Fintan O'Toole

Fintan O'Toole is a columnist, literary editor and drama critic for The Irish Times, for which he has written since 1988. O'Toole was drama critic for the New York Daily News from 1997 to 2001 and is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. He is an author, literary critic, historical writer and political commentator, with generally left-wing views. His recent books have focused on the rise, fall and aftermath of Ireland's Celtic Tiger. He has been a strong critic of political corruption in Ireland throughout his career.

O'Toole was born in Dublin, grew up in a working-class family, and was educated at University College Dublin.

In 2011 he was named by The Observer as one of "Britain's top 300 intellectuals", although he does not live in the UK and was one of five on the list who would not claim to be British. In 2012 and 2013 O'Toole was a Visiting Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University, and contributed to the Fund for Irish Studies Series.