Fintan O’Toole

Fintan O'Toole (born 1958) is a columnist, assistant editor, and drama critic for The Irish Times. He has written for the paper 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 has been a strong critic of political corruption in Ireland throughout his career.

In 2011, he was named one of "Britain's top 300 intellectuals" by The Observer, despite not being British.

O'Toole was born in Dublin and educated at University College Dublin.

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, 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 the 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."

Political ambitions
In January 2011, O'Toole contemplated running for a seat in Dáil Éireann as an independent candidate. However, he announced on 29 January 2011 that he had decided against it.

Awards

 * A.T. Cross Award for Supreme Contribution to Irish Journalism (1993)
 * Justice Award of the Incorporated Law Society (1994)
 * Millennium Social Inclusion Award (2000).

Publications

 * 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.