Jude Collins

JUDE COLLINS: Ireland's Presidential options are strictly limited

DOES the role of President of Ireland matter? As with much in politics, the answer is No. And Yes.

JUDE COLLINS: Is Trump a uniquely dangerous President?

IS Donald J. Trump uniquely dangerous? If you were to ask Mahmoud Khalil, you’d get a definite Yes. But your chances of asking Mahmoud are remote.

JUDE COLLINS: We don't have to believe the war hawk warnings

WE humans like to think we live in a world where it’s possible to make clear decisions, to choose the road most travelled or choose the road overgrown and rarely taken. Time and again we underestimate how much the power of the prevailing atmosphere affects our choice.

JUDE COLLINS: Pleasant surprises come all too seldom

CYNICS (some would say realists) insist that there’s not a cigarette paper’s worth of difference between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The words and actions of FF and FG TDs would seem to back that up.

JUDE COLLINS: Trump's just the latest in a long line of appalling White House incumbents

THERE was a man in the BBC’s Question Time audience and he had a question: 'If British soldiers were on the ground in Ukraine and were fired at by the Russians, would that be the start of World War Three?'

JUDE COLLINS: Alleged porkies in the Dáil are really nothing new

HERE'S a starter for ten: What’s the link between the late Jack Profumo MP and the present Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD? Maybe none that immediately strikes you.

JUDE COLLINS: Is the search for something better nearing its end?

BECAUSE you’re reading this newspaper and this column, it’s a reasonably safe bet that you, like me, would welcome the day when, from Coleraine to Cork and Newport to Newry, the border in Ireland was permanently removed.

JUDE COLLINS: Is Dáil opposition anger a case of sour grapes or good politics?

IS it sour grapes?

JUDE COLLINS: Do good fences really make good neighbours?

ON Friday past I awoke to apparent disaster. The fence between me and my next-door neighbour at the back had been blown down. It’s a wooden affair, which had always seemed upright and immovable. Now it lay flat on the grass.

JUDE COLLINS: Trump has many failings – and in that he's hardly unique

THIS week the world holds its breath. That’s because this week saw the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the US. We are heading into uncharted waters, pundits warn. Who knows what Trump will do?

JUDE COLLINS: A shocking record gets even worse

LATE at night on May 22 1997, the 61-year-old chairman of Bellaghy GAA club was locking up the clubhouse. It was after 11pm and Sean Brown’s son had gone home just five minutes earlier. A group of men emerged from the darkness, seized the 61-year-old, and after a struggle bundled him into the back of his red Sierra car. Then with one of the murderers’ cars in front and another behind, they drove to Randalstown, passing Toomebridge police station. There they shot Brown six times and set fire to his car. No-one has yet been charged with this murder.

JUDE COLLINS: New Year cheer may well be in short supply

LOOK out! There’s a New Year coming fast!

JUDE COLLINS: Christmas was lies as well as mince pies

FOR many of us, Christmas brings out the worst. There’s that bloated, half-asleep state you get into because you’ve had a turkey portion that was too big but you shoved it down your neck just the same.

JUDE COLLINS: New York shooting doesn't presage a popular uprising

A LONG time ago, when asked about violence, Bernadette Devlin used to speak of the less-frequently mentioned violence inflicted on people’s lives by the state: discriminating in jobs, in housing, making sure the ‘right’ people were elected with carefully calibrated constituency boundaries. For the most part, people weren’t persuaded. The violence of petrol bombs and bullets seemed like real violence, while pointing to the impoverishment of people’s lives didn’t seem a justifiable counter-weight.

JUDE COLLINS: Micheál and Simon and their various Sinn Féin stories

WELL, that’s that, then. Sinn Féin may be the second biggest party in the South,but that doesn’t mean they’ll get to play with the Big Boys in government. Both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have made it clear they will not serve in a coalition that includes Sinn Féin.

NIFL Premiership: Cliftonville face several cup finals in bid to secure top-half finish

Boxing: Nottingham holds no fear for Cacace as May 10 fight with Wood confirmed

NIFL Premiership: Reds lose ground in race for top six

Allianz Hurling League: Antrim's away woes continue with Offaly defeat

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Trump told us who he was and we didn't believe him

SQUINTER: Battle lines are drawn in the war of the football pitch paint

GERRY ADAMS: Simon Harris is stating the bleedin' obvious

DÚLRA: Our Aaron’s hooked on a new natural high

Jude Collins

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