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There is a rough sketch of Collins in the British Isles overall on the main project website. Tracing Your Irish Ancestors by John Grenham is a good basic resource for those getting started on researching their Irish Collins ancestry.
Robert Matheson's Special Report on Surnames in Ireland (1891) lists Collins as #30.
The name has not been limited to Munster by any means. Griffith's Valuation shows Collins in all the provinces. The discussion below, however, deals principally with Munster.
Collins is one of the names associated with the Uí Fidgente of Limerick in north Munster, and there may be some DNA evidence in its early stages to support this. It is thought that in the first millennium, their kingdom extended into Clare, Tipperary, and parts of Kerry and Cork. Some researchers treat Uí Fidgente as a cousin branch to the Eóganachta, but some treat them as another Eóganachta branch.
In his book Family Names of County Cork, Diarmuid Ó Murchada describes the Uí Chuiléin of Fir Maige Féne, near Mallow. There are various mentions of "Oculan" in historical accounts early in the second millennium. Okyllan is attested in Imokilly. Collen and Collins were prominent in the 1500's and 1600's in Youghal.
The author discusses two possibilities for the name in West Cork. The Ó Cuilin were part of the Corca Laoighde, the ancient inhabitants of an area roughly covering west Cork and part of Kerry. The Uí Choileáin were of the Uí Chonaill Gabhra branch of the Uí Fidgente and came down from Limerick with other families starting around 1200 C.E., due to pressures from the Ó Briens and the Normans.
Placenames in Munster possibly attesting to the presence of the surname include Mountcollins, Cullane North, Middle, and South in Limerick; Gortycullane in Tipperary; in Cork Ballycullane in Mogeely; Glencollins Lower and Upper in Nohavalday parish; Liscullane near Charleville; Coorycullane in Fanlobbus parish; Cullane East and West in Kilmacabea parish, and numerous others.
The above scenario is a summarized historical view of Collins in Munster. It is misleading to think that there were just a few "ethnic groups" - e,g, the Fir Maige Féne of Mallow, the Uí Choileáin of the Uí Fidgente of Limerick, and the Ó Cuilin of the Corca Laoighde - that account for virtually all the Collinses in Munster and Cork. It would be a gross oversimplication to think that a Collins of Munster descent will neatly fall into one of these slots genetically. The picture is a bit more complicated than that. Old kingdoms were mixes of people, consisting of descendants of ancient Ireland settlers with many different origins. Those mixed groups may have moved together as a unit - say, from Limerick to Cork. Surnames were not so readily affixed to an individual in the early and mid second millennium as they are to us today. Back then, they may have been handed out in return for services or favors, for protection, and for other reasons besides bloodline inheritance.
From a genealogical record perspective, the multiple "ethnic" origins are obscured. There are, however, a few Collins nicknames in Irish records, family lore, and historical references that draw some distinctions between families. Totane ("of the burning"), Craheen (of Coolcraheen), Cronaugh, Sowney, and Boona are all secondary names that have been linked with Collins in Cork. Do these secondary names signal paternal line clans?
The differences in ancient ethnic backgrounds matter greatly and have a profound impact on genealogy research. To summarize, two men named Collins, even those whose ancestors lived adjacent to each other in the same rural townland of Ireland, and may have even carried the same given names, were not necessarily related through a common direct paternal ancestor. Y-DNA testing is a tremendously powerful tool that can help us carve out true Collins family lineages.
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