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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Dishonourable political spoofery proves this Tory government simply cannot be trusted

Your word is your bond. That is the simplest, yet also the most profound, sentiment any of us can ever have. It means, essentially, that when someone agrees to something, they will then behave in an honourable fashion and comply with the agreement that has been reached. It’s a vital part of the day-to-day communication between us, the little people, but it’s even more crucial when it comes to international treaties.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Lawyers are the real winners in Depp v Heard

We’ve been hearing a lot of talk lately about the possibility of nuclear war breaking out.

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion Set your faces to stunned – we’re in the nuclear firing line. Isn’t that just great?

Wait. What? Now we’re stuck in the middle? How the hell did that happen? Ever since Putin invaded Ukraine – sorry, launched his “special military operation” – things have been off kilter.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion A pitch invasion and a curry — the perfect English Saturday

I went to a funeral last Saturday.

Ian O'Doherty Opinion Why the tweet sound of crying over Musk’s Twitter buyout should be music to our ears

Those of you of a certain vintage may remember the old TV ads for Remington shavers in the early 1980s. They featured American businessman Victor Kiam extolling the virtues of the product and proudly announcing: “I liked the shaver so much I bought the company.”

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Do not bite the hand that feeds... filching the tip jar is just mean

So, how are you coping with our gradual recovery after two years of lockdown?

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion We need the return of boring politics to stop book burners getting their grip on power

Is Europe inching towards fascism? Are we on the cusp of seeing the continent retreating into the kind of sweaty stranglehold of racist bigots not seen since Germany and her allies in the 1940s?

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Free society has to tolerate eejitry — it beats the alternative

We all know the ancient Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.”

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Taking with one hand and giving with the other – confusion reigns in Government

Controversial admission time – I quite like free stuff. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you, also, like free stuff. After all, who doesn’t?

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Mary Whitehouse fashionable again? I never thought I’d see the day

They say if you live long enough, you will witness how things that were once derided eventually become fashionable.

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion Putin doesn’t have to deal with that messy, pesky, cumbersome thing called democracy

It just keeps getting worse. When the Russians launched their “special military operation” into Ukraine, most people condemned the move while also accepting that it would all be over in a few days, or at most, a few weeks.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Spring has sprung and now I have a pep in my step

It was only when I was out walking my increasingly crazy and badly behaved young dogs the other day that the realisation struck me — I was happy.

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion Will Smith was out of order by hitting Chris Rock but he made the Oscars relevant for the first time in years

The slap that was heard around the world? A disgraceful physical assault that has no place in civilised society? A man merely defending his wife or an act of wanton thuggery?

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Happy 50th to The Godfather, a film so good it changed my diet

How can something that has just turned 50 still look so fresh and vibrant — and no, I’m not talking about myself (although any comments that I don’t look 50 will be received with unseemly and, frankly, pathetic gratitude).

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion Ignore the moaners – hosting matches at Euro 2028 will be a wonderful spectacle

What if you planned a sporting tournament and nobody wanted to host it? That’s the bizarre position Uefa finds itself in when it makes its official announcement today about who will host the Euros in 2028.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Ban under-25s from buying ­cigarettes? Good luck with that

In years to come — assuming we don’t find ourselves incinerated in a nuclear war, that is — people will look back at the pandemic, and the lockdown, and all the draconian official responses and will wonder if it was all worth it.

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Ian O’Doherty Opinion Maybe it is time to give St Patrick’s Day the credit it deserves – other countries do

What’s in a name? When it comes to our national feast day and the celebration of our patron saint, it would appear that the answers are more complicated than the question. For example, if someone calls it merely “Paddy’s Day” there is a good chance they are from Dublin. If someone insists on referring to it as “St Patrick’s Day” there is a good chance that they are Catholic and rural.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Now we know for sure – the UN is a busted flush

Don’t mention the war.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion We are doing the right thing by taking in Ukrainian refugees – unlike crass Tories

The 1980s have been enjoying quite the revival in popular culture of late as the nostalgia-industry looks back on that decade.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Rules on masks may have gone but I’ll be keeping mine to hand

To mask or not to mask? That was the question on Monday when, for the first time in two years, people were allowed to go into a shop without wearing their face-nappy.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion The Divided States of America – now a country ripping itself apart in self-loathing

When Joe Biden sat down last night to deliver his first State of the Union speech, both the POTUS and his advisers were all too aware that he was addressing a tough and surly crowd – the crowd in question being America itself.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Anyone kicking off about a black dwarf in Tolkien must be a troll

When I cast my mind back to when I was a kid, my earliest memory is thanks to JRR Tolkien.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Homage to DJ Vincent Hanley reminds us that the 1980s were a very dark time

It’s often fascinating to see how an idea can catch the zeitgeist, as if it was wafting in the air for everyone to breathe. In this case, I’m referring to the nostalgia that has recently erupted around the 1980s. I mentioned it in these pages a few weeks ago in relation to the current events in Ukraine.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Trucker protest is really about elites drunk on newfound power

If you’ve been paying attention to the foreign news over the past few weeks, you may have seen the stories of the so called Freedom Convoy of Canadian truckers who have blocked bridges and cities with their large rigs as they gather together to spread their vile, far-right agenda.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Welcome to the modern Olympic Games – where cheats are allowed to compete

If I were to ask you to cast your mind back to what you were doing on August 8, 2021, there’s a good chance you won’t remember. Until you hear the name Kellie Harrington, that is.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion I may have turned 50, but am I ready to accept it? You cannot be serious

A terrible thing happened to me last November.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Johnson’s nasty Savile slur reminds everyone he still has the gift of the gaffe

When in doubt, lash out. That’s part of both human nat- ure and the playbook for any embattled politician who’s feeling the heat and tries to turn the tables on their accuser. We’ve all done it, and it seldom ends well. Just look at the latest fine mess Boris Johnson has blundered into.

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Whoopi Goldberg was wrong, but she should not be cancelled

So, which celebrity finds themselves on the naughty step this week?

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion Neil Young versus Joe Rogan and Spotify is about one thing – the almighty dollar

Oh, what a tangled (world wide) web they weave. In 2020, when Spotify jubilantly ann- ounced it had signed Joe Rogan on an exclusive podcast deal for an eye-watering $100m (€89m), many people were surprised. Why would the streaming giant pay a hundred million bucks for the rights to what, as Jeremy Clarkson often calls it, “recordings of people just talking to each other”?

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Ian O'Doherty Opinion With all this talk of war, it’s like we are back in the 1980s

So, are you freaked out yet? I certainly am.