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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Credit to Harry and Meghan, their new show is a must-watch

Set your faces to stunned, as they didn’t quite say on Star Trek.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Christmas comes earlier each year, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing after all

Well, it’s that time of the year again. In fact, it seems to have been ‘that time of the year’ for the last few weeks.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion At last, assisted dying is about to get the attention it needs

Well, about time. For many people, it’s probably too little, too late, but when Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl announced this week that we would finally see a special Oireachtas committee designed to look at assisted dying “as soon as humanly possible”, many campaigners will have rejoiced, albeit reluctantly.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Infantino’s infantile speech adds insult to injury as World Cup sullied by slave host nation

‘Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arabic. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel like a migrant worker.”

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Trump has turned into the Jim Jones of US politics

"Ah, look man. You’ve had a bit too much and you’ve been here for way too long and now you’re just boring people and to be honest, you’re freaking them out a bit. It’s nothing personal, but you’re making the others feel uncomfortable. Can you please just leave before things turn ugly?”

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion As the population explodes, we’re living longer – and heading for a total disaster

The news from the United Nations that the world’s population has hit eight billion certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion I won’t watch a minute of this grotesque World Cup

I hear you’re a racist now, father!

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Why my lack of surprise at these disgusting revelations? Well, I’m a past pupil of Templeogue College

It just never stops, does it? The lies, the sexual abuse, the physical abuse, the intimidation, the mealy-mouthed and half-hearted apologies. Just when we think we’re out, we’re dragged back in.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion What exactly is hate speech? Maybe I’ll find out in court

Here we go again with another new law from the Nanny State’s bandwagon.

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Former Loaded editor James Brown: ‘Going out with the Irish players was like being a Beatle’

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Depending your perspective, that is. Yes, we’re talking about the 1990s, a decade Eddie Izzard recently condemned as “toxic”.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion The dark winter months are cold and depressing – which is why we must find ways to let the light shine through

Winter is coming. The three most depressing words in the English language and not just because various characters in Game Of Thrones used to utter that phrase with a sense of dread and despondency.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Trick or treat are the last words I want to hear on Halloween

Well, seeing as the world has become a rather scary place at the moment, Halloween seems to have arrived at the perfect time to reflect the general mood.

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion What a time to extend closing hours – I’m too old to bop until dawn, and most of us can’t afford to go out

As the song goes, “and now, the end is near”... but hang on a second, did this Government just come up with an idea which is both popular with the majority of the people and also makes perfect common sense?

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion As ‘poppy season’ looms, it’s time to stop the abuse of James McClean

Well, we’re getting to that time of the year again.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion We’re witnessing the shambolic death throes of Liz Truss’s short reign of error

As the song goes, and now, the end is near. But the only difference is that Liz Truss didn’t do it her way. In fact, it’s hard to discern what way she was trying.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion As Graham Norton has a go at John Cleese, please spare us from being ‘held to account’ by the morality police

“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion When you’re in a hole, you should stop digging – but Liz Truss and the Tories are determined to be buried

Everyone knows that when you’re in a hole, you should stop digging.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion We should take a little pride in being Europe’s friendliest nation

I think it’s fair to say that things seem a little bit, well, gloomy at the moment.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Putin is a cornered rat and that means the world is now teetering on the brink of Armageddon

When Russia first launched their so-called ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine over seven months ago, there was almost total global condemnation.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Phillip and Holly? Off with their heads!

It started, as these things tend to do, in the undergrowth of the internet before spreading into the real world.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion As sterling sinks to a new low against the dollar, we should all be rather concerned

As we sat down and watched through our fingers as Paschal Donohoe delivered his Budget yesterday, our minds were focused on national issues. But the world keeps turning, and events in the UK will inevitably have an impact on us as well.

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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.”