Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 2006 – Mothers and Sons, by Colm TóibínColm Tóibín’s short stories bring into the light the side of themselves that people try to burySat Aug 13 2016 - 04:30
Fintan O’Toole: Why I despise this fake Olympics of phoney winnersLosers of Olympian history are still our heroes – marked out by their courageTue Aug 09 2016 - 08:59
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 2005 – The Sea, by John BanvilleJohn Banville won the Booker Prize for ‘The Sea’, but it is of a piece with his other novels, which deal with the tests of time – and the impossibility of turning it backSat Aug 06 2016 - 04:30
Fintan O’Toole: Pro-life campaign needs to get its facts straightIrish anti-abortion campaigners should stop basing their case on a wild untruthTue Aug 02 2016 - 01:00
Culture Shock: The North leads the way for fresh takes on the RisingThe new public ambivalence is best exemplified by two northern artists, Paul Muldoon and Rita DuffySat Jul 30 2016 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Three-state union may be answer to BrexitCurrent political shape of These Islands carries asterisk: terms and conditions applyTue Jul 26 2016 - 01:11
Ballymun at 50: From high hopes to sink estateDublin’s best-known tower blocks were to be a bright new world. What went wrong?Sat Jul 23 2016 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Ireland can shape debate on terrorism in EuropeOur communities have generated resilient and effective terrorist organisationsTue Jul 19 2016 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: There is a way to beat terror seen in NiceThe line between an open, democratic and civilised society and its nihilistic opponents is defined by terror and pityFri Jul 15 2016 - 14:35
Fintan O’Toole: People need hope, not ‘hopeitude’Opportunistic politicians are promoting a discourse based on unrealistic optimismTue Jul 12 2016 - 00:07
Fintan O’Toole: Belfast agreement is a threat to the new English nationalismThe Government must oppose moves to take NI out of the EU against its willTue Jul 05 2016 - 00:51
Fintan O’Toole: Brexit and the politics of the fake orgasmBoris Johnson was only playing, after all. But he was playing with fireSat Jul 02 2016 - 11:30
Culture Shock: Brexit nationalism is on the rise, but its cultural base is crumblingLeave campaigners cling to ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘This scepter’d isle’. They’ve misunderstood both William Blake and ShakespeareFri Jul 01 2016 - 15:00
Fintan O’Toole: How Europe’s leaders can fix the unionFocus on equality rather than the creation of a super stateTue Jun 28 2016 - 10:23
English nationalists have placed a bomb under peace processOpinion: ‘To do this seriously and soberly is bad. To do it so carelessly is frankly insulting’Sat Jun 25 2016 - 13:01
Fintan O’Toole: Brexit fantasy is about to come crashing downBrexit vote reveals rancour and distrust at the heart of the English body politicSat Jun 25 2016 - 08:40
Fintan O’Toole: Brexit is an English nationalist revolutionStiff upper lips part and release wild and inarticulate cry of rage and triumphFri Jun 24 2016 - 09:24
Fintan O’Toole: Why we should be hopeful about tackling child povertyBy investing in young citizens, democracies can rediscover the joys of good governmentFri Jun 24 2016 - 00:03
Fintan O’Toole: Brexit offers the jagged razor of incoherent English nationalismLeaving the EU is a form of self-harm for suffering communitiesTue Jun 21 2016 - 14:29
Fintan O’Toole on Brexit: Is England ready for self-government?The country seems to be stumbling towards independence as an unintended side effect of disgruntlement with the European UnionMon Jun 20 2016 - 13:29
Fintan O’Toole: Orlando, Cerberus and the profits of mass murderGroup that bought Nama’s NI portfolio also owns an assault rifle makerTue Jun 14 2016 - 08:28
Fintan O’Toole: Kinahan gang sparks attention on poverty and drugsWhy crime is the best stimulus to the nation’s social conscienceTue Jun 07 2016 - 01:00
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1996 – Portia Coughlan, by Marina CarrThe Co Offaly playwright unleashes the great forces of sex and death, doom and rage – in language whose words ooze into each other until the distinctions between them blurSat Jun 04 2016 - 01:00
Enda Kenny doesn’t care about our culture. Thank God the IDA doesNo Taoiseach since Éamon de Valera has been so culturally destructive. IDA Ireland understands far better the importance of our global image as a creative hubFri Jun 03 2016 - 15:00
Fintan O’Toole: Garda corrupted by sloppiness, indiscipline and vindictivenessIf you read the O’Higgins report, you will find that at the bottom of so many of its case histories is sheer fecklessnessTue May 31 2016 - 00:15
Fintan O’Toole: Why voters may buy the Trump fantasyWhite House hopeful offers white working class magical thinking and chance to get evenTue May 24 2016 - 01:00
Culture Shock: Why it’s time for Irish artists to go on strikeIn this column from last year, Fintan O'Toole argues that artists need to go on strike to be taking seriously by the Government, and imagines what that would look and sound likeFri May 20 2016 - 12:05
Fintan O’Toole: A huge tax break for comfortable peopleThe Government has shown its true colours with its cynical inheritance tax stuntTue May 17 2016 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: O’Higgins report raises troubling questionsThe report concludes with the deeply depressing words: “the commission considers that the institution of any disciplinary proceedings, which might conceivably arise out of its findings, would not be helpful”Sat May 14 2016 - 01:07
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1993 – Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, by Roddy DoyleRoddy Doyle’s novel about a 10-year-old whose parents’ marriage is falling apart reveals the dark secret that the writer had been a literary novelist all alongSat May 14 2016 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole on an astonishing ideological volte-face‘Maybe we’ve just seen the greatest ideological reversal in Irish politics. I genuinely hope so’Tue May 10 2016 - 01:00
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1992 – The Butcher Boy, by Patrick McCabeThe former teacher’s dark masterpiece gives a disconcerting but compelling voice to the mistreated children who were Ireland’s darkest secretSat May 07 2016 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Election of taoiseach will give us a do-nothing government‘Belief that governments can achieve positive social change has evaporated’Tue May 03 2016 - 01:00
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1991 – Untitled: Philippe Vacher, by James ColemanThe influential Irish postwar multimedia artist played with our sense of time and realitySat Apr 30 2016 - 01:00
Writers’ view of Rising far from rose-tintedEver since the seismic events of 1916 Irish artists have taken a nuanced view of eventsFri Apr 29 2016 - 12:52
Fintan O’Toole: Publishing tax returns a good way to revive ideals of RisingConfidentiality of tax returns is unquestionable only because it is unquestionedTue Apr 26 2016 - 00:34
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1990 – Madoc, by Paul MuldoonThe Co Armagh-born poet is arguably the first real Irish writer of globalisationSat Apr 23 2016 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: US taxpayers growing tired of Ireland’s one big ideaFor ordinary Americans our foreign direct investment wheeze is too shady for comfortTue Apr 19 2016 - 03:00
Fintan O’Toole: The State should refuse to deal with offshore companiesThe secrecy inherent in offshore is incompatible with democratic accountabilityTue Apr 12 2016 - 00:42
Fintan O’Toole: Fine Gael feigns surprise at the books it cookedThe party knew long before it drew up its manifesto that the new government would face fiscal issuesTue Apr 05 2016 - 01:00
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1987 – Pentecost, by Stewart ParkerThe playwright’s ambition was to create a theatre that was serious in its reflections on Northern Ireland’s political crisis, while being exuberantly theatricalSat Apr 02 2016 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: We should not replace one form of forgetting with anotherCommemorating Rising should not be at the cost of amnesia about the failure of its idealsTue Mar 29 2016 - 01:00
Bernard Shaw to Roger Casement: put on the performance of your lifeAs Casement faced trial for treason in 1916, Shaw wrote a speech that he was convinced could turn the trial into a national drama, and save Casement from the scaffoldSat Mar 26 2016 - 05:45
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1986 – Reading the Sky, by Paula MeehanThe Dubliner grew up in the oral tradition of stories and singing – ‘a vivid, interesting and textured world’. However complex her poems may be, they never lose touch with the energy of a shout in the streetSat Mar 26 2016 - 01:00
Tyrrelstown evictions show the nakedness of our democracyThey may be on the same site, but it’s a hell of a long way from Boland’s Mills to Boland’s QuayTue Mar 22 2016 - 11:42
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1985 – Observe the Sons of Ulster . . , by Frank McGuinnessFrank McGuinness’s searing drama dared go into the minds of Northern loyalists who have made their own blood sacrifice in the trenchesSat Mar 19 2016 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: Pathological narcissism stymies Fianna Fáil support for Fine GaelParty needs to convince itself that the beautiful reflection it sees in the mirror is a real, and utterly unique, selfTue Mar 15 2016 - 00:13
Fintan O’Toole: A five point programme to create a real Irish republicCan the business of forming a government actually be infused with reminders of what we wanted an independent government for?Tue Mar 08 2016 - 00:48
Culture Shock: Subversive glory of Ireland’s arts and crafts movementHarry Clarke and Richard King created profoundly questioning workSat Mar 05 2016 - 04:00
Fintan O’Toole: Six reasons to take pride in #GE16We are not racist, stupid, greedy, lacking in moral direction, guilt ridden or chickenTue Mar 01 2016 - 01:00
