Eoin Collins obituary: Rights activist and ‘key strategist’ of same-sex marriage in Ireland

Born: August 19th, 1963
Died: February 1st, 2022

Eoin Collins, a leading rights activist and one of the architects of same-sex marriage in Ireland, has died at the age of 58 after a short illness. He had an unshakeable commitment to social justice and was a leading proponent of community movements that tackled discrimination, exclusion and marginalisation.

His death comes three months after that of his husband Josep Adalla, who died of a heart attack on November 1st at their home in New York, shortly after Collins’s illness was diagnosed. Devastated by the loss of Adalla, Collins travelled back to Dublin just before Christmas. He spent his last weeks with his mother and siblings at the family home in Lucan.

Collins grew up there as the middle child in a very loving family, which gave him a huge sense of security and confidence all his life. He often told the story with great pride of how, when he came out in the late-1980s to his mother Dolores, she threw a coming-out party to celebrate the news for friends and family in their home – even now not a common occurrence.

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Kieran Rose, one of the founders of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (Glen) of which Collins was a central member, and a lifelong friend, said “Eoin was a key strategist in the remarkable journey of LGBT people from criminals to civil marriage; starting with decriminalisation in 1993, equality legislation in the late 1990s, civil partnership in 2010 and on to family recognition, marriage and constitutional equality in 2015.”

Not only was Collins a committed, dedicated and humble activist, he also had enormous wit, warmth and candour

Collins had been a director of Nexus research co-operative, one of the foremost facilitators of community development in Ireland, where his capacity for empathy and vision for change placed him at the heart of many human rights struggles. Brian Dillon, a fellow director of Nexus, said “Eoin’s unique and formidable contribution was his innate unassuming commitment to equality – not just in the social or political sense, but in his everyday dealings with everyone with whom he worked.”

Pivotal moment

Collins graduated from Trinity in economics and political science and, having worked briefly in UK, returned to UCD to complete a master’s in economics in 1989, before joining Nexus.

He subsequently joined the staff of Glen as director of policy change with a vision to achieve an Ireland where being LGBT would be unremarkable and valued. In perhaps the most pivotal moment of his work in this role, Collins was appointed by then minister for justice Michael McDowell to the Colley Group, which was chaired by Ann Colley, in 2006.

Eilis Barry, director of Flac and a member of the group said, “Eoin was an unsung hero, a principal architect of extraordinary change that was to follow. The Colley Group was set up with narrow terms of reference that seemed designed to deter the group from examining marriage. It was a masterclass in advocacy and strategy to witness Eoin convince the group to conclude that only marriage would deliver full equality for same sex couples.”

This subsequently became the government’s position.

Political and legal consensus at the time was that same-sex marriage would require a referendum, for which there was no political appetite. However, recognising the urgency of the need for protections for same-sex couples, Collins then drove the campaign for politically-achievable civil partnership which had all the rights and protections of marriage that were legally possible. Despite the gloomy predictions of commentators and most political parties at the time, comprehensive civil partnership legislation passed through the Oireachtas in 2010, along with the foundations for family recognition legislation. All of this paved the way for the success of the marriage referendum.

Federal marriage

Collins met Adalla, the love of his life, in Dublin 20 years ago. Adalla, a nurse originally from the Philippines, moved to New York and Collins joined him there in 2011. They married when federal marriage became possible in the US in 2016 which enabled him to become a dual citizen.

In New York, Collins continued his work on human rights and social change, working with ActKnowledge developing programmes and strategies with a wide variety of national and international organisations and becoming the first director of the Centre for Theory of Change,

Collins had a lifelong love of cities, especially Dublin and New York. His most recent work in the US on rebuilding community infrastructure in Philadelphia with Harvard linked that love of cities with his passion for good public policy that enables fairer, liveable cities.

Most recently he worked with the Equality Fund in Ireland, supporting minority and marginalised communities to organise strategically, and supported the establishment of the Rowan Trust for social justice.

Not only was Collins a committed, dedicated and humble activist, he also had enormous wit, warmth and candour. His huge love of life along with an ability never to be judgemental made him a terrific friend with abundant friendships sustained throughout his life.

Collins is survived by his mother Dolores, his siblings Imelda, Deirdre, Oonagh, Ciarán and Niall, his mother-in-law Virginia, Adalla’s siblings Hazel and Dexter and a very wide circle of friends in Ireland and abroad.