Author Jude Collins

    My mother had four brothers and two sisters. Three of her brothers served and fought in the British Forces, her two sisters married men who served in those forces. My mother, her sisters and their husbands were all Irish. Her eldest brother outlived them all and you may assume that he was a […]

DESCRIBED BY PROFESSOR ROY FOSTER AS “THE MOST ORIGINAL AND INFLUENTIAL IRISH HISTORIAN OF HIS GENERATION”, THE LATE AUSTRALIAN PROFESSOR BRIAN FITZPATRICK OF TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, WAS INDEED INFLUENTIAL.   Fitzpatrick was inventive. Foster appears to have been one of many who unwittingly fell under his influence, making a career as his disciple. Octogenarians such as myself  […]

Rishi’s family originated in the India’s Punjab Province where the Tipperary-born Sir Michael O’Dwyer was Lieutenant Governor   when Gurkha mercenary riflemen, commanded by Acting Brigadier Robert Dyer, murdered at least 379 and wounded  over 1,000 unarmed men, women and children, trapped in a square in Amritsar (13 April 1919). The British were responsible for further crimes such as the […]

    The late Manus O’Riordan submitted a letter to the Irish Times which comprehensively demolished O’Toole’s account of de Valera’s speech on the burial of Roger Casement in Glasnevin. The “paper of record” as is its wont, refused to publish it. O’Riordan’s father Mchael, formerly of the IRA and a hero of the International, […]

I don’t think I’m a crank. Not even by the definition of Francis Sheehy Skeffington – “a machine that causes revolutions.” I’m deeply conservative when it comes to language, perhaps even a pedant. “I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations” – Samuel Johnson. As Keir Starmer has resolved to […]

This piece was passed to me by Manus O’Riordan on New Year’s Eve 4 years ago. Manus, the most scrupulous of historians, and an architect of trade union/employer/government partnership  when Haughey was Taoiseach, which still endures and transformed the economy. He died last September aged 72. There is a good Wikipedia summary of his splendid life. […]

You never miss the water until the well runs dry, and you don’t miss Eamon Phoenix until he is no longer with us. His death has prompted a tidal wave of admiration for him and what he did for so many decades. And the suddenness of his demise has shaken many. What was it about […]

    T.P O’CONNOR had already sat 34 years in the House of Commons, was the founder and owner of several newspapers and other publications in London. He was to remain in the House of Commons for another 15 years until his death in 1929, as the Father of the House and was England’s first […]

Vicky Phelan died recently – because the results of  a cervical smear test were bungled. She campaigned on behalf of other women in the same situation – and over 200 cases emerged. Who should be held responsible for these unfortunate people? Or can we talk about ‘human error’? Antrim Area Hospital closed its door the […]

Mark Twain said golf was a good walk spoiled and I say listening to the Nolan show is a good drive spoiled. For the second time within days I’ve dipped in briefly and on both occasions heard a DUP politician. My ears still hurt. The one a  few days back was Ian Paisley, and he […]