Author Jude Collins

OK. As many of you will already know, I’ve taken down two blogs in the last few weeks, something I don’t like doing. However, I’m not keen on being sued or seeing out my declining years in a lonely prison cell, so I’ve erred on the side of caution by removing them. In the light […]

The first time I ever visited a prison was in the year of 1969 when I went to visit in Mountjoy gaol in Dublin which I only knew about from the song Kevin Barry. I was a student in Maynooth at the time. I was asked to go to visit a young lad from Fermanagh who was […]

(This article first appeared in the Irish Times three days ago) There has been much justifiable comment in recent years about the extent to which Anglo-Irish relations have improved, but maybe you can have too much of a good thing. That was the conclusion I came to on receiving a bizarre invitation earlier this month. […]

To keep us green, London was keen and put 600 million in a nice big pot But the DUP all danced with glee and instead began to scheme and plot For it wasn’t the cleaner environment or removing pollution from the skies Not reducing our carbon footprint but only pound signs that filled their eyes […]

    As long threatened, a word of explanation re title of this Guest Blog. Which was sparked by the biography of Myles na Gopaleen by the Leprechaun-loathing Anthony Cronin. To do so, one must refer to that most, erm, iconic of photos of the Free Southern Stateen (perhaps emblematic is less problematic, as in: […]

    I wrote this piece below shortly after the Rev Ian Paisley died. I still believe that his ‘conversion’ was the beginning of a new era in political life on this island. There is no going back even though the present DUP leadership have not followed his example. They seem to want to drag […]

Pat: Trump! Mick: Touch of wind? Pat: Eh? Mick:  I assumed that was a burp. Pat : No. I said Trump! The US President. Mick : Ah. Pat: You hear about his latest wheeze? Mick: Which is…? Pat: He’s excluded mainstream media from attending a press briefing in the White House. Mick: What?! Pat: Yep. […]

Following a complaint and in keeping with my disclaimer under ‘About Me’ I’ve taken down the guest blog ‘Ulster – mainstream media is part of our problem’

  I think it’s important to write about things which are near and dear to people. Without doubt, the most popular articles are those with a local edge to them because people can fully relate to the context therein. And a subject which has crossed my mind a lot lately is how the reduction in […]

Pics 1-4 are by Perkin Warbeck   Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4   THE   MUST-SEE   of   MOSTA Mosta is a high town of twenty thousand souls in the centre of Malta. Its biggest claim to fame is the Dome of its parish church: it is the third largest in Europe, exceeded only […]