Author Jude Collins

  The recent deal between the Tories and the DUP is a stark reminder of the actions of right-wing Tories and Unionists in the early years of the 20thcentury which greatly heightened tensions within Ireland and led to the partitioning of the country with its dreadful consequences. The Conservative and Unionist leaders, including some rabble rousing evangelical […]

George Orwell wasn’t the only writer to see a link between the language politicians use and the quality of their thinking . Catholic writer and Trappist monk Thomas Merton also had a keen eye for the way that twisted expression often reflected twisted thinking: “Double-talk, tautology, ambiguous cliche, self-righteous and doctrinaire pomposity and pseudoscientific jargon” […]

So. The stars of the BBC who earn over £150,000 a year are to have their salaries revealed – today is it? And I noted Stephen Nolan was facing up manfully to the topic before I switched him off this morning. Is he – are they – worth it? There are so many angles to […]

  It is not only the Northern Yunes what have a prob with the Leprechaun, A Mháistir Ionúin Blog. Last Sunday on The Ivan Yates Show on Newstalk fm which is part of the DOBland Dissemination Duopoly the former Royal Meath midfielder, Liam Hayes, opined that ‘he was a huge fan of the GAA, apart […]

An information evening on the adverse health impacts of WIND TURBINE NOISE will take place in the Community Centre in BROUGHDERG, County Tyrone (on the main road between Greencastle and Draperstown) on Monday 24th July 2017 starting at 8.00 pm Please promote this FREE event as it is important to learn about the adverse health […]

Commemorating 1919-1923 will be much bigger challenge than 1916 – historian History festival hopes to generate debate on how to commemorate revolutionary period Barry Roche IRISHTIMES.COM 17 July 2017 The organisers of a history festival in west Cork are hoping its examination of some of the most controversial events of the Irish revolutionary period will stimulate a […]

So the Linfield-Celtic game didn’t turn out to be the friendly, happy event that some had assured us it would be. One of Stephen Nolan’s regulars – I think it was Thomas from the Shankill, but I’m not sure – was, pre-match, strong on the danger that some trouble-maker Celtic fans might get into Windsor […]

Here’s Ben Lowry in the News Letter just over a week ago: “In March, the Department of Communities published figures for 2015/16 that found that 9% of the adult population in Northern Ireland can speak Irish, 5% can write it and only 1% can write or carry on a complicated conversation in the language.” Ben is […]

I wrote the piece below in 2010 but don’t think I submitted it for publication. I’ve since read an old piece by the late Conor Cruise O’Brien suggesting that when William Joyce was a hanger-on of the Black and Tans  he participated In the murder Of Father Griffin in Co. Galway in 1920. An Irish […]

  Sloping slowly and sadly southwards from Portsteward where nothing happened, in a Beckettian sense, twice for the host with the most moola. For Rory Mack (for it was he!) on Thursday thru Friday of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open Gulf-Golf Chamipionship his appearance was (gulp) Pinteresque.. Pause. Of the dramatic sort. ACT 1: […]