A portrait of General Michael Collins hangs on the wall of Michael Collins TD’s constituency office in Skibbereen.

Below the image of the Republican leader sits the Independent Ireland founder and Cork Southwest TD who shares his name.

Next to his desk hangs a memorial card from the day General Collins died and a signed photo of footballer Lionel Messi.

‘If there’s an obsession I have in politics and life, it’s General Michael Collins,’ he says.

‘I wouldn’t be fit to tie his shoelaces, but I’ll do my best to leave my own legacy in politics. He was Ireland’s greatest hero, and he didn’t hide.’ He admits that most rooms in his home have a picture of the freedom fighter who inspired him.

The Independent Ireland founder spoke at length to The Southern Star about his life, politics, and what he sees as some of the pressing issues facing his constituency. He describes a tense climate in Irish politics.

‘There’s a lot of anger out there,’ he says. ‘I’ve been chased outside the gates of the Dáil by protestors, people roaring and screaming, and sometimes you don’t even know what they’re angry about.

Attack

‘I’d actually spoken in support of what they wanted that day, but they just wanted to attack. I had to square up to them.’

Founded in 2023, his party has attracted both controversy and support across the country. Though Collins welcomes debate, he says he’s been the target of verbal attacks, most recently when out and about in Skibbereen.

‘This woman came up to me, effing and blinding, pardon my language, saying I’d voted for things I never voted for. She wouldn’t listen. I said, ‘Scream away there.’ My daughter was in the car and told her to go away.’

Collins believes the landscape he and most politicians operate in has the potential to turn dangerous. ‘I hope that I’m wrong, but I think it’s only a matter of time before a politician in Ireland gets killed,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot of anger out there. I see it in Dáil Éireann, I see it here. A lot of people are upset.’

Within the political spectrum, Independent Ireland sees itself as a centrist party, he says. ‘We move a little to the right but that’s needed in politics. You look at immigration. What we were saying two or three years ago, the Irish government are saying today.’

Realist not racist

But he says there’s no basis to accusations of racism against him. ‘People have called me a racist but that’s nonsense. I’ve never been against immigration and I fight to get people work permits every week.

‘I don’t have a problem if people come here to work. All I said was small towns and villages can’t cope if you flood them with people when there aren’t enough services. I was being realistic, not racist,’ he says.

Michael Collins’ belief in rural Ireland comes from his upbringing near Goleen. His father worked for nearly 50 years with Drinagh Co op, while his mother was involved in community causes.

Milking cows

‘I was milking cows by hand at eight years of age, rain, sleet or snow,’ he remembers. ‘I was happy doing it. We all played our part in the home.’

His mother’s death from cancer at 54 left a deep impression. Throughout his upbringing religion played a part, and is still important to him.

‘We were taught to respect all religions,’ he says. ‘I’m still comfortable being a Catholic and go to mass every weekend. I think young people should have faith in something because it gives you somewhere to turn.’

Politics wasn’t discussed much at home, he says, and his parents never told him who they voted for but their work ethic shaped him. He worked as an undertaker, a meter reader for ESB, and a landscaper before entering politics. ‘I left school at 12 or 13 and have been working with my bare hands since then,’ Collins says.

Oireachtas

After his involvement with local causes and organisations such as the Goleen Community Council, the self-made politician entered national politics in 2016 as an Independent TD and has held his seat since. ‘It was an awful pull of the handbrake, going from cutting lawns in Goleen to heading for Dublin,’ he admits.

Beside immigration, his policies focus on rural issues such as farming, fishing, housing, health and infrastructure. He describes West Cork as a farming constituency and criticises the government’s handling of agriculture and trade, saying officials were ‘all over the place’ on Mercosur while Irish farmers struggled to get a fair price.

He also feels Ireland’s fishing industry has been neglected, arguing that while leaders talked about sustainability, they had allowed super trawlers to devastate Irish waters. And another issue close to his heart is social media and its risks.

‘I got elected on Facebook,’ he admits, ‘but it’s highly dangerous, especially for kids. When I left school, everything stopped at 3pm once you got home, no matter how toxic it was. Today, the bullying keeps going on their phones. Where’s all this hate coming from?’

In international affairs, Collins feels that Ireland needs to preserve strong diplomatic and economic links with the United States. He believes the country should avoid taking an overly critical stance of the US and instead keep channels of communication open instead, especially when it comes to major companies based here like Apple.

Closer to home, he pointed to problems such as hospital downgrades and rural decline, visible in pub and post office closures. The delay in Bantry’s flooding protection, stalled housing plans and failing wastewater systems show that the government was ‘asleep at the wheel’, he says.

But despite the many issues he wants to tackle and a busy calendar, he finds time for himself on occasion. ‘I like music and Arsenal, and sports in general. I’m a big, big Arsenal fan since the early 1970s. That’s my downtime, to watch soccer or Match of the Day,’ he says, pointing at the Messi photo beside his desk.