Author Jude Collins

I hear that Daniel O’Connell is to have a new monument and cannot understand why it is needed. I suspect it is to abuse his memory in order to attack other patriots who used his, together with other, methods,  to rid Ireland of British troops. In his last years British troops were instrumental in ridding […]

Outrage is frequently expressed by certain politicians who very selectively “campaign for justice for disappeared victims” but start looking closer at their motives and rhetoric. If the act of secret burial is what so offends these certain politicians, why avoid showing support and compassion for all cohorts of families pained by secret burials in unmarked […]

Politics is a funny old business. You’re here today and gone tomorrow – as Philomena Begley used to sing. However, Enda Kenny lasted a long time, longer than I, or most people, expected. He had not a lot going for him –not much of charisma which is supposed to be necessary for a politician and […]

Seize the day. I just realised that if we didn’t have a working thumb we couldn’t grab things so effectively. We would waste opportunities. They would pass us by. So many things depend on the use of our thumb for leverage. You could say we take it for granted as we do with many things. […]

Did British Empire builders and ISIS Caliphate builders perpetrate the very same crimes? Yes. Both invaded countries and engaged in mass murder of civilians. Both foreign entities beheaded, tortured, raped and robbed native peoples. Can this plain and accurate comparison be credibly denied? No!!! ‘Britain’s governments and civil service have been engaged in the greatest […]

Sic transit gloria Enda – With the sun setting in the West, we bid farewell to the Mayo primary school teacher who was fortunate enough to have a father who was a TD. End slipped into his late father’s seat in the 1970s and has occupied it comfortably since. As I discovered when I interviewed […]

Colonialism has done much harm on this island and throughout the world, dividing communities and provoking and promoting violence. Colonialism  is about greed and the lust for power and property. In many colonies people seeking freedom and dignity  have always reacted with physical force when they saw no alternative. Martin McGuinness did not wake up […]

Alan Titley                                                               Bob Welch  This is the first Memorial Lecture for Prof Bob Welch, who taught at Ulster University (Coleraine) for many years. Alan […]

Many years ago a crawling letter in THE IRISH POST in London sneered at the Irish soldiers who faithfully served Ireland  during 1939 -1945, comparing them unfavourably with those Irish who joined the  British Forces. WHY HITLER DECIDED TO MARCH ON MOSCOW?I wrote  to the paper recalling that in 1940 the veteran Dan Breen had […]