Colonel Timothy Thomas Cyril Collins OBE[1] (born 30 April 1960) is a retired Northern Irish military officer in the British Army.

He is best known for his role in the Iraq War in 2003, and his eve-of-battle speech, which President George W. Bush had displayed on the White House's Oval Office.

Collins unsuccessfully stood for the Ulster Unionist Party in the seat of North Down in the 2024 United Kingdom general election.

[12] He set up the Peace Support College in Sarajevo before becoming DACOS Training at HQ Land Command until his retirement.

[13] As Lieutenant Colonel (Commanding Officer) of the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment of the British Army, Collins gave a rousing eve-of-battle speech to his troops in Kuwait on Wednesday 19 March 2003.

[17] The last episode of the 2008 television series 10 Days to War features a version of the speech performed by Kenneth Branagh as Collins.

[18] In 2003, Collins was accused by Major Re Biastre of the US Army's 402nd Civil Affairs Battalion of mistreating Iraqi detainees.

Several Royal Irish Regiment soldiers who had served under Collins signed testimonies supporting his refutations of Biastre's allegations.

In September 2003, the Ministry of Defence announced that the RMP investigation had concluded that Collins was innocent of all charges and would not be prosecuted.

Collins subsequently sued the Sunday Mirror in the High Court of Northern Ireland for libel over their reporting of the allegations, winning a substantial amount of undisclosed damages from them.

After Collins' court victory, his solicitor Ernie Telford stated that the allegations "have caused immense distress to my client, his wife and children.

[23] In 2007, Collins was host of a three-part documentary called "Ships That Changed the World"[24] for BBC Northern Ireland.

In December 2008 – during an interview on the BBC's Today programme, Collins said that, when he left in 2004, the British Army was already undermanned for existing commitments.

In the documentary, Collins meets veterans struggling to cope with civilian life and sleeps rough on the streets of Brighton with another former soldier.

"[28] Collins is a signatory of the founding statement of principles of the Henry Jackson Society, which advocates a pro-active approach to the spread of liberal democracy through the world.

He has recently been critical of the Iraq war: "the UK and US pour blood and treasure into overseas campaigns which seem to have no ending and no goal ... Clearly I was naive".

[30] In August 2014, Collins was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.

[31] In January 2024, Collins confirmed that he will run for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in the 2024 United Kingdom general election.