Dominic Collins, SJ (Irish: Doiminic Ó Coileáin; 1566 – 31 October 1602) was an Irish Jesuit lay brother, an ex-soldier, who died for his Catholic faith. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II, along with 16 other Irish Catholic Martyrs, on 27 September 1993.
Dominic Collins was born in 1566 into a prominent Hiberno-Norman merchant family in Youghal, County Cork, in the Kingdom of Ireland, John Collins, his father, and one of his brothers both served as Lord Mayors of the town. His mother, Felicity O'Dril, or O'Dula, was descended from a family of Gaels.
Around 1586, Collins sailed to France, landed at Les Sables d'Olonne, and traveled overland to Nantes, where he worked for three years as an inn servant. His years as an inn servant enabled Collins to acquire both the money for a horse and a working knowledge of both the French and Breton languages. In 1586, Collins joined a cavalry unit during the Brittany Campaign of the French Wars of Religion; namely, the Catholic League led by Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercœur. As such, Collins was at war against both Breton Huguenots and the English and German troops who were sent to assist them. Collins' other enemy was the House of Bourbon, as the Duke de Mercoeur also sought, with both Spanish and Vatican backing, to restore the political independence of the Duchy of Brittany from the Kingdom of France. Collins was known to be an effective soldier and was promoted to the rank of Captain (and was known to the French under the nom de guerre of Capitaine de La Branche).
After personally retaking the district and chateau of Lapena from the Huguenots, Collins was appointed military governor of the territory by the Duke de Mercoeur. Henri of Navarre, the French throne's still Calvinist heir presumptive, offered Collins a bribe of 2,000 ducats to surrender the chateau and surrounding district, but was refused. Only when Collins realized that both the Catholic League and the Breton nationalist armies of the Duke de Mercoeur were collapsing, did he surrender Lapena to Spanish General Don Juan del Águila, who dispatched Collins to Hapsburg Spain via San Sebastián in the Basque Country, with a letter of recommendation to King Philip II, by whom Collins was granted a pension of 25 escudos, which was received only, "for a twelvemonth or thereabouts." Collins then transferred to the Spanish Royal Navy and was stationed at the port of La Coruña in Galicia.
During Lent of 1598, Collins met Jesuit priest Thomas White, a native of Clonmel, who had arrived at A Coruña to hear the confessions of his fellow Irishmen serving there with the Spanish Navy. Collins was convinced that their meeting was providential and White, who had previously founded the Irish College at Salamanca, has left behind a biography of Dominic Collins, which relates in considerable detail the story of the former Captain's call to the religious life. Collins had so firm a desire to become a Jesuit, that White introduced him to Alfonso Ferrer, the Jesuit Provincial of Castile.
Although he was now 32 years old, the Provincial thought it was wise to delay his Jesuit formation, perhaps to test the strength of his vocation. There were doubts too about whether Collins was well-educated enough to become a priest, but the Provincial finally relented in the face of Collins' repeated requests, as he was received as a brother-novice on 8 December 1598. He began his novitiate in the Jesuit college at Santiago de Compostela, where the annals describe Collins as, "an Irishman of distinguished parentage, comely appearance and stature", who had just, "passed thirty-two years of age", and, "had been a Captain of Duke Philip's cavalry in Brittany."
When the Jesuit College was struck by a plague, Dominic tended the victims, nursing some of them back to health and comforting the others in their last hours. A report from that time describes him as a man of sound judgement and great physical strength; mature, prudent and sociable, though inclined to be hot-tempered and obstinate. He was allowed to profess his Solemn vows in February 1601.
Soon after his profession, a Spanish expedition was organised by King Philip III to assist the rising of the Irish clans during the Nine Years' War against the English-led government and in resistance to the Reformation in Ireland. James Archer, an Irish Jesuit priest assigned by the King as military chaplain to the Spanish Army, requested that Dominic Collins be assigned as his companion and assistant, due to his extensive military background. The fleet set sail on 3 September 1601 in two squadrons. The smaller part of the fleet, to which Collins was assigned, ran into bad weather and was delayed, eventually reaching Castlehaven in southwestern Cork on 1 December, the main squadron having reached Kinsale more than two months earlier.
On finally arriving in Munster, Collins discovered that the province lay docile under Lord President of Munster Sir George Carew's domination and control. This was largely due to the recent capture and imprisonment of both Fínghin mac Donncha Mac Carthaig Mór and the Súgán Earl of Desmond.
Collins and Archer vouched with del Aguíla for local Irish clan chief, Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare, who offered to raise his clan and block the march from the Pale of the Crown's principal army under Lord Mountjoy, but del Aguila declined.
The Spanish instead occupied the walled town of Kinsale, which was almost immediately surrounded by Mountjoy in a siege that was to last three months. Seeking to rescue del Águila's forces and break the siege, the coalition of the Irish clans of Ulster marched across the whole length of Ireland through extremely bitter winter conditions, but were catastrophically defeated by the English cavalry at the Battle of Kinsale on 24 December 1601.
Juan del Aguila then surrendered Kinsale on terms. Based almost certainly upon Dominic Collins' tactical assessments, Archer immediately engaged in recrimination. He accused the Spanish commander of cowardice, vacillation, and dereliction of duty by both refusing to heed the advice of local Irish clans and refusing to sally forth and meet his Ulster allies at the critical point. Archer concluded.
Determined to continue the fight, Archer and Collins left Kinsale and joined the forces of Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare, who were still holding out with Spanish backing further down the coast at Dunboy Castle. To Juan del Águila's fury, Archer overruled the local Spanish commander and announced, in violation of the surrender terms negotiated after Kinsale, that Dunboy Castle would not be surrendered but that Clan O'Sullivan would continue holding it in the name of King Philip III of Spain. Juan del Águila was reportedly so incensed that he offered to personally help the English take the castle.
In a letter to Robert Cecil, Sir George Carew, "could not forbear", according to Irish historian Proinsias Ó Fionnagáin, "voicing his almost superstitious fear of Archer". Carew commented, "Archer the priest conjures the foul weather, which I do partly believe, for the old men have never seen the like in May. If he remains in Dunboy I hope to conjure his head in a halter. He hath a fellow devil with him, one Dominic Collins, a friar, who in his youth was a scholar and brother to him that was last year mayor of Youghal. Every week that traitorly priest administers the sacrament to them; yet I hope to sow such sedition amongst them that they will break."
Instead of falling into Carew's hands, Archer returned to Spain to seek further reinforcements, while Collins remained behind at Dunboy Castle with 143 Irish soldiers who were besieged by 4,000 English troops. After an eleven-day siege, Dunboy fell into the hands of the English on 18 June 1602. While all other prisoners were immediately hanged en masse, Collins and two other survivors were held prisoner. They were then taken as prisoners to Shandon Castle in Cork City. There, they were tortured and the two surviving Irish soldiers were executed.