's own home, belonging to a community that values one.

There is a message in all that for us as politicians. As those who knew him will recall, he was a politician who had no mobile phone, no car and no computer, yet he connected with his people. He had little handwritten cards, recycled from the back of, invariably, Weetabix or Ready Brek cardboard boxes, and he stood at the church wall between his house, St. Jude's on St. Mary's Road, and the church, and he asked people who wanted to see him to make an appointment with him. He was a generous man, full of charitable deeds and work, and he worked behind the scenes, especially for the homeless and the vulnerable. Noel Collins was a tireless and fearless public servant, afraid of nothing and respected by all.

I met the parish priest in Midleton with him before Covid. The priest called him over and said, "Collins, I hear you're always down with the Protestants", to which Collins replied, "Yes, and this is one", pointing at me. He then said, "Father, you're missing one thing: God is everywhere and I'm following Him." That, in a way, summed up who Collins was. He was a man of great passion. He found a passion and a vocation. Indeed, he had always wanted to study for the priesthood, and when I asked him why he had not done that, he said he had taken another journey and another route. That shows the similarities between the roles of parish priest and politician. He was a truly wonderful councillor. He earned a devoted base of voters through his work. He walked with his people and broke bread at people's tables. He shared with people and cared for them. He was independent of mind and of spirit, and that made him best placed to be an Independent councillor.

We will miss him, as will local government, Cork County Council and the Association of Irish Local Government. We will truly never see his like again. May he rest in peace.