Michael Collins is a

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by ki ...

referee from

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns ar ...

. He is from

Clonakilty Clonakilty (; ), sometimes shortened to Clon, is a town in County Cork, Ireland. The town is located at the head of the tidal Clonakilty Bay. The rural hinterland is used mainly for dairy farming. The town's population as of 2016 was 4,592. Th ...

. Collins first took up refereeing in 1985 when he officiated a West Cork Junior B Football League game in

Barryroe ''Barryroe'' is an undeveloped oil and gas field discovered in the Atlantic ocean due south of County Cork, Ireland. Close to the exhausted Kinsale Head gas field, it is as close as to the Kinsale Head existing pipeline. The discovery is at a w ...

. After four years, he was part of the

Cork GAA The Cork County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) ( ga, Cumann Luthchleas Gael Coiste Contae Chorcaí) or Cork GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Cork and the ...

referees' panel. He made his inter-county debut in 1994, overseeing a Munster MFC game between

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

and

Tipperary Tipperary is the name of: Places *County Tipperary, a county in Ireland **North Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Nenagh **South Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Clonmel *Tipperary (town), County Tipperary's na ...

. His first involvement at senior inter-county level saw him referee

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

against

in the 1998 Munster SFC. He later officiated the 2001 Ulster SFC final, an All-Ireland SFC quarter-final and the 2001 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final between

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, and is the sixth most populous city ...

and

Meath Meath may refer to: General * County Meath, Republic of Ireland **Kingdom of Meath, medieval precursor of the county ** List of kings of Meath ** Meath GAA, including the intercounty football and hurling teams ** Diocese of Meath, in the Roman Cath ...

. He also received a Celtic Ross Sports Star of the Year Award in 2001. Collins's inter-county refereeing career concluded in 2013, after he officiated the Division 2 game between

Longford Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...

and

Laois County Laois ( ; gle, Contae Laoise) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 ...

. His last championship involvement was a Leinster SFC first round game between

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N1 ...

and Longford. He was replaced by

David Gough David Gough ( ; born 1983) is a Gaelic football referee from County Meath. He is a member of the Slane club. His four umpires are father Eugene, brother Stephen, uncle Terry and cousin Dean, who have assisted him with every game since he started. ...

, who would become an All-Ireland SFC final recipient himself, though there was space on the panel after

Pádraig Hughes Pádraig Hughes is a Gaelic football referee from Armagh. He is a regular member of the Gaelic Athletic Association's Championship Panels for inter-county games. Hughes injured himself against Eamonn Doherty when he was officiating the Dubl ...

injured himself against

Eamonn Doherty Eamonn Doherty (born 1990/1) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for St Eunan's and the Donegal county team. He is a secondary school teacher in Buncrana. Playing career Club Eamonn Doherty started his club's winning senior county final ...

when he was officiating the

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

game in

Ballybofey Ballybofey ( , ; ) is a town located on the south bank of the River Finn, County Donegal, Ireland. Together with the smaller town of Stranorlar on the north side of the River Finn, the towns form the Twin Towns of Ballybofey-Stranorlar. B ...

. Collins is married and has a son. As of 2018, he was working in SuperValu in Clonakilty.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, Michael Year of birth missing (living people) Living people All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final referees Gaelic football referees