Author Jude Collins

Guess what tune FF’s Michael McGrath is humming today? Probably some version of the old song ‘Lucky, lucky, lucky me!’ That’s because Michael has just landed the job of Ireland’s EU Commissioner (previously held by Mairead McGuinness) . For his pains he will get an annual salary of €310,000. And that’s not all. He’ll get […]

  1. Naomi Long is no electoral spring chicken. She has taken (and yes, Virginia, lost) East Belfast before. She’s been elected as an MLA , she’s been Lord Mayor of Belfast: she knows what to do and not do, say and not say in an election. And she gives off a dedication to bread-and-butter […]

  You probably were horrified by that incident where the Israeli armed forces tied a wounded Palestinian man to the front of a jeep and used him – literally – as a human shield. Was that the most barbarous action of this conflict in Gaza? The Euros – poor Scotland crashed out in the last […]

Here’s an interesting tweet by Philip McGarry OBE:    ‘If Ireland’s Future are serious about Irish unity, the one useful thing they could do is to state unambiguously that the killing by nationalists of over 2000 people – largely Irish- was unjustifiable, morally wrong, that they deeply regret it, that it should never have happened.’ […]

  You guessed it. He was Conor Cruise O’Brien. I got to know a fellow pupil of the Cruiser and long-time friend. He was godfather of the Cruiser’s son Donal and the Cruiser was godfather of his son.But the friendship sundered when the Cruiser renounced his former principles.Flann Campbell, was an academic like the Cruiser, […]

  It occurred to me recently that for the first time since the “FLIGHT OF THE EARLS” in 1607 the aboriginal population of Ulster have any say whatever in the government of most of their province.   They owe this primarily not to any good will of British rulers or the prayers or  moralistic sermons of […]

  Jim Allister thought the Reform Party in England were their best mates – until along came Nigel Farage and said ‘Forget it. Reform loves the DUP’. Not a nice experience for Jim. Fine Gael’s Neale Richmond made a BIG mistake in an interview the other day  – he referred to some FG candidates as […]

    The late Brian O’Higgins, a Republican veteran of the 1916 Rising, 2nd Dail TD and lifelong opponent of any accommodation with Britain’s claims in Ireland, was not much of a poet, though he could produce a composition a day during his internment in Frongoch.   For decades he produced the only Christmas cards […]

Ireland’s decision to remain neutral during the Second World War, known as “The Emergency” in Ireland, was rooted in a complex interplay of historical, political, and strategic considerations. The stance of neutrality, championed by Prime Minister Éamon de Valera, was not only a pragmatic choice but also a reflection of Ireland’s desire to assert its […]

  Well, it looks like Sinn Féin were the big losers in the South’s local and European elections last week. What were the reasons for the sudden plunge in votes for Sinn Féin? Could it be linked to the number of Independents elected to councils throughout the South? In South Belfast, some young ruffians were […]