Author Jude Collins

What price historical documents? Or to be more accurate, what impact if any do they have on those who view them? Yesterday  Enda Kenny put online the signed document of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The names are all there – Collins, Griffiths, Lloyd George, Birkenhead.  Lloyd George told Collins that if he and the others didn’t […]

I blame Franklin D Roosevelt  – he started it.  On Sunday 12 March 1933, shortly after his inauguration as US president, he began a series of radio broadcasts known as the “fireside chats”. His first one was on the banks crisis, the second on his plans for recovery and others on similar topics like  the […]

I blame Franklin D Roosevelt  – he started it.  On Sunday 12 March 1933, shortly after his inauguration as US president, he began a series of radio broadcasts known as the “fireside chats”. His first one was on the banks crisis, the second on his plans for recovery and others on similar topics like  the […]

Sometimes, when you’ve nearly given up on human nature, something small but perfectly formed will pop up and flicker for a moment and tell you yes,  there is hope, there is a  thing called progress. Plenty of reason for thinking otherwise this week  – not least the tone of Ruth Patterson’s voice as she lectured […]

Sometimes, when you’ve nearly given up on human nature, something small but perfectly formed will pop up and flicker for a moment and tell you yes,  there is hope, there is a  thing called progress. Plenty of reason for thinking otherwise this week  – not least the tone of Ruth Patterson’s voice as she lectured […]

History, they say, is written by the winners. If that is true, then republicans appear to have lost. If Liam Clarke is right and if the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) report next month that the 8-man IRA unit in Loughgall in 1987 fired first on the 24-man SAS team lying in wait for them. Which […]

History, they say, is written by the winners. If that is true, then republicans appear to have lost. If Liam Clarke is right and if the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) report next month that the 8-man IRA unit in Loughgall in 1987 fired first on the 24-man SAS team lying in wait for them. Which […]

Sometimes radio can simply suck your breath away – leave you gasping on over breakfast or in the car. I had two such moments earlier this week; I’m surprised I wasn’t hyperventilating by tea-time. The first came when I was listening to an item of BBC Radio Ulster/Raidio Uladh’s ‘Good Morning Ulster’ programme.  Mark Carruthers […]

Sometimes radio can simply suck your breath away – leave you gasping on over breakfast or in the car. I had two such moments earlier this week; I’m surprised I wasn’t hyperventilating by tea-time. The first came when I was listening to an item of BBC Radio Ulster/Raidio Uladh’s ‘Good Morning Ulster’ programme.  Mark Carruthers […]

It’s good to see for once that the public of Belfast appear to be united against a shameful affair. I’m referring, of course, to the case of the British Army cadet who wasn’t given  a Duke of Edinburgh award by the Lord Mayor Niall Ó Donnghaile. There really is a point where people have to […]