Fintan O'Toole
 |
This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2011) |
Fintan O'Toole (born 1958) is a columnist, assistant editor and drama critic for The Irish Times. He has written for The Irish Times since 1988 and was drama critic for the New York Daily News from 1997 to 2001. He is a literary critic, historical writer and political commentator, with generally left-wing views. He was and continues to be a strong critic of political corruption in Ireland, from the Haughey era to the present.
In 2011, he was named one of "Britain's top 300 intellectuals" by The Observer[1] despite not being British.
O'Toole was born in Dublin[2] and educated at University College Dublin (UCD).
Contents |
[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)
- Ship Of Fools, How Stupidity And Corruption Sank The Celtic Tiger, 2009.
- Enough is Enough: How to Build a New Republic, 2010.
[edit] Awards
- AT Cross Award for Supreme Contribution to Irish Journalism (1993)
- Justice Award of the Incorporated Law Society (1994)
- Millennium Social Inclusion Award (2000).
[edit] Views
O'Toole has criticised what he sees as negative attitudes towards immigration in Ireland, the state of Ireland's public services, growing inequality during Ireland's economic boom,[3] the Iraq War and the US military's use of Shannon Airport, among many other issues. In 2006, he spent six months in China reporting for The Irish Times.[citation needed]
His former editor Geraldine Kennedy was paid more than the editor of the UK's top non-tabloid newspaper The Daily Telegraph, which has a circulation of about 9 times that of The Irish Times. Later O'Toole famously told the rival 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."[4]
[edit] Political ambitions
In January 2011, O'Toole contemplated running for a seat in the Dáil as an independent candidate. He announced on 29 January 2011 that he had decided against a move into politics.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Naughton, John. "Britain's top 300 intellectuals". 8 May 2011. The Observer.
- ^ Biographical data from subjects website
- ^ The Irish Times - Tuesday, August 3, 2010, "Inequity the bedrock of McDowell's 'Republic' "
- ^ "Irish Times staff revolt at editor and directors' 'indefensible' salaries", Irish Independent, August 07 2005
- ^ O'Toole, Fintan (29 January 2011). "The decision that I made on contesting this general election". The Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/0129/1224288524065.html.
