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Boston's Esteemed Irish Immigrant Patrick A.Collins is Named American Consul-General to London

 




General Patrick A. Collins, described in the media as "the foremost Irish-American citizen of this country," was named US Consul-General to London by President Grover Cleveland. He held the post from May 6, 1893 to May 17, 1897.

The Boston Post interviewed Collins on March 17, 1893 as he was preparing to make the move to London. Collins told the report he had not sought out the post, but was offered several positions in the Cleveland Administration. "I was given my choice, and selected London as my field of work, as I am very much at home there....The duties of the consul-general simply requires business ability, knowledge of commercial affairs, diligence, tact and judgment, and I think I have a little of all of them."

According to the Irish Star in Minneapolis, Cleveland had also offered the Secretary of the Navy post to Collins, who turned it down because he didn't want to be in Washington, DC. 

 The appointment signified "a finishing touch of romance" to Collins' varied life, wrote he Fairhaven Herald. "The return of such a man as consul general to the United Kingdom, which he left as a poor orphan, would add another to the many brilliant proofs that in such a land as this no youth need despair."

"Just how the Briton will regard the new official it is unsafe to predict," opined the Illustrated American. "He has been identified passionately not only with Home Rule but in the past with the ill-digested Fenian campaign. As, however, his councils to his home and expatriated countrymen have always been conservative, it may be that the British, except the Jingoes, will recognize the value of such a cool head within reach of the Irish party and accord him a tolerant if not hearty welcome." 

The Irish Star later wrote that London "was a place of peculiar delicacy for him to fill for he had been the first President of the American branch of the Irish National Land League, yet so great was his reputation that preceded him to London that he was received by the English with the utmost respect and cordiality. He served four years in that position with the same distinction that he met every other responsibility to which he had been successively called." 

 Born in County Cork on March 12, 1844, Collins arrived in Boston with his widowed mother and siblings in March 1848, after fleeing the Irish Famine which cause the death of his father, Bartholomew. He left school to work a variety of hard labor jobs, and eventually returned to school, earning a law degree from Harvard starting a successful law practice, He got into politics where he excelled as a U.S. Congressman, and was also a leading spokesperson and advocate from Ireland's freedom from Great Britain. He was regarded as one of the best orators of his generation.

Read the Irish Echo story about Patrick Collins, whose memorial is part of the Boston Irish Heritage Trail. 

Research + Text, Michael Quinlin

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