Author Jude Collins

There were two letters in THE IRISH TIMES yesterday (24 May) which convincingly put the case for the return to the Irish non-belligerence in disputes between the Great Power Blocs and constructive neutrality as pursued for many decades by Eamon de Valera and Frank Aiken,  though of course neither of those statesmen got a mention. […]

I see where unionist politicians and ‘commentators’ like Jamie Bryson are critical of the US delegation because they are judged to be one-sided – too green. Gordon Lyons, DUP MLA, told the B(ritish)BC “We’re going to have a particular challenge with Congressman Neal”. Jamie Bryson, it seems, has Richie Neal marked as a supporter of […]

Have you heard?  Michelle O’Neill used the term ‘Northern Ireland’ in Stormont a while back, and now she’s gone and used it AGAIN at Westminster during an interview. “I think we shouldn’t get hung up on those things. It’s the beauty of the Good Friday Agreement – British, Irish or both or neither.” That’s what […]

Long, before the creation of Britain’s Royal Flying Corps , before the heavier-than-air flying machine flown by the American Wright Brothers, before the French Montgolfier Brothers  flight in a Balloon, England was renowned for flights of fancy. It is tempting to imagine that the country was known as Perfidious Albion before Icarus was a boy. […]

“A court in Ukraine has jailed a Russian tank commander for life for killing a civilian at the first war crimes trial since the invasion. Captured soldier Sgt Vadim Shishimarin was convicted of killing Oleksandr Shelipov, 62, in the north-eastern village of Chupakhivka on 28 February. He admitted shooting Mr Shelipov but said he had […]

        The late Brian O’Higgins was not a great poet.  But he was intelligent,and intelligible to the man and woman in the street on a tram or omnibus. But when trams in Dublin were festooned with the slogan “Fight For Ireland” paid for by the British War Office, he asked the above […]

Feel like a laugh? Here’s one that’s bound to set your ribs a-tickle, and it comes from the lily-white fingers of none other than British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss: She tweeted : “Great welcoming Richard Neal with members of US Congress today. We discussed our cast-iron commitment to the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, the importance […]

    Father Brian Murphy OSB, has died in Limerick aged 86. He had many interests and talents and was an active gardener until days before his death on Monday 16th MAY. Born in England, taught by Jesuits in St Ignatius College, Stamford Hill, and holding degrees in History, from Oxford, UCD, and Trinity College […]

– I watched, for the second time in a few months the film “THE POST” starring Meryl Streep celebrating the US Supreme Court’s 1971 ruling that the WASHINGTON POST and other papers could publish the PENTAGON PAPERS which revealed the criminality of US Governments from the Presidency of Harry Truman onwards. The Court had cited […]

Prof Katie Hayward of Queen’s University has a fairly rigorous article in this morning’s Irish Times.In it, she articulates with eloquence what we all know – that the British, with DUP encouragement, are intent on slashing chunks out of an international agreement they themselves signed. Today also, Michéal Martin is heading North, where Jeffrey Donaldson […]