Author Jude Collins

I wonder did Bertie Ahern and Peter Robinson get a chance to have a chat at Glencree the other day. They were, of course, only bit players, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to the Prince, in this case Prince Charles. We know that President Higgins and his wife Sabina got an extended chin-wag with the Prince and […]

                                                                                                                                                                                   SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA Simply red, was the colour which Jeff and Mutt saw when they looked through their rose-tinted BA-issued reconaissance binoculars in a wee northerly direction towards Croak Park from the shared space atop Liberty Hall. Even as they waited to sing their first performance in public of the song first […]

These coming  EU elections are tempting. You might decide that election of a representative to Europe is an exercise in futility, and the election campaign one filled with sound and fury, signifying nothing. How else would you describe an election to a parliament, organized by a member state who doesn’t want to be a member?  […]

Think back to January, 1972, when  innocent civil rights protesters lay dead on the streets of Derry.  The British manipulated media readily embraced the use of terms like “armed gunmen” and “terrorists” to describe the victims.  The Widgery Report absolved the  British Army and the world moved on.  It was all a lie perpetuated for 40 years until the Saville […]

S The Good Friday Agreement cost a lot of blood, sweat and tears. John Hume had the intelligence and generosity to recognise the endurance and sincerity of republicans, and indeed of Unionists, whose policies he disagreed with. So he engaged in dialogue with them. In the adult world that’s known as politics. Seamus Mallon never […]

We all love a simple story, particularly if its sad ending brings about long-term good. The most recent example was the untimely death of Lyra McKee,  shot dead apparently by a dissident republican. There can be few who don’t grieve the loss of such a young life; but when we say that from her death […]

SANYO DIGITAL CAMERA Once they’d stepped out on to the roof of Liberty Hall, Jeff and Mutt (JAM), as programmed, broke into a, erm,  jam session. A fail-safe dodge specially designed to practice their scales, memorise the lyrics  of their Second Song, the one penned and sung  by  Sam of the Pyrrhic victory, get their […]

We all get to poetry and song from different angles And our life experiences walk in the door behind us To stand around the edge of the room. Dark shadows Waiting for us to call them. Call them up With the right tune. The northern gate I stepped through Is where I entered in, the […]

In December 1936 the King of England, at the dictation of the Protestant Commonwealth, abdicated. He had decided to marry an American commoner who was a divorcee. The Irish Free State had outlawed divorce in 1925 but its Government in 1936 declined to follow the herd on the reasonable grounds that divorce and remarriage were […]

You may be fed up to the tonsils with last week’s election dissection, but I promise I’ll be gentle. Think of it as your civic duty: if you don’t reflect on politics and politicians, you could find yourself in the loony camp of those who’d parrot that big and stupid lie: “Politicians they’re all the […]