Fintan O'Toole facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Fintan O'Toole
|
|
|---|---|
O'Toole in 2010
|
|
| Born | 16 February 1958 Dublin, Ireland |
| Occupation | Journalist, writer, critic |
| Alma mater | University College Dublin |
Fintan O'Toole (born February 16, 1958) is a well-known Irish journalist, writer, and critic. He is famous for his articles in The Irish Times, where he has written since 1988. He also contributes regularly to The New York Review of Books.
From 1997 to 2001, O'Toole was a drama critic for the New York Daily News. In 2011, The Observer newspaper named him one of "Britain's top 300 intellectuals," even though he is Irish and lives in Ireland. He also taught at Princeton University in 2012 and 2013.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Fintan O'Toole was born in Dublin, Ireland. He grew up in a working-class family. He went to schools in Crumlin that were run by the Christian Brothers.
He later attended University College Dublin (UCD). In 1978, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. His studies focused on English and Philosophy.
A Career in Writing
After finishing university, O'Toole quickly started his writing career. In 1980, he became a drama critic for In Dublin magazine. He then joined the Sunday Tribune in 1983. There, he worked as a drama critic, literary editor, arts editor, and feature writer. From 1986 to 1987, he was the editor of Magill magazine.
Joining The Irish Times
O'Toole began writing columns for The Irish Times in 1988. His columns have appeared twice a week ever since. He took a break in 1990–1991 to work as a literary adviser for the Abbey Theatre. In 1994, he was a presenter for the last season of BBC TV's The Late Show.
He also wrote for the Daily News in New York from 1997 to 2001. In 2011, he became the literary editor of The Irish Times. He has also published articles in The New York Review of Books and The Guardian.
In 2017, a publisher asked O'Toole to write the official biography of the famous poet Seamus Heaney. O'Toole mentioned that his biggest worry was that Heaney's favorite way to communicate was by fax, and faxes can fade over time. In 2018, he received an award from UCD for his work in Arts & Humanities.
Fintan O'Toole's Views
Fintan O'Toole often shares his strong opinions on important issues. He has spoken out against negative attitudes towards immigration in Ireland. He has also criticized the state of Ireland's public services and the growing gap between rich and poor during Ireland's economic boom.
He has also voiced his concerns about the Iraq War and the U.S. military's use of Shannon Airport in Ireland. In 2006, he spent six months reporting from China for The Irish Times.
On Newspaper Pay
O'Toole once spoke about the high salary of his former editor, Geraldine Kennedy. She was paid more than the editor of a major UK newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, which has a much larger readership. O'Toole told another Irish newspaper, the Sunday Independent:
We as a paper are not shy of preaching about corporate pay and fat cats but with this, there is a sense of excess. Some of the sums mentioned are disturbing. This is not an attack on Ms Kennedy, it is an attack on the executive level of pay. There is double-standard of seeking more job cuts while paying these vast salaries.
He felt it was wrong for the newspaper to ask for job cuts while paying such large salaries to its top executives.
On Politics and World Events
In 2012, O'Toole compared the Irish Constitutional Convention to an American political group. He suggested that it might not bring much change if it didn't challenge the main power.
In 2019, after Boris Johnson became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, O'Toole suggested a plan to delay Brexit. His idea involved some Irish Members of Parliament (MPs) resigning to create new elections. He hoped this would lead to more anti-Brexit MPs who could challenge Johnson. However, the leader of Sinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald, disagreed with his idea.
O'Toole has also written about American politics. In 2018, he wrote about how the Donald Trump administration's policies on immigration might be similar to fascism. In 2020, he wrote that Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic had damaged America's image.
In a 2024 essay, O'Toole discussed William Shakespeare's tragedies. He argued that Shakespeare's plays are not meant to teach us lessons about our flaws. Instead, he said, they are like a "fairground wall of death" where characters are pushed by the story. He believes we return to these plays not for lessons, but for the deep emotions and amazing language.
Selected Books by Fintan O'Toole
- 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
- 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)
- Ship of Fools, How Stupidity And Corruption Sank The Celtic Tiger, 2009
- Enough is Enough: How to Build a New Republic, 2010
- Up the Republic!: Towards a New Ireland (editor), 2012
- A History of Ireland in 100 Objects, 2013
- Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks, 2016
- Judging Shaw, 2017
- Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain, 2018
- The Politics of Pain: Postwar England and the Rise of Nationalism, 2019
- We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958, 2021
Awards and Recognition
Fintan O'Toole has received many awards for his journalism and writing:
- 1993 AT Cross Award for Supreme Contribution to Irish Journalism
- 1994 Justice Award of the Incorporated Law Society
- 2000 Millennium Social Inclusion Award
- 2012 TV3 Tonight Show Journalist of the Year
- 2013 Irish Book Awards (Best Irish Published Book of the Year) for A History of Ireland in 100 Objects
- 2014 National LGBT Federation GALA Journalist/Broadcaster Award
- 2014 Awarded Honorary Doctorate in Letters by Queen's University Belfast
- 2017 European Press Prize (Commentator Award)
- 2017 Orwell Prize for Journalism
- 2017 Awarded Honorary Doctorate in Laws by NUI Galway
- 2017 NewsBrands Ireland Journalism Awards Broadsheet Columnist of the Year
- 2018 NewsBrands Ireland Journalism Awards Broadsheet Columnist of the Year
- 2018 University College Dublin UCD Alumni Award in Arts & Humanities
- 2019 Awarded Honorary Doctorate in Letters by Trinity College Dublin
- 2020 NewsBrands Ireland Journalism Awards Broadsheet Columnist of the Year
- 2020 Member of the Royal Irish Academy
- 2021 Irish Book Awards (Odgers Berndtson Non-Fiction Book of the Year) for We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958
- 2021 Irish Book Awards (An Post Irish Book of the Year) for We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958
- 2022 Awarded Honorary Doctorate in Letters by Glasgow University
- 2023 Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
- 2024 Robert B. Silvers Prize for Journalism
- 2024 Member of the American Philosophical Society
- 2024 Eire Society of Boston Gold Medal
