JUDE COLLINS: The older and uglier I get, the less I understand

Some people tell me that as we get older, we get wiser, more understanding. I wish I could agree. Alas , I find I get uglier and stupider.But let’s park the uglier bit and concentrate on the stupider thing.

JUDE COLLINS: Getting to know you at Drumcree and Garvaghy

“Follow the money” is sensible advice in all sorts of circumstances. In the case of the Drumcree/Garvaghy Road stand-off, the money leads to the PSNI,  which cost some £3 million. Imagine if your house and the house on either side of you got £1 million each – it’d be life-transforming. In the case of the policing of Garvaghy Road, it has not so much transformed the life of residents (it wasn’t they who got the money, it was the PSNI) as helped make their lives liveable again.

JUDE COLLINS: Drumcree is the opposite of what works with parades

Dr Samuel Johnson had a way with words, while at the same time being a right old eighteenth century misogynist.  On being asked his opinion of women preachers, he replied: “Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all”.

JUDE COLLINS: Memories of Cable Street give hope to Garvaghy

Let’s pretend it was black or brown people. A group of right-wing citizens decided that they had a right to march anywhere they wanted. So they thought the Garvaghy Road, full of black and brown  people, would be a good place to exercise their democratic right. The right-wingers, let’s pretend, had a history. Less than thirty years ago they kept insisting on marching through this black and brown neighbourhood and their insistence led to the deaths of over twenty people. Would the black and brown community have a right to say “They shall not pass”? Would they have a right to build barricades, link up with groups who believed in their right to live free of humiliation?

JUDE COLLINS: A tale of two fighting families

Have you taken sides in the royal spat? Maybe you think that Earl Charles Spencer is a man who truly loved his sister, cared for her treatment by the royals during her life, seethed at the injustice of her death. King Charles III,  in contrast, you may see as a man who loved a woman other than his wife, cared little about his wife during her life, and by some accounts punched the air and told Charles Spencer that his sister would soon be forgotten, even as the English people went a bit nuts in grieving over her. (Remember those mountains of flowers?)

JUDE COLLINS: It's all about the money, stupid

President Trump flew into Ireland at the weekend and everyone was delighted. Well, everyone in Doonbeg. A village of 200 people, it’s received a huge injection of visitors since Trump took it over and especially since he’ s said he’d begoing to see the Irish Open golf tournament at his Irish gem.

JUDE COLLINS: If a border poll is not on, how come so many are talking about it?

JUDE COLLINS: Garvaghy culture war distraction suits the DUP

IF you’ve been thinking, “The Drumcree/Garvaghy Road  thing is ancient history now – it happened over 25 years ago. It’s done and dusted,” then I say, “Listen to what some unionist politicians are saying, this is far from done and dusted.” The pull of the past is irresistible for such people.

JUDE COLLINS: Death and royals: Two stories that tell us so much

The headlines have been heaving with it. Royal correspondents have prattled on TV about the possible next  step in their ‘careers’. Megan can claim that she has a profession – acting – and is planning to return to it. Harry doesn’t really have a job. He officially resigned from his ‘duties’ some years ago as a key member of the royal family, but other than having sympathy for British servicemen who’ve been injured in wars, he really doesn’t do much. And yet he’s on our screens time and time again. 

JUDE COLLINS: Micheál Martin's aversion to unity should not stall the momentum

On Friday last, I attended a meeting of Ireland’s Future, in Derry city. The panel for discussion (or conversation, as it’s now fashionable to call it) was Prof Colin Harvey,  Rev Karen  Sethuraman and Niall Murphy the well-known lawyer. It was an invigorating meeting, with questions raised and points articulated with conviction and sometimes passion.

JUDE COLLINS: Fleadh drenched the city in the light of optimism and hope

Well, that was some week, eh? When it started with claims that the Fleadh would draw  800,000 people to Belfast, I thought  it was maybe just a bit over-ambitious. Now they’re saying the number probably topped a million, and brought not £50 million to the city, but £60 million.

JUDE COLLINS: Happy Lundys capture the zeitgeist of a changing city

Last week I attended one of the many events organised by Feile an Phobail this year. It was a discussion involving four women- journalist Amanda Ferguson as chair, Claire Mitchell,  Linzi McLaren and Claire Hannah.  At the meeting I learnt a new word: “The Happy Lundies”. This is a term, I’m told, devised  by former loyalist Davy Adams, to describe people who had been part of the Protestant Unionist Loyalist (PUL) constituency but who had migrated to a new ground, where they were happily in favour of or at least willing to explore the notion of a reunited Ireland.

JUDE COLLINS: There's a reason most unionists will turn their back on the Fleadh

Starting next week, as you know , we will have the Fleadh Ceoil na heireann in Belfast for the first time. The projected number of visitors to Belfast, drawn by the Fleadh , is expected to be 800,000. So here’s the question: how many of those enjoying the Fleadh will be unionists? I’m guessing very, very few.

JUDE COLLINS: Feisty Argentinians ignored no-politics charade

JUDE COLLINS: Time to shame Martin and Harris into action

IRISH people can be great and they can be ghastly. Two events from last week highlighted the ghastly side of the Gaels.