Jude Collins

I coulda been, God Help US, but fate intervened I have no family roots there. My mother’s were many generations in Dublin. My father was born in Kilkenny, his father was from Tipp and his mother from Leitrim. But my parents started married life in the Wesht. My father had just been appointed by the newly […]

  Did you see the first item of RTÉ’s Prime Time last night? I mean, DID YOU SEE IT? I haven’t been so entertained, educated and informed in years. Miriam O’Callaghan was ring-mistress and her guests were Pearse Doherty (on-screen from Belfast) and Hildegarde Naughton.  Hildegarde is Minister of State at the Department of Transport. […]

. The 90th Anniverary of the founding of THE IRISH PRESS, 6th September, was commemorated by one Ray Burke in THE IRISH TIMES “Irishman’s Diary” in perhaps the most mean-minded piece in that slot since the departure of Kevin Myers. Burke gives a masterclass in ignorant sneering  ending with the statement that a newspaper founded by […]

“One may smile and smile, and be a villain”.  Shakespeare warned us. Simon Coveney has a nice smile; so too does Pascal O’Donohoe. Catherine Zappone has a smile that could kill at fifty paces. All three have got bogged down in an affair that shouldn’t have happened and which has caused some serious collateral damage […]

So where do we go from here?  Better still, where do we even begin to unravel the pain, sorrow and hardships Afghans have endured for decades?  Do we start with the American invasion twenty years ago? Its objective was to end terrorism as part of the ‘War on Terror’ after the 9-11 attacks, the anniversary […]

The twentieth anniversary of 9/11is on the horizon: did that day change the US and its citizens? Were you affected by it? And are there lines of  connection from 9/11 to Donald J Trump? Hilary Mantel, the author of Wolf Hall, Bring Up The Bodies  and a few other very long, very accomplished volumes, is […]

A  letter in THE TIMES (Saturday August 28) notes a forecast that the population of Africa (the world’s second largest continent) will increase by 1.1 billion in the next thirty years and argues that what is needed to save humanity is less of us. However, since the days of Malthus, his disciples have concentrated their […]

The PSNI have been given fifty recommendations to enhance the quality of the organisation. Among these are the closing of the PSNI station in Crossmaglen, joint PSNI-Gardaí patrols in border areas, and the relocation of plaques honouring RUC men and women who died during the Troubles. The response by unionist politicians has been one of […]

The Paralympics – are we patronising people who compete? Is it possible to equate/compare different disabilities and make for a level playing field? In a recent opinion poll, the DUP were showing as fourth most popular party. Have they really fallen so low so quickly? And will it translate into fewer seats for them, come […]

BUT originally published in the online IRISH DEMOCRAT in September 2005 under the pseudonym “Pangloss” “ISN’T THIS A FORTUNATE GENERATION? No longer need we live in ignorance of how our fellow men, women and children live, or die. Twenty-four hour radio, television and internet. Billions of mobile phones, Newspaper chains and multimedia empires dedicated to giving us news […]