Fintan O'Toole columns
The extremely self-conscious uncoupling of the two centre-right parties is so obviously an act, it’s like a game of cards in which the stakes are matchsticks. But Sinn Féin isn’t much better
Vigorous and critically minded history proves that the shifting and sometimes contradictory ‘social construct’ of Irish America cannot be reduced to one singular identity
The far right has been much better than the left at giving voters the illusion that it has an accurate map across these liminal spaces
The expansion of the State is no longer a lefty position in Irish politics. It is pretty much everybody’s position
It is no longer possible to batten down the hatches and think 'this too will pass'
No prosecutions, no financial costs, no names and damn all shame
Fintan O’Toole: Fintan O’Toole: US voters have had had ample warning as the former president has set out his intentions quite explicitly
Dress Cardinal McDonald and her bishops in episcopal robes and it’s a movie we’ve all seen before
Take Ireland’s top manufacturer of insulation - not Kingspan, but the HSE. It creates layers of impenetrable padding between political decision-makers and the consequences
Israel is putting all its eggs in Donald Trump’s grubby basket, banking on an alliance with a man whose friendship tends to be more toxic than his enmity
We have a windfall – but the golden apples seem to have fallen on our heads. Our governing culture has lost its great get-out clause: ‘If only we had the money…'
My comedic, commercial fiction has been described as ‘fluffy’ or ‘an easy read’ more times than my heart and ego can take
Hey, kids – we have a roadmap. Just hang on in there and try not to get too angry and ashamed about being poor in a rich country
Plus, what the writer said in conversation with Fintan O’Toole in the National Concert Hall on Saturday
Somehow we can only feel pain of abused and abandoned children in safe retrospect, when it is brought to light after decades underground
The central, compelling argument is that public space is a vital but sorely neglected component of a functioning democracy
We called the predatory paedophile in my school Little Plum. We all learned early the required habits of toxic silence
The bus to Belfast for cataract surgery is a brilliant bit of political entrepreneurship, but it clouds the reality that healthcare is a right and we, the public, pay for all these treatments
The Democrats have generated an equal and opposite reaction to their own culpable inertia, a unity of purpose that makes them much more like the Republicans. It’s not always pretty to watch
The 1968 convention was the last hurrah for a phenomenon of huge importance in our own history: the Irish-American political machine. How apt that this week’s convention will mark the reluctant end of the career of Joe Biden
The eejits who get caught have been hooked by algorithms engineered by social media companies
Ireland has become far better at creating jobs, and like every other place where there are work opportunities, it attracts people who want to make a better life for themselves
No one in Government has put forward any justification for hollowing out RTÉ. But, in an age when trusted information has never been more vital to the defence of democracy, that is what it is doing
To watch a good man, a remarkably effective president and a courageous battler against adversity reduced to such frailty was unbearable
Protofascist ideas are at least as prevalent in Ireland as in other Western democracies and the reactionary, nativist mindset is well established here. All the movement is lacking is a leader
That Trump became a victim of the very violence he has done so much to validate will not provoke either him or his fans to think again. It will merely serve to fortify a mindset in which America is already at war with itself
To put it crudely, a big part of the appeal of Brexit was scale. It felt like a very big thing to do, just as, later in 2016, electing a celebrity non-politician to the White House felt big
Fintan O’Toole: If the Democrats persist with Joe Biden, the United States is in imminent danger of being handed back to a Trump who is vastly more malign than he was in 2016
The administration of justice for violent men is out of kilter with our values and we can no longer suspend disbelief
To treat these records with such contempt is to repeat the contempt shown by Church and State to thousands of women and children
Local and European elections: Don’t be fooled by the Coalition parties’ electoral success. The right is rising
Ditch journalist Roman Shortall settles his own rent bill; Siún Ní Raghallaigh has her say; and U2′s Dublin plans fall through again
The wealthier the State has become, the more money it shells just to find homeless families a bed for the night
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Full general election coverage including analysis and results for all 43 constituencies
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
Weddings, Births, Deaths and other family notices
