Fintan O’Toole

Fintan O’Toole

Contributor

Fintan O’Toole is a writer and author. His books include We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958, Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain, and Ship of Fools: How Stupidity and Corruption Sank the Celtic Tiger. A member of the Royal Irish Academy, he is a winner of the European Press Prize and the Orwell Prize. He is also professor of Irish letters at Princeton University.

Fintan O’Toole: There’s a reason why Ireland votes for leftist presidents and right-of-centre governments

There are five things the left needs to do now to capitalise on Catherine Connolly’s win

Catherine Connolly deserves her landslide victory, but it’s a hollow crown

She has a tough task ahead: speak for the established State, represent a radical opposition to it and give hope to those who are increasingly disenchanted

Catherine Connolly is going to win. Heather Humphreys needs to be a better loser

Fine Gael candidate must know her cheap shot at independent rival comes with heavy price tag

A Catherine Connolly presidency would be an alternative to official Ireland

In Heather Humphreys, we have a candidate who is harmless. And In Catherine Connolly one who has the potential to do some harm, but also to do good

Budget 2026: What’s another year to a hungry two-year-old?

Nobody disagrees on the value of a second tier of child benefit. So why has it not been introduced? Lethargy

What on earth was Micheál Martin thinking? Jim Gavin clearly wasn’t ready

Getting your followers to agree to a proposition that makes no sense is the ultimate ego trip

Catherine Connolly should keep her inner Basil Fawlty under wraps

Accusing our EU allies of being proto-fascist warmongers is not a winning strategy

How is it possible to live with the knowledge that you have facilitated mass murder?

One term encapsulates the way Israel and its enablers are dealing with the genocide in Gaza: instant amnesia

The really nauseating thing about the Ryder Cup is how seamlessly it will all happen

Imagine the war cabinet that would have been assembled if paediatric spinal surgery was a global spectator sport

The presidential election needs a candidate I wouldn’t vote for: Maria Steen

There are still a lot of orthodox Irish Catholics and people of other faiths who share their views on issues like abortion, homosexuality, gender and marriage

Ireland was once the tradwife capital of the world. Worse, they were happy

Or so they said. But surrendering to oppression can be a form of contentment

The pain and shame that Bertie Ahern caused this country are not forgotten

Does Fianna Fáil really want to nominate him for the Áras and deliver us a sharp reminder of what that felt like?

Sinn Féin may reject commemorating the Normans, but there are some suspiciously Saxon names in its ranks

Take a look at centuries of Irish revolutionaries and you’ll find links to Norman history

We in Ireland forget how recently we were the ‘crap-job’ migrants

If we were serious about stopping people coming here to work in low-paid jobs, we would have to be willing to do three things

Gaza is also a war on the human instinct for compassion

When we learn to shut down pity, we summon the pitiless to power

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