Author Jude Collins

Re-writing history is wrong. It’s wrong even if motivated by a desire to reconcile differences and to heal divisions: history is what it happened, not a reinvention of events and motives. We can and must learn to understand our differences. We must, when necessary, learn to forgive wrongdoing against us and to let the past […]

This letter was first published in the Andersonstown News. A chara, Recent public discussion about ‘Brexit’ and Britain leaving the European Union has been about the financial implications of this departure. All aspects of this change and its possible consequences have to be discussed privately and publicly but one aspect of it needs much more attention than […]

Like the ongoing murderous turmoil in Afghanistan, the Alexander Blackman story continues to run and run. Blackman , the Royal marine who had his murder conviction for his killing of a Taliban fighter  in 2013 reduced to manslaughter, on the grounds of diminished responsibility in March this year, continues to fascinate the  public – with his […]

  -Any points made in the course of this article have been referenced below so that Mr McCrossan cannot accuse me of promoting inaccuracies.  If you have been following this blog you will notice that my last article caused a bit of a stir in the SDLP camp. Mr McCrossan took to Facebook and Twitter […]

“Immature religion creates people who know what they are against, but have a very poor sense of what they are for. They are against sin, always as they narrowly define it; but they are seldom for love or actually for anything except the status quo where they think they are in control. This is indeed “the world” and will never get them very […]

 Attending Westminster with all the bobs and bells doesn’t come cheap. According to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (http://www.theipsa.org.uk/mp-costs/), during 2015/16, Margaret Ritchie’s expenses were £200,118.61. This doesn’t include Ms Ritchie’s full salary of £74,962 which, like all SDLP MPs, she fully draws. During 2015/16, the cost of Ms Ritchie’s staff alone was £142,945.46.  In […]

When the Belfast Agreement was delivered in 1998 it was never envisaged that there would be a Brexit referendum and that the UK would decide to leave the European Union and take Norn Ireland out as well. Even though a majority in the six counties voted to Remain in the EU, the British government is determined to impose Brexit […]

A few people, particularly those in the SDLP or the ‘intrigues’ in People Before Profit, have accused me of spitting literary vitriol at any political figures who I profoundly disagree with. That’s certainly not the case in all instances. I like people who stand for things in a straightforward way – there are people I […]