Author Jude Collins

In this session Pat and I confined ourselves to one thing  -‘A New Ireland’ , the book by Paul Gosling, which takes a long hard look at the various aspects of a reunited Ireland, what possibilities it could offer, what problems there are for those intent on creating it, what are the facts about the south – and the north -‘s health system, how much is the British subvention really. There’s  also an epilogue by Mr Justice Humphreys, who reminds nationalists/  republicans of the size of the challenge they face. Our conclusion:  anyone who presumes to talk either in favour of a reunited Ireland or  in favour of continued union with Britain should first read and  respond to the FACTS that Gosling deals with. If you haven’t read it and are too stingy to buy it, maybe you’ll change your mind after viewing  our chat..

Industry group says State ‘extremely vulnerable’ to dependence on UK route The Irish Road Haulage Association has urged the Government to help set up a fast, direct daily ferry service with continental Europe for lorries to avoid post-Brexit disruption on the UK transit route. Eugene Drennan, the president of the industry group, has called for […]

We know when the UK’s exit from the EU will occur – at the end of this year. And even gloomy forecasters suggest that by Christmas 2021 there’ll probably be a vaccine for Covid-19 and we’ll be moving back into something resembling normal life. How will people be feeling then, I wonder. Battered and bruised, […]

With the introduction of the Internal Markets Bill, PM Johnson  threatens  to ignore provisions of the Irish Protocol in the EU Withdrawal Agreement.  It is another desperate tactic of an ever desperate Britain.   Benjamin Schwarz’ recent review of Ian Buruma’s  The Churchill Complex notes that the US-UK special relationship was “…born of Britain’s desperation…”and this latest stunt is of that character.    Brexit […]

I’ve just finished listening to Sunday Miscellany (RTÉ Radio One) and among the songs they played was ‘Oft in the Stilly Night’.  Brother Skeehan taught us that song, along with a lot of other songs, when we were in fourth class in Omagh CBS. After all these years, it’s still beautiful. But as one memory […]

President Michael D Higgins has written eloquently on atrocities of the British Empire and has called on Britain to “face up” to its history. He has done so as we remember the sacking of Balbriggan one hundred years ago this weekend.  In Kenya, in Cyprus, brutal suppression was the order of the day – as […]

This blog originally appeared as a column in the Andersonstown News T A while back Brandon Lewis, our beloved proconsul, openly admitted in the House of Commons that Britain plans to break international law. He emphasised that this didn’t mean abandoning all commitments, or even all of the Withdrawal Bill. Britain would exert restraint in […]

  ‘UNQUIET GRAVES’ was easily the most-discussed programme of the week in Ireland north and south. Why  then did RTÉ not run trailers for it, urging its viewers not to miss it?  And why were press reviews of it next day so …bland? Irish pubs are facing extinction: things were bad before Covid, now  they’re critical. Will they vanish permanently? Will we drink in  splendid isolation? Finally, 10% of US citizens think that the Jews were responsible for the Holocaust, not the victims of it. Are such people irredeemable  ignoramuses or does it matter that they haven’t the facts of the  Holocaust clear in their minds? So many things to talk about, so little time…Enjoy.

There’s a review in the current/last edition of History Ireland of The Arms Crisis of 1970: The Plot that Never Was by Michael Heney. The book argues that Lynch had a ‘hidden policy’ of supplying arms to nationalists in the North ‘in emergencies’ for ‘defensive and humanitarian purposes’ should a civil war break out and […]

Acer in ludo ludísque – ‘Keen in work and play. ’That’s my school motto, Alva Academy – a state run, six year comprehensive ; my Dad and all his brothers and sisters were former pupils too though not fortunate enough to afford the full six year attendance or the subsequent college or Uni education delivered to […]