Author Jude Collins

In the thunderstorm of unionist criticism over Martin McGuinness’s headstone, I find myself in total agreement with a statement by the UUP’s Doug Beattie: “What is on his headstone is exactly what I would expect to see on his headstone”. Every single unionist politician who is now crying “Outrage!” knew that Martin McGuinness was in […]

Date: 23 December 2007 at 21:33:28 GMT To: editor@observer.co.uk Sir If, as you say,Gordon Brown has always claimed to be the author of the slogan “Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” he must be more solemn and po-faced than I had imagined. If you think it a nifty soundbite you must lack all imagination. […]

  What kind of Ireland do you want?   How do you define Irishness?   Will republicans reach out to include Unionists and the Orange culture in a reunified Ireland?   Can London be persuaded to hand over sovereignty to Dublin and to make a contribution for a period of, say, 50 years?   How will Unionists be accommodated in a united Ireland by […]

Harold Wilson once remarked as a left-winger that he was a “Bolshevik in a Tsarist cabinet.” He was of course referring to the fact that the Labour Party was then and remains still dominated by an unrepresentative class of right-wing MP’s, who are not accountable to ordinary party members. Indeed, all three main parties in […]

Last night I finally caught up with the movie Selma on BBC iPlayer. It’s a splendid re-enactment of the famous civil rights marches in the 1960s, led by the great Martin Luther King. The acting was outstanding, especially the playing of King and Lyndon Johnson by David Oyelowo and Tom Wilkinson respectively. The film raised […]

I always feel a little uneasy at this time of year –not sure why. Maybe there’s a sense of being suspended between winter (it’s grey and damp outside today) and Spring (my flowerbed in the rain is still stuffed with colour). Should I be gritting my teeth for the tail-end of dark evenings or singing […]

Britain has engaged in murderous repression in many places since 1945 in which scores of thousands of non-British civilians or resistance fighters have been killed by British forces. For various reasons including propaganda the British do not call them wars. In Malaya (1948-1960) the rubber planters and other merchants would have been refused insurance, or […]

What I’m writing here I have to tell you is not to imply panic but rather caution; I write as a patriot first; a citizen second and as a voter third. Someone who simply wishes to plant seeds and see them blossom into ideas burning in the minds of other men and women who care […]

(Extract from a Homily I gave at the funeral service for Vinny MacDonald in Hilltown, County Down on 13 April 2017) On February 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was preaching in his church, The Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Atlanta, Georgia (where I visited a few years ago). He said on that day in February: “Every now and then, I guess we […]

I’m no historian and not even a paid counsel would describe me as one, but I have a pretty good memory. Russia suffered disproportionately during the Second World War and her troops suffered severe losses in taking Berlin. In 1955 I recall hearing that they vacated Austria on condition that that state became neutral. I […]