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Fintan O’Toole: Shining light on abortion – one  of Ireland’s ‘unknown knowns’

Fintan O’Toole: Shining light on abortion – one of Ireland’s ‘unknown knowns’

‘We all owe a debt to Róisín Ingle and Tara Flynn who have written so honestly about their experiences of having abortions’

Tue Sept 15 2015 - 05:00
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1959 – Sive, by John B Keane

Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1959 – Sive, by John B Keane

The Co Kerry playwright’s mix of melodrama and myth was a cocktail so powerful that it blew the head off a country that was tired of a stifling orthodoxy

Sat Sept 12 2015 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Fennelly report exposes a system of ‘cockspiracy’

Fintan O’Toole: Fennelly report exposes a system of ‘cockspiracy’

‘The stroke demands bad administration – no records, no clarity, no actual relationship between supposed cause (the taping) and desired effect (Callinan’s resignation)’

Tue Sept 08 2015 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: Must we see dead babies to imagine a  catastrophe?

Fintan O’Toole: Must we see dead babies to imagine a catastrophe?

‘A Europe that turns its face against the plight of the refugees is a Europe that is killing itself’

Mon Sept 07 2015 - 07:26
Fintan O’Toole: Beyond belief – why  grant Disney’s Skelligs wish for Star Wars?

Fintan O’Toole: Beyond belief – why grant Disney’s Skelligs wish for Star Wars?

When monks founded their settlement on Skellig Michael they were literally going to extremes

Fri Sept 04 2015 - 13:52
Van Morrison: ‘Being famous is not great for the creative process. Not for me, anyway’

Van Morrison: ‘Being famous is not great for the creative process. Not for me, anyway’

After 50 years in the music business Van Morrison – born in Belfast 70 years ago, on August 31st, 1945 – has no game to play, no impression to make, no line to sell. His music and his creativity are still what matter most

Sat Aug 29 2015 - 08:00
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1957 – Irisches Tagebuch, by Heinrich Böll

Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1957 – Irisches Tagebuch, by Heinrich Böll

In his quirky, incisive account of life on Achill, Heinrich Böll celebrated the consoling power of a simple life on the edge of Europe

Sat Aug 29 2015 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: If we want to change squalid public services we must raise taxes

Fintan O’Toole: If we want to change squalid public services we must raise taxes

‘Proportionally, the Irish State raises only about 80 per cent of the revenue raised by the average euro-zone state’

Tue Aug 11 2015 - 05:00
Summers Past: Fintan O’Toole, his father and son walk the Wicklow Way,  1990

Summers Past: Fintan O’Toole, his father and son walk the Wicklow Way, 1990

You can walk for miles every day with a four-year-old – as long as you know your musicals. A new series revisits some of our best summer features from years gone by

Mon Aug 10 2015 - 08:30
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1954 – The Quare Fellow, by Brendan Behan

Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1954 – The Quare Fellow, by Brendan Behan

Brendan Behan’s experiences banged up in the porridge set the stage for his anti-capital punishment masterpiece, a drama about waiting, and waiting some more, for the inevitable hangman’s rope

Sat Aug 08 2015 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Here’s a hard choice for politicians with backbone

Fintan O’Toole: Here’s a hard choice for politicians with backbone

How about free primary education instead of a cut in inheritance tax?

Tue Aug 04 2015 - 10:33
Fintan O’Toole: Here’s something else you may not know about  The Gleneagle

Fintan O’Toole: Here’s something else you may not know about The Gleneagle

‘Killarney hotel was at the centre of some classic Celtic Tiger rezoning shenanigans’

Tue Jul 28 2015 - 05:00
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1952 – En Attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot), by Samuel Beckett

Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1952 – En Attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot), by Samuel Beckett

Beckett’s absurdist masterpiece, which he wrote first in French, looks squarely at ‘humanity in ruins’ after the second World War – but still finds ways to be funny, touching and oddly beautiful

Sun Jul 26 2015 - 09:00
Culture Shock: Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, which is why we’re drawn to Russian drama

Culture Shock: Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, which is why we’re drawn to Russian drama

Brian Friel plays up the farce in his version of Turgenev’s ‘A Month in the Country’, but Ethan McSweeny’s production at the Gate Theatre in Dublin seems reluctant to go all the way

Sat Jul 25 2015 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: Europe divided by a sense of crisis and a sea of amnesia

Fintan O’Toole: Europe divided by a sense of crisis and a sea of amnesia

‘This is not a moment in European history – it is at least two parallel moments’

Tue Jul 21 2015 - 16:28
Tormenting Greece is   about sending a   message  that we are now in a new EU

Tormenting Greece is about sending a message that we are now in a new EU

No deeper divide than that between those brought to heel and those who shout ‘Heel!’

Tue Jul 14 2015 - 16:02
Fintan O’Toole: EU has taken decisive turn from democracy

Fintan O’Toole: EU has taken decisive turn from democracy

We EU subjects have our own supreme ayatollahs of fiscal correctness now

Tue Jul 07 2015 - 17:15
Who will dare say out loud ‘emperor has no clothes’?

Who will dare say out loud ‘emperor has no clothes’?

Fintan O'Toole: Myths about Ireland as Europe’s best behaved state are not harmless lies

Wed Jul 01 2015 - 14:11
Fintan O’Toole: Us and them – the  two  faces   of migration

Fintan O’Toole: Us and them – the two faces of migration

‘Migration is the world’s way of reminding the West that it cannot distance itself from the human catastrophes it has unleashed’

Sat Jun 27 2015 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: Poorest will be hardest hit by lone-parent cut

Fintan O’Toole: Poorest will be hardest hit by lone-parent cut

‘Back to School allowance for clothes and shoes were cut by one-third in 2014 from €150 to €100 for primary school children aged four to 11’

Tue Jun 23 2015 - 13:21
Culture Shock: Garry Hynes’s astonishing, exhilarating ‘DruidShakespeare’

Culture Shock: Garry Hynes’s astonishing, exhilarating ‘DruidShakespeare’

The director’s extraordinary take on Shakespeare’s Henry plays, reworked by Mark O’Rowe and starring Aisling O’Sullivan, Derbhle Crotty and Marty Rea, feels like a sweeping epic as a whole, but moment by moment it feels intimate and detailed

Fri Jun 19 2015 - 14:00
Fintan O’Toole: Public interest, private initiative – what must change

Fintan O’Toole: Public interest, private initiative – what must change

‘There is a myth of the self-made man, the rugged individualist who succeeds in building an empire in spite of the nanny State’

Tue Jun 16 2015 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: The ‘deaccessioning’ of art – an ugly word for an ugly deed

Fintan O’Toole: The ‘deaccessioning’ of art – an ugly word for an ugly deed

‘The tale of the Beit paintings merely puts some more glamorous touches to a drearily familiar canvas’

Sat Jun 13 2015 - 09:39
No WB Yeats, no Samuel Beckett? Fintan O’Toole on why we mustn’t forget the poet’s plays

No WB Yeats, no Samuel Beckett? Fintan O’Toole on why we mustn’t forget the poet’s plays

Like Beckett, Yeats imagined every detail of his plays on the stage. Like Beckett, he has to be done well or not at all. And his ideas are now even more urgent

Wed Jun 10 2015 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Denis O’Brien’s influence and the meaning of press freedom

Fintan O’Toole: Denis O’Brien’s influence and the meaning of press freedom

‘Announcement suggests that, whatever the bluster, Denis O’Brien does not take seriously the prospect that the Fine Gael-led government will do anything either to curb his current media power or to stop its future expansion’

Tue Jun 09 2015 - 05:00
Irish culture in 1945 was both lively and bleak

Irish culture in 1945 was both lively and bleak

The ‘Irish Times’ Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks project has published its first 30 entries, covering 1916-1945 – a time of paradoxical philistinism and creativity

Sat Jun 06 2015 - 06:00
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1945 – The Demon Lover and Other Stories, by Elizabeth Bowen

Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1945 – The Demon Lover and Other Stories, by Elizabeth Bowen

The writer used her unique imagination to devastating effect in these stories

Sat Jun 06 2015 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Loud silence on public interest in Siteserv affair

Fintan O’Toole: Loud silence on public interest in Siteserv affair

‘The definition of excessive private power is that it ceases to be private’

Tue Jun 02 2015 - 09:05
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1944 – Prayer Before Birth, by Louis MacNeice

Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1944 – Prayer Before Birth, by Louis MacNeice

The Belfast-born poet was deeply unhappy about Ireland’s stance on the second World War. He could not accept neutrality in a decisive struggle against fascism

Sat May 30 2015 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Poverty, in our republic of equals, is written on children’s bodies

Fintan O’Toole: Poverty, in our republic of equals, is written on children’s bodies

Those from Yes and No sides should unite to end child poverty by 2020

Tue May 26 2015 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: Ireland has left ‘tolerance’ far behind

Fintan O’Toole: Ireland has left ‘tolerance’ far behind

LGBT community has given all of Irish democracy one of its greatest days

Mon May 25 2015 - 12:27
Culture Shock: Why I worry for the unfair representation of psychotic Provo priests

Culture Shock: Why I worry for the unfair representation of psychotic Provo priests

‘The Belle of Belfast’, an Oirish play that’s a hit off Broadway, proves the Martin McDonagh effect. He brilliantly pastiches the cliches of 1940s Irish drama. But it’s dangerously easy to mistake his dark ironies and twisted comic exaggerations for a kind of realism

Fri May 22 2015 - 14:00
Fintan O’Toole: Marriage was nothing to be proud of in 1983

Fintan O’Toole: Marriage was nothing to be proud of in 1983

Legal changes over the years profoundly altered the state of marriage for the better

Wed May 20 2015 - 10:12
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1942 – The Great Hunger, by Patrick Kavanagh

Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1942 – The Great Hunger, by Patrick Kavanagh

The poet skewers traditional depictions of Irish country life and highlights the era’s sexual sterility in his long satirical work

Sat May 16 2015 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole:  ‘Keep your drawers on and pray’ doesn’t cut it

Fintan O’Toole: ‘Keep your drawers on and pray’ doesn’t cut it

‘I had a vasectomy 25 years ago, so our “union” has not been “open to life” for a quarter of a century. We’re not a proper family’

Tue May 12 2015 - 11:39
Fintan O’Toole: Religious conservatives want to have cake and eat it

Fintan O’Toole: Religious conservatives want to have cake and eat it

Verdict in Belfast ‘gay cake’ near but the case dovetails with a wider reactionary argument

Tue May 05 2015 - 07:06
Lost for words: Irish writing on the first World War

Lost for words: Irish writing on the first World War

There is no convenient canon of Irish war literature, like that which appeared in Britain, even though Ireland had three towering literary figures in Shaw, Yeats and Joyce at the time, working at the pinnacles of poetry, prose and drama

Tue May 05 2015 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Welcome to ‘The Paddysucker Proxy’

Fintan O’Toole: Welcome to ‘The Paddysucker Proxy’

A prototype answer for all Irish scandals: a sheet of paper with a big O on it

Tue Apr 28 2015 - 05:00
Culture Shock: Please, no more heroes. Let’s not turn the obscenities of Gallipoli and the Great War into glory

Culture Shock: Please, no more heroes. Let’s not turn the obscenities of Gallipoli and the Great War into glory

What’s heroic about being mown down as you wade towards a beach before you’ve even had the chance to fire a shot? What could ever be heroic about the racist folly of that Dardanelles campaign anyway?

Sat Apr 25 2015 - 12:55
Fintan O’Toole: Why court ruling on evidence is bad for democracy

Fintan O’Toole: Why court ruling on evidence is bad for democracy

‘The Supreme Court did a terrible day’s work for accountability in Irish public life’

Tue Apr 21 2015 - 05:00
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1938 – Pray for the Wanderer, by Kate O’Brien

Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1938 – Pray for the Wanderer, by Kate O’Brien

The author of the once-banned novel ‘Mary Lavelle’ deals fearlessly with ‘the problems of the Catholic conscience’

Sat Apr 18 2015 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Last gasp for the Irish political machine?

Fintan O’Toole: Last gasp for the Irish political machine?

The Irish political machine is dying in Chicago – is it on the way out in Ireland too?

Tue Apr 14 2015 - 05:00
Dunnes policy an assault on dignity of working people

Dunnes policy an assault on dignity of working people

Culture of zero-hour contract, which Dunnes has been trying to embed, an assault on all that Dunnes once helped to define

Tue Apr 07 2015 - 08:39
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1936 – Katie Roche, by Teresa Deevy

Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1936 – Katie Roche, by Teresa Deevy

In the 1930s Teresa Deevy was a star Abbey writer. Then, suddenly, she was dropped. Were the questions she raised about the lives of Irish women too difficult to face?

Sat Apr 04 2015 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: The crisis is over – so when does the cruelty stop?

Fintan O’Toole: The crisis is over – so when does the cruelty stop?

Waiting for review of funding to 23 organisations that provide support services for people with chronic disabilities

Tue Mar 31 2015 - 05:00
Culture Shock: Social rights and Hollywood wrongs – why Rambo has a lot to answer for

Culture Shock: Social rights and Hollywood wrongs – why Rambo has a lot to answer for

‘The Imitation Game’ and ‘Selma’ have both been scrutinised for historical accuracy. Is it fair to expect film-makers to stick to the unvarnished truth?

Sat Mar 28 2015 - 02:00
Fintan O’Toole: Stability can only come from radical change

Fintan O’Toole: Stability can only come from radical change

For how many of its 93 years of existence has the State been economically successful?

Tue Mar 24 2015 - 09:13
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1934  – Devoted Ladies, by Molly Keane

Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1934 – Devoted Ladies, by Molly Keane

The playwright and novelist demythologised the world of the Irish big house, depicting its decline with a masterly combination of light touch and heavy heart

Sat Mar 21 2015 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Sinn Féin does not seem to see difference between truth and lies

Fintan O’Toole: Sinn Féin does not seem to see difference between truth and lies

‘What makes Sinn Féin’s flesh creep and its stomach heave?’

Tue Mar 17 2015 - 05:00
Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1933 – The Winding Stair, by WB Yeats

Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1933 – The Winding Stair, by WB Yeats

Sat Mar 14 2015 - 01:00
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