Author Jude Collins

My father was fond of saying “This country has gone to the dogs”. That was about fifty years ago, and we hadn’t at that point entered the Moral Age. That’s where we’re living now: in an age when moral sensibilities are highly tuned.  What would have slipped past in my father’s time now gets seized […]

In 1920 Pathe News, co-operating with  HUGH POLLARD of Britain’s black propaganda Unit in Dublin Castle, staged a mock encounter on the Vico Road by Killiney Bay, Co. Dublin. It was widely circulated at the time, purporting to be an actual engagement between the Crown Forces and the IRA in Tralee, County Kerry, approximately 200 […]

When we pass judgements, we may reveal more about ourselves than the subject of our judgement, if for no other reason than that we select certain matters to comment on and don’t deal with others. With that wagging finger of caution in mind, here are five things that struck me about the Corbyn-Johnson debate on […]

There was a bit of an edge to Talkback yesterday. They were discussing sectarian attacks on families in North Belfast.  Carál Ní Cuilín was on the phone to William Crawley, and spoke of unionist objections to housing for Catholics in North Belfast. Presenter William Crawley suggested this was “politicising” housing during  an election, Ní Cuilín  […]

There was a time when I believed that democracy worked by people electing politicians on the basis of what they offered, and if a politician went back on his/her word in this respect, they would be booted out of office. It makes sense. What other reason would you have for voting a politician in but […]

Last night in Waterstones was a truly exhilarating experience and my sincere  thanks to those who passed up on the Save a Hedgehog  programme on TV to come. A particular word of thanks to Tommie Gorman of RTÉ, who gave of his time in the middle of busy schedule covering the election. There were old […]

‘The ancient Irish bodhran was invented sometime in the fifties’.    Well, so Francesco Turrisi , onstage with Rhiannon Giddens, told a  capacity Usher Hall audience in a bitterly cold,  Edinburgh last night. It was only one  line from the humorous  badinage between the pair on carbon dating the banjo (coloured folk  instrument ?) to mid 19th […]

Senators Rose Conway-Black and Senator Frances Black Your humble scribe being interviewed by Senator Frances Black Senator Mark Daly holding his book the wrong way round… Peadar Tóibín TD and Senator Rose Conway-Black Former Irish ambassador Jim Sharkey Former Irish ambassador Ray Bassett If you notice a slight tremble in my typing this morning, it’s understandable.  This evening at 6.00 pm in Waterstones, I’m expecting to be lightly grilled on both sides by Tommie Gorman of RTÉ.  We stumbled on this format in Dublin and it worked well. I’ve been at a […]

Whither the DUP? On the face of it that party should now be some way down the road which the UUP has almost completed: the road to oblivion. There are a number of reasons why this should be so.  There’s the fact that the DUP is out of step with the wishes of the majority […]

A man was recently charged in Germany with complicity in murder when a guard in a Concentration Camp in 1943. He is over 90 years old now and probably no longer a threat to anybody. But if there is sufficient evidence to try him, I believe he should have his day in court. If found […]