Fintan O'Toole

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Fintan O'Toole (born 1958) is a columnist, assistant editor and drama critic for The Irish Times.

O'Toole was born in Dublin and educated at University College Dublin. He has written for the Irish Times since 1988 and was drama critic for the New York Daily News from 1997 to 2001.

[edit] Views

O'Toole is a literary critic, historical writer and political commentator, with generally left-wing views. He was and continues to be a strong critic of perceived corruption in Irish politics, in both the Haughey era and continuing to the present Taoiseach, Brian Cowen. Apparently an expert on almost everything( a.k.a. a know it all), he is known for his commentary on an often remarkably wide-ranging number of subjects; cultural, historical, political, social and economic.

O'Toole has criticised negative attitudes towards immigration in Ireland, the state of Ireland's public services, growing inequality during Ireland's economic boom, the Iraq War and the American military's use of Shannon Airport, among many other issues. In 2006 O'Toole spent six months in China reporting for The Irish Times. In his weekly columns in the Irish Times, O'Toole opposed the Provisional Irish Republican Army's (IRA) campaign during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He also opposed sectarianism in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.[citation needed]

[edit] Bibliography

  • The Politics of Magic: The Work and Times of Tom Murphy, 1987;
  • A Mass for Jesse James: A Journey Through 1980s Ireland, 1990;
  • Black Hole, Green Card: The Disappearance of Ireland, 1994;
  • Meanwhile Back at the Ranch: The Politics of Irish Beef, 1994;
  • Macbeth & Hamlet, 1995;
  • A Traitor’s Kiss: The Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1997;
  • The Ex-Isle of Ireland: Images of a Global Ireland, 1997;
  • The Lie of the Land, 1998;
  • The Irish Times Book of the Century, 1999;
  • Shakespeare is Hard But So is Life, 2002;
  • Contributor, Granta 77: What We Think of America, 2002;
  • "Jubilee", Granta 79: Celebrity, 2002;
  • After The Ball, 2003;
  • Post Washington: Why America Can't Rule the World , 2005(with Tony Kinsella);
  • White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America, 2005
  • The Irish Times Book of The 1916 Rising, 2006(with Shane Hegarty)

[edit] Sources


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