Author Jude Collins

Democracy is a funny old system. We elect people who promise loudly and repeatedly to represent our interests in a parliament. Then they take a biggish chunk of our salary from us before we can even see it and use that money to pay themselves and to maintain justice, policing, infrastructure and lots more.  They […]

    RSH. PEACE  WALLS.A poem By Randall Stephen Hall.Update 7.3.26Plus Song. THE BOATYARDListen to _9 THE BOATYARD By Randall Stephen Hall by Randall Stephen Hall on #SoundCloudhttps://on.soundcloud.com/oV2OVRwoqpZD5yYLYHo PEACE WALLS Peace Walls to keep us divided.Red brick divisions, chiding usTo begin fighting and hurling insults.We can see them from the top of the bus.Chastising us, […]

Ireland has, it seems, developed a curious two-tier system of political speech. One tier involves saying plainly what is happening. The other involves saying absolutely anything except that. President Catherine Connolly has opted firmly for the first approach. In a statement on the escalating war in the Middle East, she described the recent attacks on […]

There is something almost touching about the confidence with which Donald Trump assumes he can shop for a new leader of Iran the way one might browse kitchen tiles. Apparently, somewhere between golf rounds and late-night social media posts, the President has decided that selecting Iran’s next supreme leader is simply another executive function—like choosing […]

By Joe McVeigh       It is hard to find words to describe the evil that is going on in the world today – words like Madness/ Wreckless/ Genocide are the words that come to mind! And worst of all when you hear the political leaders in America say they are doing it in […]

              RSH.The Daffodils.By Randall Stephen Hall.Plus Free track, THE BOATYARDListen to _9 THE BOATYARD By Randall Stephen Hall by Randall Stephen Hall on #SoundCloudhttps://on.soundcloud.com/uhRgjqhxE8jp8iKxQXTHE DAFFODILSThe daffodils are comingAnd things are looking up.Donald’s in his heavenAnd things are getting rough.Kristi’s gotten crispy.She’s fried and turned to toast.We are lookin’ up […]

The arrival of Mark Carney on the international stage as a voice of economic and geopolitical sobriety has been widely welcomed. Few figures combine such credibility in finance with a clear-eyed understanding of the shifting global order. His emphasis on strengthening ties between countries like Canada, India, and Australia is particularly encouraging. These are large […]

Imagine the global reaction if Vladimir Putin had woken up one morning, dispatched commandos into Ukraine, kidnapped Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife from Kyiv, and then—just to round off the afternoon—launched a heavy bombardment of Poland. The response would be instantaneous and volcanic. Emergency meetings at the United Nations would run so late diplomats would […]

Electronic tagging for offenders is one of those ideas that sounds so sensible you wonder why it hasn’t happened already—rather like seatbelts, online banking, or remembering where you parked the car. In fact, Ireland’s justice system has been “about to introduce it” for so long that the technology itself is probably starting to feel self-conscious. […]

Electronic tagging for offenders is one of those ideas that sounds so sensible you wonder why it hasn’t happened already—rather like seatbelts, online banking, or remembering where you parked the car. In fact, Ireland’s justice system has been “about to introduce it” for so long that the technology itself is probably starting to feel self-conscious. […]