Author Jude Collins

 Map showing the watercourse from the proposed site of the Dalradian gold mine in County Tyrone which flows into the River Foyle, Lough Foyle and into the Atlantic. catherinemcginty16@gmail.com Citizen rights under international environmental treaty hampered by lack of ‘precise, legally defined, mutually agreed international boundary’ between the North and the Republic of Ireland An […]

  Should the south of Ireland make nice to D Trump? Yes, Micheál Martin has already done the obsequious thing in the White House, but hadn’t we better go easy or Trump may target pharmaceuticals,  big tech companies in Ireland, and God knows what? Or maybe Ireland should do the right thing for once. That […]

  Trump is such a ghastly ham. A man of bulk who wears long expensive overcoats and is used to being worshipped by all his followers. That doesn’t mean there’s no choreography when he delivers his Big Moment. As he marched into public view shortly after nine o’clock yesterday evening, he walked to a pre-agreed […]

I’ve just been listening to BBC Radio Six Counties, where they’re united in amazement that Blair Mayne from Newtownards (known as ‘Paddy’ in those good old days) was never awarded a Victoria Cross. Their wonder springs from the fact that Mayne – tall, good-looking, boxer, rugby player – was also a founder member of the […]

It’s  not a perfect comparison, but when I see Donald Trump galumphing across  my TV screen these days, I find myself remembering Dick Nixon. Ah , poor Dick Nixon. The faithful Deputy President of President Eisenhower, the man who in turned down a scholarship to Harvard because it would have involved too much travel expenses […]

Verona Murphy – as someone said in a different context, ‘What a waste of a good name’ – is in the Irish Times this morning as Una Mullaly dips into her past. Watch and listen – you’ll be glad. you did. And super junior minister Noel Grealish is on record as saying that Africans are […]

This week again, the Dail exploded into anger and insult. Micheál Martin hinted that Sinn Féin had never really liked the Dail (see what he did there?) and Sinn Féin and the combined opposition denounced his handing of speaking time to Michael Lowry’s group of TDs, as if they were  part of the opposition, rather […]

You perhaps watched the gathering of TDs in the Dail yesterday. If you did, your memory will reproduce several images. Prominent among them will be the Ceann Comhairle, who stood glaring at the TDs yelling incoherently at one another. The CC is something I’ve seen before – a teacher in a nightmare of indiscipline, with […]

  We in the north-eastern six counties, who want to see Irish unity, have to begin thinking politically and economically outside the six county box. Most decisions about Health, Education and the Economy are taken by civil servants in Stormont who think solely within the six county frame-work. That results in neglect and under-development in border […]

      I thought that if I lied I would be able to climb higher. But people have called me a big fat liar. I bought my way into business And for a time people called me  A busy genius.   I have no understanding Of empathy or compassion. I have no understanding Of […]