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.

JUDE COLLINS: Is the damage to the DUP too serious to fix?

Brendan Behan’s most famous quip was that, when republicans met,  the first item on the agenda was the split. Aucontraire, Brendan.  Gerry Adams and others have stressed how careful they were to keep all republicans up-to-date during the period leading up to the Good Friday Agreement. The unity notable among the various strands of republicanism contrasts sharply with our near neighbours and our really near neighbours. 

JUDE COLLINS: Donaldson scandal is a problem unionism cannot afford

Sometimes what’s happening is captured in the fate of one person; other times it’s seen  the actions and mood of a whole community. Unionism and nationalism have reached that point where their present state and future prospects show as clear as day.

JUDE COLLINS: Irish Andy doesn't seem bothered about the union either way

You probably know this, but  Wayne Rooney, Declan Rice, Jack Grealish and Harry Maguire could have played for Ireland.  Alas, their thoughts were on higher things, like playing for England and how much more money that’d be worth.  Andy Burnham, said to have been a tidy footballer in his time, could not have played for Ireland, even though  his great-grandfather was from Cork.

JUDE COLLINS: Stories the racist rioters tell themselves

JUDE COLLINS: Blood on the floor in the GAA corridors of power

The  Catholic Church and the GAA have been moving in opposite directions in recent decades. Such has been the shrinkage of the Catholic Church and the expansion of the GAA, In quite a few parishes the GAA  acts as the social glue that holds communities together, rather than the Church.

JUDE COLLINS: Do we really need schools after all?

George Bernard Shaw didn’t think much of teachers: “He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches”.  Mark Twain wasn’t behind the door either: “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education” And then there are those great lines Paul Simon sings in  ‘Kodachrome’:  “When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school/ It’s a wonder I can think at all.”

JUDE COLLINS: Israel makes a mockery of international law

The reason the Troubles horrified people here was because it brought war close up, in all its brutality. Wars far away  - in Ukraine, in Lebanon, in Gaze – can elicit empathy from us all. But it’s only when it comes to your own door that you begin to understand the savagery of it all.

JUDE COLLINS: Underneath the UK mess lies... a bigger mess

At times like this, most of us would settle for a degree of steadiness and maybe leadership in Ireland south and north. In the Dail, FF and FG have chokehold on power and they’re never voluntarily going to allow anyone else to replace them as choke-holders-in chief . The North is a bit more fragile – we’ve  gone through protracted periods where our MLAs haven’t been around, and like a school when the principal is off,  things managed to stagger on in more or less the same way.

JUDE COLLINS: Nolan's police series tells only part of the story

The local B(ritish) BC has three major News anchors – William Crawley,  Mark Patterson and Stephen Nolan – all three from a Protestant/unionist background. That, of course, doesn’t mean that all three aren’t impartial and engaging journalists. It doesn’t mean they are impartial and engaging either.

JUDE COLLINS: Many of Israel's most trenchant critics are Jews

This is not a good time to be a Jewish person in the UK. In the past week, two Jewish men were attacked and hospitalized. In 2025, there were 170 antisemitic assaults in the UK alone,  with four cases of extreme violence. Jewish people throughout the UK speak  of feeling fearful, especially when there are marches in support of Palestinians. 

JUDE COLLINS: Micheál and Keir are equally gormless – but who's better?

Poor Micheál . Poor Keir.

JUDE COLLINS: Iran deserves our thanks for teaching some people a lesson

Will the Israelis  ever escape the label of  genocide enthusiasts? Probably not, but that won’t worry them. Most of us like to have a reputation that allows others to think kindly of us, but Israelis have a thick skin .They  also has an appetite for blood that would match any vampire.

JUDE COLLINS: Trump has grabbed a tiger by the tail in Iran

It was a neck-and-neck race to recover the airman shot down by Iran in Iran. The Americans won the race, much to their relief. Had the Iranians found him first, he would have been put on display as someone several thousand miles from his home, part of the attacking American forces intent on conquering a country that has faced attack and division for decades. Today  Trump’s boast is that they’ll be beaten“back into the Stone Ages”

JUDE COLLINS: At long last the language tide is turning

I was speaking to someone recently and their take on our local politicians was  “All  they’re concerned with is Irish signs.” I tend at times like these to walk away, in case I hit somebody or worse, get hit.