Michael Collins following his election as Mayor of Limerick City and County Council.
Limerick City and County Council has a new mayor following the election on Tuesday afternoon of Newcastlewest-based Councillor Michael Collins. It was a historic moment for the Fianna Fáil councillor and for the Council, as the Killeedy native becomes the last mayor to be elected by council members. At a referendum in 2019, Limerick voted 52.4% to 47.6% in favour of a directly-elected mayor from 2021 onwards.
Councillor Collins, who is steeped in a traditional Republican background, was first elected to the old Limerick County Council in 2004. The new Mayor has been comfortably elected at each local election since, and last February stood in the General Election. Despite only being added to the Fianna Fáil ticket just three weeks before polling day, Cllr Collins polled a hugely impressive 5,150 first preference votes. In his first year on the Council in 2004, Cllr Collins was vice-chairman to then-chairman, former Cllr Eddie Wade, and he has been chairperson of the Newcastlewest Area and the Newcastlewest Municipal District on a couple of occasions.
The new Mayor is well-known in music circles, is a multi-instrumentalist and a prominent member of Comhaltas. His parents were founder members of Killeedy Comhaltas. Cllr Collins is married to Fiona, nee O’Connor, from Newcastlewest and the couple have three sons, Shane – who is married to Sharon and has a son Shane – Miceál and Darragh.
Fianna Fail’s Councillor Azad Talukdar was elected Deputy Mayor.