Michael Collins’ grand-nephew appointed to Supreme Court

A CLONAKILTY man who is a grand-nephew of Michael Collins has been appointed as an ordinary judge on the Supreme Court.

Maurice Collins, a brother of Skibbereen-based solicitor Helen Collins, was invested as a judge in 2019 and has served on the Court of Appeal ever since.

Mr Justice Maurice Collins will now replace Mr Justice Frank Clarke, who retired last October. Maurice is one of three sons of the late Liam Collins, who was a nephew of General Michael Collins, and he has five sisters.

In 1943, Liam Collins established the Clonakilty law firm Collins Brooks and Associates but just three of the family went into the law, including his brother Michael, who worked for the health service in London.

Maurice did his BA (hons) at University College Cork and was called to the bar in 1989 and became a senior counsel in 2003.

He served as the former chair of the Incorporated Council for Law Reporting and he became a Master of the Bench, at King’s Inns in 2017.

Mr Justice Collins and his wife, Nora Rice, who is also a solicitor, are patrons of the National Gallery.

‘Both my mother Betty and my father would have been so proud of Maurice and his achievements,’ Helen Collins told The Southern Star.