Ian O'Doherty

During the COVID-19 pandemic, O'Doherty wrote a column disagreeing with and discouraging the widespread boycotting of Chinese businesses, and noted the hard work ethic present among Chinese people.[3]

O'Doherty's columns have led to complaints to the Irish Independent.[4][5][6]

He has supported for the presence of US troops in the Middle East, equating opposition to this with "cowardice".[7]

In October 2007, he mocked Steve Staunton's physical and mental appearance, referring to "the ways his eyes dart shiftily all over the place and he adopts that rictus grin" before insulting those with a disability by concluding with the taunt, "The Irish Special Olympics football team are looking for a player/ manager – if they'll have you".[8] One letter writer described his comments as "utterly disparaging to all your readers, salacious and base".[9] Another letter writer described the remarks as "insulting both to Steve Staunton and to all those with special needs".[10]

O'Doherty wrote a column critical of Sharia law – "I have no respect or tolerance for Sharia", published in December 2007.[11]

In 2010, the editor of Gay Community News criticised a column written by O'Doherty which referred to gay people as "sexual deviants".[12]

In a February 2011 column he called for so-called "junkies" to be sterilised as he believes it would be better if such people did not reproduce.[13] This article received widespread criticism, as O'Doherty also described drug users as "vermin", "feral worthless scumbags" and claimed he would "cheer if every junkie died."[13] The press ombudsman ordered the article to be removed from the Independent.ie website on the grounds that it was deliberately stirring up hatred against a group of people.[14] Rick Lines, executive director of Harm Reduction International, said the group was "extremely gratified" by the decision to remove the offensive article.[14] "The decision showed that drug users were entitled to protections against hate-type speech in the press".[14]

In January 2014, the Press Ombudsman upheld a complaint against O'Doherty for a column in which he described members of the Roma community as "a parasitic, ethnic underclass". The ombudsman said the article contained "a number of emphatic generalisations about beggars of Roma origin that, in his opinion, were clearly capable of or intended to cause grave offence”.[15]

In October 2015, the Press Ombudsman upheld a complaint against O'Doherty for a column in which he described the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as being "loud and shrill in their calls for a complete boycott of individual Israelis, regardless of their own political affiliation” and advocating "blanket boycotts of anything involving Jews." The Ombudsman stated that "the article was factually inaccurate in relation to the two statements" and that "BDS campaigns for a widespread boycott of Israeli institutions and organisations. It does not campaign for a boycott of all Israeli citizens. Neither does BDS campaign for a boycott of 'anything involving Jews'. Its campaign, though widespread in its targets, is limited to a boycott of Israeli State institutions as well as economic, cultural, sporting and academic organisations. It does not extend, as the author claimed, to 'anything involving Jews'." [16]

O'Doherty believes anti-discrimination laws should be removed. Commenting on Newstalk he said "the equality laws should be scrapped".[17]

In November 2015, when appearing on Newstalk he said that supporters of Liverpool Football Club "seem to go through so many commemorations of disasters and deaths that they should have just had a black armband just as part of their regulation kit".[18] The presenter interrupted to point out that the club had gone through an "horrendous event", O'Doherty tried to justify his comments that as a Manchester United fan he "is not going to pass on the opportunity to have a go at them".[18] A listener told the Liverpool Echo that "As a Liverpool fan of over forty years I was angered by these comments about Liverpool’s grieving of Hillsborough. I don’t think the journalist in question should simply be allowed to mock so openly the families of the 96, the club, its fans and the annual commemeration of the tragedy. The comments are nothing short of appalling."[18]

O'Doherty has appeared on high-profile topical shows such as The Late Late Show and The Frontline. He holds "strong opinions about Ireland's growing Muslim population" and in 2011, he presented the RTÉ documentary Now It's Personal, in which he spent a week living with Muslims, and volunteered to sleep on the floor of a Mosque.[1][19]

O'Doherty is a self-proclaimed atheist, and libertarian.[20] He has been a speaker during at least one Atheist Ireland meeting. Ian O'Doherty has angrily denied that he has a drinking problem.[21]

O'Doherty is a married man.[20] He is a fan of British soap opera Coronation Street.[22] O'Doherty has a loathing for Irish republican music and claims to have been beaten up at a Wolfe Tones concert.[23] He describes himself as "a huge fan" of the internet, calling it "the most important communication tool since the telephone" but has criticised social networking. Ian O'Doherty has argued strongly to legalise the sale of alcohol on Good Friday.[24] He also says he likes "blokey" things such as "drinking, football, gigs, hanging out with the lads and generally being a bit of a man-child".[25]

He has described himself as "utterly useless at being a bloke... spectacularly inept at performing all but the most basic functions".[26] He once nearly burnt his own house down after attempting to change a plug.[26] While on holiday with his wife, he attempted to read a map while she drove, causing her almost to go "off a cliff and into the Pacific".[26] He cannot drive and cannot fish.[26]

O'Doherty voted in favour of the thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland permitting same-sex marriage in the 2015 referendum, describing it as "a seminal day in Irish history... we should remember that, incredibly, homosexuality was actually crime in this country until 1993".[27] He voted in favour due to "the explicit discrimination against a section of society which needed to be redressed".[27]

O'Doherty voted in favour of the thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland to Repeal the Eighth in the 2018 referendum on the basis that "none of us has the moral authority to tell a woman what to do with her body".[27]

• Ian O'Doherty's home inside the Irish Independent

Irish Press Ombudsman upholds complaint from coalition of drug services International Harm Reduction Association and Others and The Irish Independent