Author Jude Collins

Gerald Beadle, the first Station Director at the BBC in Belfast was appointed by Reith in 1926. Fake News must have been foremost in his mind when he wrote later that year to Reith saying,  “I am sure that our position here will be strengthened immensely if we can persuade the Northern Government to look […]

There’s an article on The Irish Times website today commenting on the speed with which some people become outraged. The article talks about the volatile President Trump but goes on  to make the case that outrage is perhaps unChristian and a substitute for effective action. It’s an interesting notion. Certainly Jesus told his followers to forgive […]

As already noted on this site, the Guardian yesterday (Feb20) devoted the leading editorial to Brexit and Ireland. The Guardian is a pro-British newspaper which favours the Labour party over the Conservatives. I suppose we should be thankful for getting such attention in a Saxon newspaper. However, the writer seems to think it would be […]

Anyone following the news in the Free State will notice that the Fine Gael daggers are firmly being sharpened against their incumbent Chief. A “Night of the Long Knives” style purge may well be upon this minority Dublin Government, with little real difference between the front-runners. They are planning an open assassination on the only […]

“He [Trump] is not going to be the leader of my country. It really doesn’t bother me too much.” That was Rory McIlroy a while back. It’s an interesting comment since it’s always been hard to know which country Rory believes he belongs to. Now the latest word is, Rory has played eighteen holes of golf […]

  The Unionist Times self-admitted habit of rabbit punching fake news in the neck went into lapse mode somewhat last week, not.. This happened when they dispatched two of their crack reporters north of the Black Sow’s Dyke to cover the Sinn Féin-provoked Election. And just who were this duo of Von Suppé-stars chosen to […]

So the UUP’s Doug Beattie figures that “People should not buy the DUP snake-oil at this election”. Doug is referring to the DUP leader Arlene Foster’s insistence that her party and Sinn Féin are neck-and-neck, so it’s absolutely vital that all unionists vote DUP to keep this appalling vista off- screen. Doug, unsurprisingly, claims that […]

I’m baffled. Confused. At a loss. I’ve just done a word-count of Arlene Foster’s manifesto speech. It comes to a mite short of 3,000 words. In it she mentions a lot of things –  Gerry Adams twelve times – but she doesn’t mention the leader of the party which is the DUP’s main rival, Sinn Féin’s […]

Today’s Alliance Party vehemently deny that it continues to be a small ‘u’ Unionist party, fully supportive of Northern Ireland’s constitutional status remaining that of a region within the United Kingdom. However, I would venture, Alliance are no-more than a relatively liberal pro-UK party committed to simply advancing modernity in this region of the UK. […]

It’s always instructive to see ourselves as others see us, providing of course that we don’t get obsessed with  what the neighbours must think of us. So when I noted this morning that The Guardian website has an editorial on our little NE nest. The editoris contained a number of valid points. “Only a fraction of the […]