Author Jude Collins

For the last few decades “pluralism” has been the buzzword of Dublin’s chattering classes. Perhaps Ireland’s greatest ever Pluralist was Myler McGrath who simultaneously was Bishop of many dioceses, not only in the Catholic Church in communion with Rome, but in the Church “by (English) law established in the reign of Good Queen Bess and […]

  When I was still a teenager and during my first year at university, studying for a psychology degree, I was always advocating for improved mental health services to deal with the scourge of depression which dampened the hopes of many in my generation. I was asked by a dedicated local mental health campaigner to […]

In my last BLOG I transcribed a letter of mine published in a local paper in Enfield, London  in December 1982  concerning the use of plastic bullets by the British army in Ireland, and the local (Enfield) manufacture of multi-shot plastic-bullet guns which threatened even further death and injury under the pretext  of peace-keeping. I […]

So. After forty years are so, two British soldiers are to be prosecuted for the killing of an IRA and a civilian. Since Britain is demonstrably proud of the fighting abilities of its armed forces, you’d think they’d welcome this effort to make sure that its military act at all times in a lawful manner. […]

        Having already been convulsed by the latest offering from the Celebrity Jeff of the Gag Rag on Liffeyside, this time it is the turn of Celebrity Mutt from the Sindo School of Comic Strip Duos And Eoghan Harris (for it is he !) gets right down to the biz of cheering […]

A few people have said to me that they feel unsure about who to vote for and whether to vote come this election. Of course I would encourage everyone to vote early and vote often, but we need to be clear as to what they would be voting for. One thing’s for sure, there can’t […]

The first piece,  a letter written by myself, headed “Local Pride and Plastic Bullets” was printed in London’s “Enfield Advertiser” a weekly give-away paper on  9 December 1982 and is given in full. . The second piece quotes an article   written by Alberic Stacpoole, OSB, MC “Ex-soldier, monk priest and Oxford tutor”  an Opinion piece […]

I remember back in the winter of 1974 as we prepared for Christmas, still recovering from the mayhem that had followed the Burning of Long Kesh and the Cage 5 Tunnel Escape with the killing of Volunteer Hugh Gerard Coney from Coalisland, we had an amazing piece of news. A Japanese soldier, holed up in […]

There are at present two groups of people possibly facing prosecution for their actions. One is the people who signed up for the Cash-for-Ash scheme, the other is those British soldiers involved in killings here over the years of the Troubles. Their response to the possibility – and note I say possibility – of prosecution […]

I am regularly inspired by the writing of American Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr. Here is something Richard Rohr wrote in a recent blog: “The vast majority of people throughout history has been poor, disabled, or oppressed in some way (i.e., “on the bottom”) and would have experienced history in terms of a need for change. The […]