Born in Dublin, Ireland, Marie Collins is a tireless campaigner for the protection of children, for the accountability of the church, and for justice for survivors of sexual abuse, as she herself was a victim of clergy abuse as a 13-year-old. She is a founding trustee of the Marie Collins Foundation and the support group for abuse survivors, One in Four (Ireland), as well as a founding member of the Irish depression support group Aware. She resigned from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2017.