Irish Examiner View: Noel Collins was one of the old school

On one famous occasion, Mr Collins marched into the council chamber and threw a dead rat onto the table, saying he had extracted it from beneath a baby’s cot of a mother who was waiting to be rehomed. 

Noel Collins at Ballyannon Wood. Picture: Maurice O'Mahony

If a week is, as they say, a long time in politics, what are we to make of someone who has devoted 55 years of their life to the service of voters in the Republic?

That is exactly what Noel Collins, who died on Monday at the age of 86, did.