Jude Collins

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.

JUDE COLLINS: Electoral apathy needs to be tackled head-on

THE South’s election was notable for several reasons, not least that straws in the wind were just that – straws.

JUDE COLLINS: It's always worth checking if the good guys are really what they say they are

THE US has been good to the Irish people. From the huddled masses arriving on coffin ships in the nineteenth century, to support of the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, to giant companies like Apple and Google helping the South of Ireland to accumulate unprecedented wealth, the US has been a massive support to Ireland.

JUDE COLLINS: Democracies are often run by those who reject democracy

CHURCHILL wasn’t the first to have the thought, but it’s his phrasing of it that’s best known: “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time...”

JUDE COLLINS: Pollsters succeed only in spreading uncertainty

THERE are things we don’t like to think about, much less talk about. Maybe that’s what happened to a lot of commentators during the recent US Presidential election. They really really didn’t want Donald Trump to win, and they had this weird notion that if you didn’t think or talk about a Trump victory, it wouldn’t happen. All the commentators and pollsters and wise guys kept telling us that this election was so tight, if you listened you’d hear it creak.

JUDE COLLINS: Two elections down, one to go

I'VE long had a suspicion that politics is a dull game. Having to cope with constituents who want you to fix something over which you have no control. All those committees, all those yawn-inducing Assembly/Dáil sessions where representatives posture and preen and congratulate themselves and their leader

JUDE COLLINS: Northern rough edges should be welcomed and not smoothed

IT'S amazing what you’ll find on YouTube. Among the guys urging you to buy a cloth that’ll make paintwork scratches on your car vanish, or what foods to eat if you want to live to be 135, there is a considerable number of items that delight and inform.

JUDE COLLINS: Fate waits around the corner for all parties – not just Sinn Féin

HOW do you suppose Micheál Martin and Simon Harris are feeling right now? Are they optimistic? Quietly pleased? Giddy with delight?

JUDE COLLINS: Empty suit Taoiseach talks a lot while saying nothing

WE live in a globalised world, yet we can all feel helpless in the face of events. War in Ukraine, slaughter in Gaza and Lebanon: the blood and dust smears our screens night after night. It’s got to the point where many turn their eyes from the horror and switch channels or switch off. The big brutal world out there is not of our making, appals us, and so we withdraw our attention.

JUDE COLLINS: Morality police wave their blackthorn sticks again

DO you remember when the parish priest would patrol country roads in search of immorality? Or when the parish would have a week-long mission and the visiting missioner would often thunder damnation for sins which his terrified congregation had never heard of, let alone indulged in?

JUDE COLLINS: High-wire act has served southern parties well

BEING a politician means you face a number of dangers similar to those faced by a high-wire artist.

JUDE COLLINS: Targeting of Trump raises interesting questions

THERE may be unfeeling people who have thought or even whispered “Third time lucky, lads!” in the wake of the second attempted assassination of Donald Trump. I would not be of their number. The former US President may be an obnoxious being, but he’s also a human being, and it’s important to respect and even love the most primitive of God’s creations.