Author Jude Collins

I had a choice. The car radio was set to Raidio Uladh when I started the engine and I could have switched it off. I made the decision not to. Nolan was waxing indignant, echoing Ian Paisley Og who I gathered had been outraged ( what else?) that Michelle O’Neill, in the course of an […]

So today again, efforts to revive Stormont with mouth-to -mouth resuscitation failed. That’s because the DUP won’t agree to resuscitation, even though all the other parties are enthusiastic for it. Why won’t the DUP agree? Because it’d mean accepting a border down the Irish Sea, and the DUP sees that as a part of the […]

Arguing in favour of a United Ireland often feels like an uphill battle. At best it can become an incredibly complicated affair and at worst it can invoke accusations of being divisive. However, it does not have to be this way. Support for a United Ireland can in fact be a simple and logical position […]

Sabina Higgins, wife of President Higgins, is caught up in a row over a letter she sent to the Irish Times. In it, she called for a negotiated end to the bloodshed in Ukraine. A lot of southern politicians and a fair number of Ukrainians aren’t one bit happy with that. We probe the matter […]

After a video emerged of ‘’chants referencing the IRA’’ at the recent Ulster Fleadh, there has been condemnation from politicians, public figures, and the event organisers. The Ulster Fleadh have stressed in their official statement that they wish to build relationships across all communities and in this respect, I can fully understand their public denunciation […]

Sabina Higgins, wife of President Michael D Higgins, is in hot water.  She recently wrote a letter to The Irish Times,  calling for a negotiated settlement of the war in Ukraine. In the absence of negotiation, she said, “the long haul of terrible war will go on”. The Ukrainians weren’t pleased. Kira Rudik, a member […]

  “Respect our culture”. It’s a cry we hear most years around July time regarding bonfires and the like.  How respectable is Loyalist culture though? I’m a firm believer that everyone has a right to culture, a right to practice and enjoy their culture.  However, what I do not find acceptable is a culture which […]

As I write this, thousands of people are having a whale of a time in Birmingham. They are the Commonwealth athletes, and there are over 5,000 of them. Add to that the supporters of the 72 teams involved, either arriving with their team or living in Britain, and you’ve got an awful lot of happy, […]

David Trimble has died and has been hailed as a great leader, a political giant who led unionists to a better place. Did he really?  Was he an impressive figure? And speaking of political leaders, Sir Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, has sacked shadow minister Sam Tarry for appearing on a picket line […]

  There has been a great deal of tosh talked in recent days about courage. David Trimble has been the focus of much of it, with emphasis on  the boldness of his having come to an agreement with nationalists and republicans to share power. And the price his party paid for this. He has been […]