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Ian O'Doherty Opinion How long before book-banning mania catches on in Ireland?

What do Huckleberry Finn, Of Mice and Men, Slaughterhouse-Five and To Kill a Mockingbird all have in common? Well, for starters, they’re obviously stone-cold classics of American literature and many of us would have read each of those novels several times by the time we left our teenage years.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Be careful what you wish for: finally, after a lifetime of waiting, King Charles gets the top job

An old era ends. A new one begins.

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion Emigrants in this brain drain face a tougher choice than in the 1980s

We all have our weird little obsessions or, if you wanted to be high falutin’ about it, our insights. As some readers may be aware, there’s a part of me that’s convinced we’re just repeating the 1980s.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Queen Elizabeth’s death is sad for many – but those who express ill-timed anti-royalist sentiment should not be arrested

One of the more agreeable aspects of the Irish nature is that we don’t like to talk ill of the dead – until after the funeral, of course. Then all bets are off.

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion We’ve lost many of our streets to thuggery. Is public transport going the same way?

I happened to tune into Liveline the other day. As the summer winds down, regular listeners would have known what to expect: talk about the price of school uniforms and the hassle that faces every parent when they try to get their kids back into a regular routine. Instead, things took a rather darker turn.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Why I’m going to boycott this year’s World Cup in Qatar

I’ve always loved boxing. One of my uncles boxed for Ireland and it’s a fantastic sport (although I went into the ring once when I was a kid and as soon as I was punched in the face, I immediately decided it wasn’t for me).

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion It may be summer’s end but don’t despair – when autumn gives you apples, make tarts

I was out walking the dogs the other day and as they joyously ran through a pile of leaves in the local park it struck me – isn’t a bit early for the trees to be shedding? Frankly, ever since I saw a bumblebee buzzing around some Christmas trees last year everything seems a bit “off”.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Rushdie attack is an assault on anyone who has ever read a book

The year 1989 was a rather remarkable one and it which deserves more attention than it gets. No, wait, don’t skip this page! I’m making a valid point here.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Sport may be inherently silly – but we all need a bit of silliness in our lives these days

I was in the kitchen making the dinner when the call came in from the sitting room: “Jesus! Get in here quickly. Conte and Tuchel are kicking off at each other.”

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Mar-a-Lago raid gives Trump just what he needs

Oh God. He hasn’t gone away, you know. Frankly, at this stage we could all do one of those old European tricks when dealing with a vampire — bury him at the nearest crossroad, put a stake through his heart and, for good measure, place a coin in his mouth. Although, having said that, he would probably quite like the coin.

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion The sun is finally here, so forget reality for a while and milk the heat for all it’s worth

So, apparently we’re all doomed. As the weather finally begins to improve and we look set for a week of actual sunshine, with the promise of an actual, proper, old-school heatwave – that’s 25C heat for five consecutive days – how should we react?

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Football’s back – but it’s no longer a beautiful game

I tuned into last Sunday’s match between England and Germany in the final of the Uefa Women’s Championship — not because it was women’s football, or because it was empowering for young girls, or any of the other clichés that have been doing the rounds for the last few weeks.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion For once, the UN is right – we’re standing on the edge of a deadly nuclear precipice

For those of us of a certain age, the last few months have felt as if we have somehow time-warped back to the 1980s. Stranger Things, which is set in that decade, has been the biggest show on TV. Kate Bush – thanks, incidentally, to Stranger Things – is now regularly played on the radio and she has reached number one in 2022 with the re-release of her 1985 hit, Running Up That Hill.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Gouging like this will send the tourists packing

A friend of mine from Clarenbridge is an avid fisherman with his own little boat. Last week, he set out on the Good Ship Billy and went up and down the coast to enjoy the sunshine and, hopefully, catch a few fish.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Chaos on the Dart to Bray was symptom of wider problem – we need more investment

I must admit I’ve always had a soft spot for Bray. In fact, when I was a kid, Bray seemed as exotic and cool as Monte Carlo (not a comparison that’s often made, in fairness).

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Keep on lecturing us, Harry, and I’ll keep on laughing

It was the pointless talking to the useless. Fittingly, it also happened in a half-empty room.

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion Toxic Tory leadership debate reminds us they couldn’t give a damn about Ireland

And then there were... How many is it again? Oh, yes, and then there were three. After an initial 11 hopeful (and, some might say if they were feeling less than charitable, hopeless) Tory leadership candidates, it’s now down to the final three as we reach a sort of X-Factor-style finale.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Twitter is fuelling an arms race in utter stupidity

I always thought the controversy over Jordan Peterson was an indication of how utterly weird society has become. The Canadian academic, who sprang to global fame/infamy (delete according to taste) when he became embroiled in the row over trans rights, found himself portrayed as either a heroic speaker of eternal truths or a snarling, demented fascist.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Alas, poor Boris – but where does it leave us if only Monster Raving Loonies are left?

You have to hand it to the Tories for restoring the “silly” to the silly season, that fallow period for the news industry when very little is supposed to happen.

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion Trump’s lunch wasn’t the only thing to hit the wall on January 6

Hunter S Thompson used to have a great phrase that “when the going gets tough, the weird turn pro”.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Summer in Ireland – a time when rain is mildly warmer than in the bleak midwinter

Are we nearly there yet? Are we nearly there yet?

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion I’m a Love Island widower and I’m not the only one

It’s safe to say that we’ve all endured a pretty rotten couple of years. First there was Covid and the lockdowns that resulted in a new form of social confinement and isolation. That inevitably resulted in our economic slump, which the experts all agree is going to get worse before it gets better.

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion Street markets are what make a city. So why are they disappearing here in Dublin?

One of my earliest and most cherished childhood memories is going into the Dandelion with my parents. To quote the British royal family, my own recollections may vary, but I do have a vivid image of my da buying a pair of cowboy boots – look, it was the 1970s, everyone makes mistakes.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Nuclear war fears and sentient bots – it’s like we’re back in the 80s

I have a bad relationship with technology. I don’t like it, and it doesn’t like me. In fact, it seems as if I have the Medusa touch (the opposite of the Midas touch) when it comes to dealing with gizmos, smartphones and computers. But while I may not like these devices, I’ve never actually been afraid of them. Until now. In fact, now I’m bloody terrified.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion We’re among the most hospitable people in Europe – let’s not ruin it by being greedy

Working off the entirely reasonable supposition that most Indo readers lead far more productive lives than me, I’ll assume many of you haven’t gone down the internet rabbit hole that is now called #Swedengate, which cast a sinister pall over that country’s international reputation.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Does minimum alcohol pricing do any good? Ask the Scots

Some of you may recall — however reluctantly — the bleak midwinter that was January. The weather was miserable, anxiety still filled the air and everyone was even more cheesed off than they would normally be in the first week of the new year, which, I’m sure we can all agree, is always the grimmest time. We were all broke after Christmas, people were worried about job security and there was a sense that we had spent such a long time living under lockdown that we would never get back to normal. So what did our illustrious lords and masters in the Dáil do to make our lives a little easier?

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion World has changed, but just like death and taxes, the Leaving Cert is always with us

As the class of 2022 sit down this morning for their first English exam, we should all have a degree of sympathy for those people who have to go through the meat grinder that is the Leaving – a gruelling, stressful and frequently pointless exam that will, apparently, decide how you live the rest of your life. A businessman or a pauper? A success in life or an abject failure doomed to spend your days sweeping the streets?

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion God save the queen? Well, someone has to

So, have you put the bunting up? Have you ordered in a special ‘jubilee sponge’? Have you been busy on your neighbourhood WhatsApp group sorting all the details for today’s street party to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 70-year reign as British monarch?

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion All fans should stand with Scousers after they were teargassed by thugs in uniform

I was in Dublin Airport a few weeks ago, catching a flight to Manchester. I was dreading the experience. The reports of delays in Dublin were becoming more ominous with every passing day and the horror stories that were being printed about Manchester Airport genuinely made me wonder if it was going to be worth all the hassle.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Saipan still sets us off 20 years on – and I know the real reason why

I met up with some friends recently for a bit of a reunion. We hadn’t seen each other in the two years since lockdown kicked in, so it was nice to catch up.