Fintan O'Toole

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Fintan O’Toole, one of Ireland’s leading public intellectuals, is a columnist for The Irish Times and Leonard L. Milberg ’53 visiting lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton. He also contributes to The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, Granta, The Guardian, The Observer, and other international publications. His books on theater include works on William Shakespeare, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and Thomas Murphy. His books on politics include the best sellers Ship of Fools and Enough is Enough. In 2011, The Observer named O’Toole one of “Britain’s top 300 intellectuals.” He has received the A.T. Cross Award for Supreme Contribution to Irish Journalism, the Millennium Social Inclusion Award, and Journalist of the Year in 2010, the Orwell Prize and the European Press Prize. O’Toole’s History of Ireland in 100 Objects, which covers 100 highly charged artifacts from the last 10,000 years, is currently the basis for Ireland’s postage stamps. His most recent book is Judging Shaw: The Radicalism of GBS, published by the Royal Irish Academy, and he has recently been appointed official biographer of Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney.  

“Announcing the Winners of the Orwell Prize 2017” | The Orwell Foundation

“O’Toole Receives Orwell Prize for Journalism” |  Princeton University, June 2017

European Press Prize Jury Report | April 21, 2017

“Fintan O’Toole Named European Commentator of the Year” | The Irish Times, April 20, 2017

“Playing Dead: Studying Death in Theater and Film” | Princeton University, June 2018

Fintan O’Toole wins Non-Fiction Book of the Year from An Post Irish Book Awards for We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958 | The Irish Times, Nov. 23, 2021