Born in October 1890 in county Cork, like most irish people in 1890, he left for London as soon as he was able and joined the civil service while studying. He joined the IRB (friends of the Ra) then moved back to Ireland.
He took part in the Easter Rising and got scooped by the Brits. Due to be taken in for some painful interrogation, he accidentally moved to one side and ended up in a different queue and was taken to Wales where he immediately started planning 'what next'.
A load of stuff happened. He became a shinner - MP for Cork South and became part of the first Irish goverment. Norn Iron popped into existence, there was a civil war in Ireland and then in 1922, he went incredibly quiet.
He popped up in the 50s in America as a fighter pilot. In the late 50s, he became a test pilot into the 60s and in 1963 he joined Nasa.
Collins was assigned to the Gemini program and in 1966, launched on board Gemini 10. He became the first astronaut to perform 2 space walks on the same mission.
Moved over to the Apollo program, he was first made capsule communicator for Apollo 8 - the astronaut at mission control and progressed to become primary crew for Apollo 11. He orbited the moon for an entire day, the lonliest man in the solar system.
Post Nasa, amongst other things, Collins became the director of the National Air and Space museum before retiring to live out his remaining days quietly.
He never returned to Ireland and passed away on 28/04/2021 aged 130
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