Fintan O'Toole

Fintan O'Toole (born 1958) is a columnist, literary editor and drama critic for The Irish Times. He has written for the paper since 1988. O'Toole was drama critic for the New York Daily News from 1997 to 2001 and is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. He is an author, literary critic, historical writer and political commentator, with generally left-wing views. His recent books have focused on the rise, fall and aftermath of Ireland's 'Celtic Tiger'. He has been a strong critic of political corruption in Ireland throughout his career.
O'Toole was born in Dublin, grew up in a working-class family and was educated at University College Dublin.
In 2011 he was named one of "Britain's top 300 intellectuals" by The Observer, despite not being British or living in Britain.
In 2012 and 2013 O'Toole was a Visiting Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University, and contributed to the Fund for Irish Studies Series.

O'Toole was born in Dublin on 16 February 1958 and educated at Scoil Íosagáin and Coláiste Chaoimhín in Crumlin (both run by the Christian Brothers) and at University College Dublin, where he studied English and Philosophy. He became drama critic of In Dublin magazine in 1980. He joined the Sunday Tribune on its relaunch by Vincent Browne in 1983 and worked as its drama critic, literary editor, arts editor and feature writer. From 1986 to 1987 he edited Magill magazine. He joined The Irish Times as a columnist in 1988 and his columns have appeared twice-weekly ever since. He took a sabbatical in 1990-1991 to work as Literary Adviser to the Abbey Theatre. In 1994 he was one of the presenters for the last season of BBC TV's The Late Show. From 1997 to 2001 he was drama critic of the Daily News in New York. In 2011 he was appointed as literary editor of The Irish Times.

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, the Iraq War and, the US military's use of Shannon Airport, among many other issues. In 2006 he spent six months reporting for The Irish Times in China.

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 about nine times that of The Irish Times. Later, O'Toole told a rival Irish paper, 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."

In June 2012 O'Toole compared the Constitutional Convention to the Citizens Union, a reformist political organisation which Tammany Hall did not bother suppressing so long as it did not threaten its hegemony.

Political ambitions

In January 2011 O'Toole suggested that he might run for a seat in Dáil Éireann as an independent candidate. On 29 January 2011 he announced his decision not to do so.

• 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), A History of Ireland in 100 Objects

• Roddy Doyle’s ‘The Guts’ named novel of the year Irish Times, 2013-11-27.