Many will remember him as Johnny Connors in the television series Glenroe. A role he was to play for eleven years. Others may recognise him as Mikey from Kilanaskully.
Michael Collins is a name that is very recognisable not just from the aforementioned TV shows, but from his many appearances on stage in such venues as The Abbey Theatre, The Peacock and Team Theatre. And now, Michael comes to Kilkenny to perform his one-man show Magpies on the Pylon.
Magpies on the Pylon is set in a tiny bedroom belonging to Jim, a Traveller father who struggles to cope with the suicide of his 23-year-old son. After his son’s death, Jim has become isolated from other family members. The audience accompanies Jim on an emotional rollercoaster ride as he articulates loving memories of his son, his fears for the wellbeing of his other three children, the turmoil that has developed in his relationship with his wife, his anger at God, and his agonising questions about whether there was something he could have done to prevent his son’s death.
Michael Collins is an Irish actor and member of the Irish Traveller community. He has been an advocate of Traveller human rights for over 30 years and was awarded a lifetime achievement award in 2015 for his contribution and work around Travellers‘ rights. Not only is he an actor, but he is a writer and performer and has acted on stage in the Abbey and Olympia Theatre’s. Michael played Johnny Connors in RTE’s Glenroe for over 10 years and has been in numerous films including Sting Like a Butterfly, Pavee Lackeen, Bog Body and Strength and Honour, Trojan Eddie, and most recently King Of The Travellers and Stalker.
Mr Collins has written his own play It’s a Cultural Thing, or is it?, which he has spent the past two years performing in venues in Ireland and in the UK. This play received a five star review in the Irish Times in the 2005 Dublin Fringe festival. His second play Mobile looks at the dilemma of a Traveller man who is matched off to fight another Traveller to settle a family dispute. The fellow who he is to fight is not only his cousin but they are also married to two sisters. The play explores some of the issues of internal fighting within the Traveller community through the eyes of Peter, one of the combatants who is faced with the dilemma ‘will I, won’t I fight?’. His third play Worlds Apart Same Difference had a successful run in the Project Arts Centre and since then has toured Ireland to a great reception from young and old alike.
Magpies on the Pylon, written and performed by Michael, looks at the topical issue of suicide. He has performed this play north and south to great acclaim. Most of Michael’s plays look at issues facing the Traveller community, but the issues are by no means just confined to Travellers. Michael also performed in Foxy written by Noelle Brown and it ran for two weeks at the Project Arts Centre Temple Bar in November 2015. Since then Michael has been busy writing and performing his two latest plays Father, Thinker, Solider written in early 2016 and performed in April to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 1916 rising.
With his play Ireland Shed a Tear (written in memory of the families who died in the Carrickmines fire) the author looks at the fallout of this incident which claimed 11 members of the Connors and Gilbert families and the change in state policy and the hardship placed on Traveller families waiting for proper accommodation. He continues to write and perform his own plays while actively engaging in mainstream theatre, television and films.
Michael Collins will appear in his one-man show Magpies on the Pylon at The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny on June 12 at 11am.
