Fintan O’Toole: The enigma of Mary Lou McDonaldThe Sinn Féin leader has a talent for intimacy, but she remains utterly mysteriousSat Feb 15 2020 - 06:00
Fintan O'Toole: Voters have taken a bold gamble on normalityBehind the election’s radical result is a desire to make the Irish system ordinaryTue Feb 11 2020 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: Seismic election result has changed Irish political landscapeIt may be days before the allocation of Dáil seats is complete but we know this: the old political system is finishedSun Feb 09 2020 - 14:13
Fintan O’Toole: The US Republican Party is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump IncThe acquittal of Donald Trump without a real trial puts the US on the road to autocracySat Feb 08 2020 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: It is time for Sinn Féin to come in from the coldA real democratic alternative has to include the biggest party of radical changeTue Feb 04 2020 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: ‘Brexternity of endless uncertainty’ starts todayBrexit as advertised – all the benefits of being in the EU, none of the costs – was a fantasyFri Jan 31 2020 - 23:17
Fintan O’Toole: It is politically easier to keep spending on bad policies than to shift to good onesPolitical parties must be honest about what it takes to get real fiscal prudenceTue Jan 28 2020 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: The terms of Brexit hold a great ironyIssue of a populist project without a people, nationalist project without a nation remainsSun Jan 26 2020 - 17:07
Fintan O'Toole: Safety-first politics has had its dayWe have devised the most risk-averse political system in the democratic world. But more of the same is no longer the safe betTue Jan 21 2020 - 11:59
Fintan O’Toole: Ten big questions for incoming politiciansIn choosing a government, we should think of the major challenges between now and 2025Sat Jan 18 2020 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Will Election 2020 be another story of cynical politics and patronage?Our politicians think we are not interested in long-term policies. The election will test if their cynicism is justifiedTue Jan 14 2020 - 08:10
Fintan O'Toole: Why do we fear the ghosts of dead policemen?Are Ireland’s wars truly over? For some people, there is still a hierarchy of victimsSat Jan 11 2020 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Trump administration weaponises its talent for lyingFalse claim of involvement in 9/11 attacks used to justify Suleimani assassinationTue Jan 07 2020 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: Five big questions for the coming decadeCan we decarbonise the global economy? Will democracy die? Could Ireland unite?Sat Jan 04 2020 - 06:00
Recalling the Celtic Tiger: Insightful overview of the excitement and excessBook review: Fintan O'Toole on the effects, symptoms and consequences of Ireland’s economic boomSat Jan 04 2020 - 00:00
Fintan O’Toole: Varadkar’s vacuous slogan reveals mean streakThe Taoiseach’s campaign for the election will revive his catchphrase about ‘people who get up early in the morning’Tue Dec 31 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: 2019 was a bit like Game of Thrones – lots of action, no climaxYear in Review: 2019 was a year of lots of extraordinary activity but not much movementSat Dec 28 2019 - 00:06
Fintan O'Toole: We need to sing a Christmas lullaby to ourselvesEmbedded in the Nativity is the universal human experience of being cared forTue Dec 24 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Did the Irish Times ‘No Child 2020’ project work?There was some progress on child poverty in 2019, but many of the problems grew worseSat Dec 21 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O'Toole: The big question of the last decade is...The Decade in Culture: t’s up to us to reclaim the private self from Google and FacebookSat Dec 21 2019 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: UK election saw three big pillars of political stability crack on a single dayThe fragile UK is now in the hands of a man with the touch of a chicken stranglerTue Dec 17 2019 - 07:50
Fintan O’Toole: Boris the loveable buffoon beats Johnson the charlatanKey voters know the British PM is a liar but they choose to collude with the spectacleTue Dec 10 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Labour's failure in this election will be due to Jeremy CorbynIt is tragic that a potentially transformative moment for Britain depends on this manSat Dec 07 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: A banal moment in Brussels is a black joke on IrelandThe departure of the last UK member of the EU commission has poignancy for IrelandTue Dec 03 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: All that austerity was a mistake. Awfully sorryA German official admits the cruel cuts imposed on Ireland were unnecessarySat Nov 30 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Schools with immigrants producing tomorrow’s Irish speakersBlanchardstown school turns coping with 51 languages into a new way of teachingTue Nov 26 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Ireland’s well-off live five years longer than its poorPeople in the top layer of Irish society get five years more of life than those at the bottomSat Nov 23 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Brexit not the pure shining prize it once seemedIn Leave heartlands, people must decide if Brexit dream still worth sacrificing all else forTue Nov 19 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: How Donald Trump will survive impeachmentThe facts of the Ukrainian scandal are utterly damning, but that won’t matterSat Nov 16 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole on Brexit satire: It would be funny if it wasn’t so seriousBooks by @BorderIrish and Led By Donkeys are among the best satires of the Brexit eraSat Nov 16 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O'Toole: What if Corbyn offered Sinn Féin a Border poll?Party’s voters have a right to know on what terms abstentionism might be abandonedTue Nov 12 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: What will EU demand for supporting us on Brexit?In backing Ireland on the Border, the EU has been acting in its own interests tooSat Nov 09 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Concern over hardcore porn is not moral panicWe are doing something to our kids that has never been done beforeWed Nov 06 2019 - 05:00
Fintan O'Toole: Life in Direct Provision limbo is cruel and shamefulDirect provision is based on the lie that even if the experience is miserable, it will be shortTue Nov 05 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Gay Byrne held the key to Ireland’s locked room of secretsThere is no other country in which light entertainment could lead into such dark territoryTue Nov 05 2019 - 00:05
Fintan O’Toole: Boris Johnson has joined the undeadBrexit will never be laid to rest. It may even be destined to meander on foreverSat Nov 02 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Do Fine Gael MEPs ever think about their own recent ancestors?Migrant workers, like our ancestors, are heroes and heroines of the global economyTue Oct 29 2019 - 06:02
Fintan O’Toole: Northern Ireland is being detached from the UK. Get ready for itEnglish nationalism is changing the political architecture of these islandsSat Oct 26 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Johnson’s treachery will be turned on Ireland if and when it suits himDeal with Brussels limits damage to Ireland by increasing damage to BritainTue Oct 22 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: DUP has foolishly trusted Johnson – who will always put Brexit over unionNorthern Ireland will be in the United Kingdom by law, but European Union by factFri Oct 18 2019 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Tories must grasp the profound stupidity of their approach to the NorthBrexit deal depends on Britain restoring disinterest towards Northern IrelandTue Oct 15 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Everybody knows Ireland’s fiscal rules are daftRules that shape budget are part of disastrous response to banking crisisTue Oct 08 2019 - 07:17
Fintan O’Toole: Will Brexit end like Emmerdale or Crossroads?If only the scriptwriters could kill off half the cast, or pretend it was all just a bad dreamSat Oct 05 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O'Toole on Tim Robinson's Experiments on Reality: Illuminating insight on the material worldBook review: Tim Robinson etches his moments on nature for us in indelible sentencesSat Oct 05 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Boris has destroyed what is left of UK’s credibilityBritish government has broken its own solemn legal and political commitmentsThu Oct 03 2019 - 14:52
Fintan O’Toole: There is a pretence the British union is to be saved at all costsThe British PM declared himself minister for the union – a sure sign it’s in troubleTue Oct 01 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Greta Thunberg is a prophet, preacher, rulebreaker, avenging angelThe climate activist is incapable of blocking out truths the rest of us prefer not to think aboutSat Sept 28 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Michael O’Leary’s golden ticket is for a ride to nowhereRevolt against staggering bonus shows culture of ‘incentives’ running out of roadTue Sept 24 2019 - 08:23
Fintan O’Toole: We must let Boris Johnson declare his geniusA version of the Northern Ireland-only backstop would be a triumph of Irish diplomacySat Sept 21 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Ireland’s Apple appeal is a disastrous miscalculationGovernment should withdraw the appeal and apologise to our neighboursTue Sept 17 2019 - 06:00
