Author Jude Collins

  Winston Churchill said more than his prayers. But those who worship, or pretend to worship at his shrine, would have us believe that every burp he made was Holy Writ. Much of his output, when sober were damnable lies, and lots more was gibberish. The quotation above (without the question mark) comes from October […]

There’s an article in today’s Irish Times by Pat Leahy which touches on something many of us so dread, we don’t like to think of it. Besides, we’ve got enough to worry about:  the cost of housing, the cost of living, war in Ukraine, Covid, the environmental crisis. Leahy forefronts the nightmare crouching at the […]

I  find Professor Katie Hayward an impressive person. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s that she’s a professor of political sociology at Queens, maybe it’s the quiet way she lays out her thinking. Right now I think we should listen to her very carefully. On Talkback,  she’s given her judgement on the legislation proposed regarding […]

British Foreign Secretary Lynn Truss says she’s changing the protocol in the interests of everyone in NEI. All the political parties and business organisations say that what she’s proposing will be contrary to the wishes of everyone in NEI bar the DUP. Tail wags dog? When Dorothy Parker was told that President Calvin Coolidge was […]

  The Sunday Times Magazine (12 June) carries an interview with the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Henry Kissinger by  the historian Niall Ferguson, the author of a volume covering Kissinger’s life from 1923 to 1968 and currently writing  a second  volume to be completed next year.Ferguson is a comparative spring chicken, born in 1968. Kissinger […]

You say potaytos, I say potahtos, let’s call the whole thing off. At the time of writing, it’s impossible to know what arrangements the Johnson government will table that’ll strip away at least some aspects of the protocol agreed with the EU.  They say they’re taking this step to protect the Good Friday Agreement.  But […]

  Michael McDowell, in THE IRISH TIMES today, tells us that the Tories are realising that Johnson is leading them into the political wilderness. I hope Michael is well paid for his expertise. Competing for the Irony Cup, London’s “Thunderer” carries a front-page photo of The Duke of Cambridge selling “THE BIG ISSUE” to highlight […]

    I am often asked why I even care so much about a ‘fringe’ issue that may not affect me too greatly. ‘Whatever someone wants to do with their own body is entirely up to them’ and ‘People have the right to be whoever they want to be’ are objections I frequently hear. I […]

Should golfers refuse to compete in competitions that are funded by states that have atrocious human rights records? Or are they not entitled to say “I’m a golfer, not a moralist”? Has Boris Johnson finally lurched into the Valley of Political Death? With 148 of his own MPs voting against his leadership, and the British […]

  Lockheed-Martin, based in Maryland and Washington D.C. is described as the world’s “largest defense contractor by revenue” recently sponsored a conference in Dublin. I remember when Radio Eireann hosted programmed by firms such as Donnelly’s Sausages and Urney’s Chocolates which frankly were asking listeners to buy their products. The Irish State had weathered many […]