Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it – nothing more true in politics, especially today. Scotland’s history of radicalism is peppered by the influence and memory of brave characters who went to the grave for their beliefs. From workers driven to oppose injustice, seek better working and living […]
Author Jude Collins
7 out of 10 Ain’t Bad – by Michael Lagan
A much publicised recent poll has sent shock waves through almost every community but Nationalism and Republicanism. I really don’t know what people thought the outcome was going to be considering the experiences of nationalists throughout the conflict here in Ireland. From the forces of so-called ‘law and order’ police force marching up the Falls […]
Are People only Looking in one Closet? – by Michael Lagan
Unionists say ‘No one should work with murderers like Sinn Fein’. A. Few of those who were actually in the IRA are still elected representatives in Sinn Fein. B. They did what they had to do to defend their communities from British and Loyalist/Unionist aggression and attempt to […]
Who’s the most courageous Republican in the US? Many would say Liz Cheney, daughter of the better-known Dick. Is she the future of the Republican Party or just another victim of Trump. The band Creedence Clearwater Revival are a bit miffed that, because they didn’t do drugs, sleep around, etc, their music is undervalued. Sore […]
A letter from Dave Murphy
Dear Jude, Thank you for the tip on your blog about “Roadkill”. It is terrific. I am afraid I can’t agree with you about museums and, especially, about art galleries. The only problem I have with them is that my back and my legs ache after about an hour. That is why I […]
NATIONAL RECORDS. SOME LOST. SOME DISCOVERED – by Donal Kennedy
The explosion in Dublin’s Four Courts which scattered the papers of centuries of English misgovernment in Ireland, was, naturally, a disappointment for serious students of history. But it may have had its compensations. Imagine how one might feel, if one found out that an honoured ancestor, had been an informer, a spy or an Agent Provocateur […]
Anon – by A C
Do you want this clever-cryptic or do you wish for it plain ? Clear and direct with no deference to ‘givens.’ Or shall I go with the flow , shall I go with the grain with a ‘given’, a ‘posttruth’, ‘new normal’, no pain? The silence is deafening , the silenced are voiceless. Death […]
SILENCING FREE EXPRESSION – by Donal Kennedy
Perhaps my eyesight is failing I don’t seem to have come across an Editorial in THE TIMES, or the IRISH TIME S, calling for the release from captivity of Julian Assange. Nor an article by a leading columnist in either paper. Nor a thorough investigation of the killing by aimed rifle-fire of […]
You never lived through the Troubles – by Carl Duffy
There can be a somewhat peculiar attitude of older generations towards younger ones in the North of Ireland. This can perhaps be summarised as a line of thought that conveys a message approximating, ‘Because I am older, my outlook is more valid than yours.’ Generally speaking, it is likely that older people had a more […]
N J Edmunds, Miles Away : book review by John Patton
Challenging family relationships are too frequently a rite of passage in the process of growing up. In his first novel, ‘Miles Away’, NJ Edmunds adds stultifying dreams, mutilated corpses, suicide, occasional football games and finding a girlfriend, to the mix. The small town boy, Dacre, eases through school in the Seventies and […]