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Tom Collins

Tom Collins

The Irish News

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Yousaf’s demise carries warning for cause of Irish unity

Timing is everything in politics, and when Humza Yousaf became leader of the SNP last year the party was already in freefall. Without a personal...

01.05.2024 20

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Damned for all time: Bloody Sunday killers will go down in infamy

We were sitting in English class the day after it happened. Our teacher had just introduced us to the poetry of Seamus Heaney. Even for a group of...

25.04.2024 20

The Irish News

Tom Collins

The Old Testament God has failed in the Middle East

It’s not difficult to find culprits for what is happening in the Middle East, for so long a plaything of powerful empires intent on putting their...

16.04.2024 8

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Whatever the cost, Ireland reunited will always trump an Ireland divided

There is already the whiff of failure about the new taoiseach – and this is his first day in office. Simon Harris is one of those oleaginous...

10.04.2024 6

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Assisted dying should become a human right

Anyone who has sat at the bedside of a loved one who is dying – and that is an experience most of us will have gone through – will understand how...

02.04.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Magee university task force is classic case of kicking can down road

One of the problems with politics is that politicians often think only in the short term. Their income is dependant on re-election, and their vision...

26.03.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

I had high hopes for Joe Biden, but hope and history has failed to rhyme

By now the caravan has moved on. St Patrick’s Day is dead and gone, it’s with O’Leary in his grave. Thank goodness. I have always been sceptical...

20.03.2024 9

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Failing coalition putting prospect of Irish unity in jeopardy

Given the enormous shift in social attitudes, it takes some doing to lose two referendum votes on an issue most people agree with. But in this...

12.03.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Now it’s time to give Derry its university

When I told my teachers I was going to the New University of Ulster to study a new-fangled degree in media studies, I was told I shouldn’t go. “No...

05.03.2024 30

The Irish News

Tom Collins

BBC’s failures in Northern Ireland laid bare by its own veterans

For an indication of Sir Paul Fox’s standing, look no further than the list of those awarded a fellowship by the British Academy of Film and...

28.02.2024 60

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Mr Givan: Cut the PR hype and begin reform of education system

The economy is struggling, but there’s one sector which is thriving by making silk purses out of sows’ ears. Annually, hundreds of millions are...

20.02.2024 7

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Biden needs to step aside for candidate who can take on Trump and win

In any normal society, Joe Biden would be taking a well-earned rest after a life of public service, and Donald Trump would be in jail. But the United...

13.02.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Is Stormont up to the job? Hope spring eternal

Times have certainly changed. We have known since 2022 that Sinn Féin had secured the first minister’s post, but Saturday’s events at Stormont...

06.02.2024 20

The Irish News

Tom Collins

US stands condemned over vile judicial murder

Sometimes you just have to stop reading. Part way through an article on the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith, I had to push the back button on my...

30.01.2024 4

The Irish News

Tom Collins

The DUP is a busted flush

Are you excited about the prospect of a return to a power-sharing executive at Stormont? No, me neither. The DUP is a busted flush. It has nothing to...

23.01.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Use of injustice to hold on to power is endemic in the British state

John Hume was often accused of having a ‘single transferable speech’ which he deployed every time he was near a microphone. Like all...

16.01.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Democracy on the ropes in US election

The former owner of the Londonderry Arms Hotel in Carnlough put it well. “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms...

10.01.2024 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Jacques Delors was a giant and agent of peace

In global politics, Jacques Delors was a towering figure. His political ambitions in France were stymied because François Mitterrand thought there...

02.01.2024 9

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Lying Baroness Mone symbolises all that is wrong with Tories

Biopics are all the rage, and if anyone deserves one it is the American writer Dorothy Parker whose wit was every bit as biting as Oscar Wilde’s....

19.12.2023 9

The Irish News

Tom Collins

How many lives must be lost in Gaza before world sees sense?

THE sheer scale of the loss of life in Gaza is incomprehensible. Some 18,000 people have died and countless more have been injured at the hands of the...

14.12.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Sunak seems to have taken on the the weaknesses of each of his predecessors – Cameron's lack of judgment, May's inertia, Johnson's mendacity, and Truss's incompetence – Tom Collins

KING Charles earned himself brownie points this past week when he used a necktie to troll his inept prime minister.

05.12.2023 8

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Sunak seems to have taken on the the weaknesses of each of his predecessors – Cameron's lack of judgment, May's inertia, Johnson's mendacity, and Truss's incompetence – Tom Collins

KING Charles earned himself brownie points this past week when he used a necktie to troll his inept prime minister.

05.12.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

No place for racism in modern Ireland – Tom Collins

JUST when you thought the tide was turning and right-wing fanaticism was in retreat, the Argentines elect a chainsaw-wielding president, the Dutch...

30.11.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

We pay too high a price for the union – our true interests lie in an Ireland united and at peace with itself –Tom Collins

ARE you sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for tomorrow’s autumn statement from Chancellor Jeremy Hunt? No, neither am I.

21.11.2023 9

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Tom Collins: Forces of the right must be seen off

FROM ancient times there have been those who see the future in apocalyptic terms.

14.11.2023 8

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Forces of the right must be seen off

FROM ancient times there have been those who see the future in apocalyptic terms.

14.11.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Tom Collins: Covid inquiry offers more evidence that the UK is broken and beyond repair

YOU did not need to be a medical expert to know the basics for dealing with coronavirus.

07.11.2023 7

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Tom Collins: Israel can't bomb its way to peace

THERE is a journalistic myth which insists that ‘bad news sells’.

02.11.2023 20

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Israel can't bomb its way to peace

THERE is a journalistic myth which insists that ‘bad news sells’.

31.10.2023 5

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Tom Collins: Portraits of Belfast lord mayors are money well spent. There, I've said it

Some stories come around with the certainty of a comet returning to earth’s orbit.

26.10.2023 3

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Portraits of Belfast lord mayors are money well spent. There, I've said it

Some stories come around with the certainty of a comet returning to earth’s orbit.

24.10.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Tom Collins: It's always innocents who pay price of war

It is just over a week since the Hamas attack on Israel which has brought the Middle East to yet another of those moments that could only be described...

17.10.2023 8

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Tom Collins: Keir Starmer's leadership fails the 'granny test'

In Scots Gaelic it is known as An Ruadh-Gleann.

12.10.2023 7

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Keir Starmer's leadership fails the 'granny test'

In Scots Gaelic it is known as An Ruadh-Gleann.

10.10.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Tom Collins: Derry has been done a monstrous disservice – independence is the only proper course for Magee

If you have ever had the good fortune to hold a clutch of hundred dollar bills, smiling out at you would be the benign figure of Benjamin Franklin.

03.10.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

The Irish News remains a distinctive voice in Irish media, where hope and history rhyme

Badly missed this week is the late Dr Éamon Phoenix, Irish News chronicler and a man who helped us understand that history was not about the...

26.09.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Tom Collins: The Irish News remains a distinctive voice in Irish media, where hope and history rhyme

Badly missed this week is the late Dr Éamon Phoenix, Irish News chronicler and a man who helped us understand that history was not about the...

26.09.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

The decline and fall of the unionist empire

There is no shortage of metaphors for the decline and fall of the north east of Ireland since it was misappropriated by unionists in the early part of...

22.09.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Tom Collins: The decline and fall of the unionist empire

There is no shortage of metaphors for the decline and fall of the north east of Ireland since it was misappropriated by unionists in the early part of...

22.09.2023 9

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Tom Collins: Will someone please tell the NIO Irish unity is a legitimate aspiration?

Some conversations stick with you.

15.09.2023 10

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Will someone please tell the NIO Irish unity is a legitimate aspiration?

Some conversations stick with you.

15.09.2023 20

The Irish News

Tom Collins

Tom Collins: Time for DUP to wise up and get back to work

Every now and then a phrase comes into my head that I can’t get rid of – the verbal equivalent of an ear-worm.

09.09.2023 20

The Irish News

Tom Collins

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