Jude Collins

There can be a somewhat peculiar attitude of older generations towards younger ones in the North of Ireland. This can perhaps be summarised as a line of thought that conveys a message approximating, ‘Because I am older, my outlook is more valid than yours.’ Generally speaking, it is likely that older people had a more […]

      Challenging family relationships are too frequently a rite of passage in the process of growing up. In his first novel, ‘Miles Away’, NJ Edmunds adds stultifying dreams, mutilated corpses, suicide, occasional football games and finding a girlfriend, to the mix. The small town boy, Dacre, eases through school in the Seventies and […]

Salman Rushdie has been living under a death threat for decades, and last week he was within an ace of losing his life. Should free speech mean you’re entitled to say anything you want about things others hold dear? In a recent podcast, the Indo remembers Shergar and the horse’s disappearance, and refers to IRA […]

Netflix, Amazon Prime and all the other subscription channels have revolutionised the way we watch TV. If you restrict yourself to what’s listed in The Radio Times or TV Guide, you’ll run the risk of missing some gems in the subscription vaults. Last week I stumbled on one such: Roadkill on Netflix. The series is […]

Here’s a thought: did any of those who were outraged by the 1989 fatwa on Salman Rushdie object to the 1976 ban on Sinn Féin appearing on radio or TV  in the south of Ireland? Or to the 1988 ban on republican voices on British radio or television by Tory Home Secretary Douglas Hurd?  Because […]

  DREYFUS was framed, disgraced, publicly stripped of his epaulettes, had his sword broken and sentenced to imprisonment on Devil’s Island. Years later his treatment was exposed and the sentence put aside. He was restored to the Army, promoted to Colonel and fought in the Great War.   Ireland has no Devil’s Island, and the […]

I quote the heading of the man’s Obituary in THE TIMES (July 29 2022)   The photographs below the  heading depict an obviously intelligent and personable gent. One shows him presenting a bust of Winston Churchill  to George W.Bush in the Oval Office. When he retired from the Diplomatic Service Meyer became Chairman of The […]

Regular viewers of our podcast will know that Pat and I always keep a weather-eye (what else?) on the weather. These days we’ve no choice. But is the drought at present something that shouldn’t exist, given our usual filthy weather? There’s a new book out about Rose Dugdale, the British heiress who left it all […]

    David Trimble held a difficult brief.  The Ministry of Defense, which actually runs Northern Ireland, demanded obedience to a cover-up strategy that drained him of robust health.    He so skillfully feigned British concern for Ireland’s peace he might well have earned a BAFTA* as well as a Nobel Peace Prize. His assigned role of ‘playing […]

At 80 years and 7  months I have a lousy short- term memory. I forget where I put my keys, my glasses, dentures and hearing aids, go to the bathroom and frequently forget why, and sometimes, when I do remember, forget to tidy my apparel. But I can clearly remember things that I saw. heard […]