Hello again aghadowey,
I have been trying for about 2 years to find out where Thomas Collins born 1841 came from in Monaghan, I still haven't. Even when his son Patrick died in WW1 and received the DMC was awarded to his mother as Thomas born 1841 was dead says nothing of where the family came from in County Monaghan.
Info below:-
Patrick Collins brother of Thomas' s son also called Thomas born 1885 in Durham
died in Ypres, Belgium?
A leaflet published by Deorwenta Publcations, Blackhill, Co
Durham (St. Mary's War Memorial) and it reads as follows:
'5332 Patrick Collins DCM Age 27: P Collins, one of twelve children, was a
son of Thomas Collins, originally from Co. Monaghan, Ireland and Mary Anne
Collins, neé Duffy, from Berwick on Tweed, whose family came from Co Armagh,
Ireland. Patrick was born on 15 July 1889 and the family lived at 29
Waltons Row, Blackhill, Co Durham. He enlisted at Newcastle on Tyne, to join
the 6th Battalion, Connaught Rangers in Co Cork, Ireland, attached to the
British Expeditionary Force. On Friday 9 March 1917, he died of wounds and
is buried at Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetry, Heuvellland, West Vlaanderen,
Belgium. Grave reference: M81. After his death, his mother was presented
with the DCM at the Olympia Cinema, Blackhill, when his courageous advance
into no-man's-land was commemorated on stage.
Elizabeth