Author Jude Collins

@font-face { font-family: “Times New Roman”; }@font-face { font-family: “ArialMT”; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: ArialMT; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } I got a phone call today  (just after running a half-marathon in Derry’s Waterside, about which more – maybe – […]

If you read yesterday’s blog you’ll see that I admitted to telling lies on a …well, a regular basis. Not a daily basis, but when I felt that a lie might be more discreet or avoid hurting somebody’s feelings or even make me appear maybe a more considerate person than the rotten jerk I really […]

If you read yesterday’s blog you’ll see that I admitted to telling lies on a …well, a regular basis. Not a daily basis, but when I felt that a lie might be more discreet or avoid hurting somebody’s feelings or even make me appear maybe a more considerate person than the rotten jerk I really […]

So Martin McGuinness told a lie. Or forgot that he’d met Fr Jim Chesney. If it’s the second – that he forgot –  then no blame can attach to him. I travelled over fifty miles yesterday to check if my laptop would work with a data-projector, and when I got there I discovered I’d forgotten […]

So Martin McGuinness told a lie. Or forgot that he’d met Fr Jim Chesney. If it’s the second – that he forgot –  then no blame can attach to him. I travelled over fifty miles yesterday to check if my laptop would work with a data-projector, and when I got there I discovered I’d forgotten […]

This morning’s paper tells me the Dublin-born writer Emma Donoghue is favourite to win this year’s Man Booker Prize, with her novel called Room, about an 11-year-old who’s incarcerated for years in this tiny room. Sounds like a laugh a minute. I’ve never met Emma Donoghue but I knew her father, Denis. He was a […]

This morning’s paper tells me the Dublin-born writer Emma Donoghue is favourite to win this year’s Man Booker Prize, with her novel called Room, about an 11-year-old who’s incarcerated for years in this tiny room. Sounds like a laugh a minute. I’ve never met Emma Donoghue but I knew her father, Denis. He was a […]

Oh dear, here we go again. First it was Irish President Mary McAleese, this morning it was the Lord Mayor of Dublin telling us that he looked forward to the visit of the queen to Ireland and that the Irish people had an affection for the British monarchy and would welcome her warmly. Let’s see […]

Oh dear, here we go again. First it was Irish President Mary McAleese, this morning it was the Lord Mayor of Dublin telling us that he looked forward to the visit of the queen to Ireland and that the Irish people had an affection for the British monarchy and would welcome her warmly. Let’s see […]

It’s  a fascinating subject, the balance between strong leadership and responsiveness to grassroots concerns. People like to mock de Valera’s belief that when he needed to know what the Irish people were thinking, he went off and looked into his own heart; but sometimes the people  dismissive of Dev are equally critical of politicians  (early […]