Author Jude Collins

The London Marathon – some sight, that, eh? But is running in a circle  really a sensible way to behave? What if some or all that talent and energy was directed at some of our many problems? Sinn Féin had their Árd Fheis in Belfast at the weekend. Some journalists have suggested her leadership may […]

I’ve been fortunate enough to have visited over fifty countries and to have seen a varietyof different cultures first-hand. From the consumeristic USA to the communistcountries of Cuba and Vietnam. Or from the Islamic societies of Jordan, Morocco andEgypt to the Buddhist Thailand. In Palestine, I was unfortunate in seeing IDF aggressionexercised against inhabitants of […]

  The Returning Swallow. By Randall Stephen Hall.Update 25.3.26 3rd draft Our northern Irish swallowsFollow their own way.They stretch their wingsTo overwinter in South Africa. Leaderless and without a rudderThey plough the blue skies of Ulster.To go where they never say never.Below the equator.A loving aviator, beyond politics. In late April they begin to arriveThreading […]

Big question: when will the Dublin government address the UI issue? How come we get all hot and bothered and happily push millions to Ukraine, while our next door neighbour continues to act as though NEI in the UK was the most natural thing in the world? This stateen was established at the point of […]

The Strait of Hormuz, that narrow choke point through which a fifth of the world’s oil politely tiptoes, has once again been turned into a geopolitical tantrum zone. It’s less a strategic waterway now and more a badly managed queue where everyone’s armed, impatient, and convinced they’re the main character. You’ve got global powers posturing […]

There’s a photograph of Donald Trump standing alongside Emma Little Pengely, presumably on St Patrick’s Day. The caption below reads ‘Both  hoping the other won’t mention Jeffrey’.  It’s a tidy little joke, but while Jeffrey Epstein is the nemesis stalking Trump, Emma’s bete noire is Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. Remember him? Sir Jeffrey was arrested and […]

Nearly 250  military aircraft used Shannon airport facilities in the past year.EH?  But isn’t the Free State supposed to be neutral?Isn’t it time political parties started speaking up about this blatant contradiction? Should doctors be taught to love? To have empathy for their patients? And if they should, can love/empathy be assessed/measured? And former Cabinet […]

A man told me the other day that research in Oxford University shows that men who don’t comment on women’s appearance live on average some 30 years longer than men who do. I suspect he made the whole thing up, but it does draw attention to a topic that has always fascinated me: the connection […]

  Will Micheál Martin get the chop as leader of Fianna Fail?After all, he made a bags of the treatment of the fuel protestors. But is there anyone to replace him?Jim O’Callaghan? Didn’t he soil his nappy by talking about AND bringing in the Army? As for Keir Starmer, do you really think he didn’t […]

Doublethink is a very handy concept, invented by George Orwell in his novel 1984. It involves the ability to hold two conflicting ideas at one time. Politics today is soaked in it, but if you asked me to point to one example, I’d probably pick Palestine and Ukraine. Of course we’re all supporters of Ukrainian […]