Collins Name

The Collins ancestors came from County Limerick, Ireland. Collins is regarded as a genuinely indigenous Irish name; in fact, it is one of the most numerous Irish surnames, being number 30 in the relevant statistical list with an estimated Collins population in Ireland of 14,500 people as of 1970. The name comes from the Anglicization of O'Cullane, itself derived from the name O'Coileain (the term Coilleain meaning 'young hound, a young fearless warrior' in the original tongue). The family derives its descent from Fiacha Fighinte, son of Daire Cearb, son of Olioll Flann Beag, who is No. 87 on the "Line of Heber". The name originated in North Desmond which extended into the modern County Limerick, where the Collins' (O'Cullane) were Barons of Upper Connello and Lords of Eighter Conghalach (Lower Connello) intermittently from the 9th to the 12th century. In 1178 they were set upon by Norman invaders: the Fitzgeralds. In 1228 the "war loving O'Collins's" were driven southward by the Normans into West Cork near the territory possessed by their kinsmen Cathal, son of Crom O'Donovan. Some of the remaining members in Limerick retained power in Claonglass until about the beginning of the 14th century when their power passed also to the Fitzgeralds. The division of the family into the West Cork branch, and into those who remained in Limerick until driven out, caused the creation of two family crests. I have copied both crests and they are shown in this history. There are maps at the end of this chapter that show the original Collins homestead. Claonglass was a district in Hy Conal Gabhra, in the barony of Upper Connello, southeast of Abbeyfeale; it was sometimes called Hy Cuileann. The author with his wife, Phyllis, and father, Winfred, visited the areas of Claonglass and the two baronies during the summer of 1987. A baronial castle dating from the 12th century still stands in the old area of Claonglass. In 1266, Mahon O'Collins, lord of Claonglass, and the last of the ruling Collins', was killed by his wife, with a thrust of a knife, in a fit of jealousy.

There are English families by the name Collins also. The English Collins comes from the Collins' of Cornwall. The Cornish family was established by the Irish Lords of Lower Connello who migrated there from Ireland in the 13th and 14th centuries as a result of the wars with the Normans.

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