'Hard working, decent, and honourable': Tributes paid to former Cork councillor

Cork county councillors have paid tribute following the death of their former colleague and previous deputy mayor of County Cork, Timmy Collins, describing him as “hard working, decent, and honourable”.

Mr Collins, a councillor for Kanturk-Mallow, was from Meelin village in Duhallow, North Cork.

He was co-opted in the Kanturk electoral area in 2002 as a member of Fine Gael, but later ran as an Independent in 2009. He retired from politics in 2018 at the age of 71.

His former electoral area colleague, Fianna Fáil’s Bernard Moynihan, said that Mr Collins was “a great friend of mine”.

“He got the highest vote ever in the Kanturk electoral area in 2009 with 3,400 votes — he was a huge vote-getter, a very popular man who worked very hard for his community,” he told The Echo.

“He was honourable — when you did a deal with him, he stuck to his deal.

“He’s a huge loss to his family and to Meelin, he championed Meelin at every opportunity.”

Mr Moynihan explained that Mr Collins served as deputy lord mayor from 2014 to 2015, and was also chairman of the municipal district and of the northern committee, saying: “Timmy was truly a public representative — hard working, decent, and honourable.

“He worked hard for his community, championed a lot of issues — his sole focus in the council was trying to get things done.”

Current Deputy Mayor, and Fianna Fáil councillor for Mallow-Kanturk, Ian Doyle, told The Echo that Mr Collins “was a guiding influence, he was a sound man to give advice and support”.

“There’s huge sadness in North Cork now — he was very much a part of the place, and he had North Cork at the core of his interests.”

Fianna Fáil’s Gearóid Murphy said he was “very sad” to hear of Timmy’s passing: “Timmy was an utter gentleman and went out of his way to make me feel welcome when I was first co-opted onto Cork County Council eight years ago.

“It was a pleasure to work with him, and I was honoured to be his deputy when he served as chair of the Kanturk-Mallow Municipal District in 2018. He represented his home village of Meelin with distinction for many years.

“I was only thinking of him [on Monday] night when our Cork Rose of Tralee was on the TV, because she’s from Meelin, and Timmy would have been very strongly associated with his home village.”