Author Jude Collins

Last night in south Belfast – mindless violence?

  Did you know there was considerable rioting in south Belfast yesterday? Petrol and paint bombs were hurled and vehicles belonging to the PSNI  were damaged. Chief Superintendent Jeremy Lindsay, District Commander for Belfast, said: “Thankfully, no injuries to police officers or the public were reported. However, this was a particularly protracted period of public […]

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A FREAK ELECTION AND A RUM PARLIAMENT? – by Donal Kennedy

  Voter turnout  in  the recent election was the lowest since the introduction of universal adult suffrage in 1928.With a mere 35% of the votes cast Labour took approximately   66% of the seats.   This year all constituencies were contested. I make this point to avoid confusion    with historical circumstances  which involved non-contested seats. […]

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Commemoration Day Conversation

First man: What’s all this about a National Day of Commemoration? Second man: God, but you’re ignorant. It’s a day dedicated to commemoration of Irishmen who died while fighting in wars or with the United Nations. First man: Is that a fact. All Irishmen, eh? Well at least they’ve spread their net wide. Second man: […]

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Donald Trump gets shot in the ear

Donald J Trump has an emotional impact on many people. Some go into a kind of idolatrous trance, chanting his name and crying ‘Make America Great Again!’. Others look worried or depressed and begin to mutter about the fact that Trump is not just obnoxious but a lying tub of mysogynistic lard. His many followers […]

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FREAKISH ELECTION RESULTS GONE UNNOTICED AND AN ASTOUNDING DEMOCRAT ONE YET TO REGISTER BY HISTORIANS – by Donal Kennedy

  How different from the General Election of 1918 when Irish Republicans, in a contest “regarded on all sides as a plebiscite” according to THE TIMES, took 73 of the  Ireland’s  105 Parliamentary seats, and when those of their successful candidates not in British  prisons used their mandate to establish a democratic Republic.   The […]

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THE REIVER AND THE GAEL – by Randall Stephen Hall

Hi Jude,   Just keeping in touch with this new recordingof THE REIVER AND THE GAEL, written first in 2007.A story about the Border Reivers, exiled from the war torn spacebetween England and Scotland shortly before the Plantation of Ulstercirca 1610.With no memory of these events most people in Northern Irelandare unaware that it is […]

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BIRTHDAY REFLECTIONS

  Sometimes people ask me if I like having my birthday on the Twelfth of July, and I ask them if they’d like a dig in the gob…No, no, I do but jest. I know that it brings a lot of sunshine and laughter into many lives that might otherwise be dull and drab. Being […]

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