Fintan O’Toole: ‘Brexternity of endless uncertainty’ starts todayBrexit as advertised – all the benefits of being in the EU, none of the costs – was a fantasyFri Jan 31 2020 - 23:17
Fintan O’Toole: It is politically easier to keep spending on bad policies than to shift to good onesPolitical parties must be honest about what it takes to get real fiscal prudenceTue Jan 28 2020 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: The terms of Brexit hold a great ironyIssue of a populist project without a people, nationalist project without a nation remainsSun Jan 26 2020 - 17:07
Fintan O'Toole: Safety-first politics has had its dayWe have devised the most risk-averse political system in the democratic world. But more of the same is no longer the safe betTue Jan 21 2020 - 11:59
Fintan O’Toole: Ten big questions for incoming politiciansIn choosing a government, we should think of the major challenges between now and 2025Sat Jan 18 2020 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Will Election 2020 be another story of cynical politics and patronage?Our politicians think we are not interested in long-term policies. The election will test if their cynicism is justifiedTue Jan 14 2020 - 08:10
Fintan O'Toole: Why do we fear the ghosts of dead policemen?Are Ireland’s wars truly over? For some people, there is still a hierarchy of victimsSat Jan 11 2020 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Trump administration weaponises its talent for lyingFalse claim of involvement in 9/11 attacks used to justify Suleimani assassinationTue Jan 07 2020 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: Five big questions for the coming decadeCan we decarbonise the global economy? Will democracy die? Could Ireland unite?Sat Jan 04 2020 - 06:00
Recalling the Celtic Tiger: Insightful overview of the excitement and excessBook review: Fintan O'Toole on the effects, symptoms and consequences of Ireland’s economic boomSat Jan 04 2020 - 00:00
Fintan O’Toole: Varadkar’s vacuous slogan reveals mean streakThe Taoiseach’s campaign for the election will revive his catchphrase about ‘people who get up early in the morning’Tue Dec 31 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: 2019 was a bit like Game of Thrones – lots of action, no climaxYear in Review: 2019 was a year of lots of extraordinary activity but not much movementSat Dec 28 2019 - 00:06
Fintan O'Toole: We need to sing a Christmas lullaby to ourselvesEmbedded in the Nativity is the universal human experience of being cared forTue Dec 24 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Did the Irish Times ‘No Child 2020’ project work?There was some progress on child poverty in 2019, but many of the problems grew worseSat Dec 21 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O'Toole: The big question of the last decade is...The Decade in Culture: t’s up to us to reclaim the private self from Google and FacebookSat Dec 21 2019 - 05:00
Fintan O’Toole: UK election saw three big pillars of political stability crack on a single dayThe fragile UK is now in the hands of a man with the touch of a chicken stranglerTue Dec 17 2019 - 07:50
Fintan O’Toole: Boris the loveable buffoon beats Johnson the charlatanKey voters know the British PM is a liar but they choose to collude with the spectacleTue Dec 10 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Labour's failure in this election will be due to Jeremy CorbynIt is tragic that a potentially transformative moment for Britain depends on this manSat Dec 07 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: A banal moment in Brussels is a black joke on IrelandThe departure of the last UK member of the EU commission has poignancy for IrelandTue Dec 03 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: All that austerity was a mistake. Awfully sorryA German official admits the cruel cuts imposed on Ireland were unnecessarySat Nov 30 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Schools with immigrants producing tomorrow’s Irish speakersBlanchardstown school turns coping with 51 languages into a new way of teachingTue Nov 26 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Ireland’s well-off live five years longer than its poorPeople in the top layer of Irish society get five years more of life than those at the bottomSat Nov 23 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Brexit not the pure shining prize it once seemedIn Leave heartlands, people must decide if Brexit dream still worth sacrificing all else forTue Nov 19 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: How Donald Trump will survive impeachmentThe facts of the Ukrainian scandal are utterly damning, but that won’t matterSat Nov 16 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole on Brexit satire: It would be funny if it wasn’t so seriousBooks by @BorderIrish and Led By Donkeys are among the best satires of the Brexit eraSat Nov 16 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O'Toole: What if Corbyn offered Sinn Féin a Border poll?Party’s voters have a right to know on what terms abstentionism might be abandonedTue Nov 12 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: What will EU demand for supporting us on Brexit?In backing Ireland on the Border, the EU has been acting in its own interests tooSat Nov 09 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Concern over hardcore porn is not moral panicWe are doing something to our kids that has never been done beforeWed Nov 06 2019 - 05:00
Fintan O'Toole: Life in Direct Provision limbo is cruel and shamefulDirect provision is based on the lie that even if the experience is miserable, it will be shortTue Nov 05 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Gay Byrne held the key to Ireland’s locked room of secretsThere is no other country in which light entertainment could lead into such dark territoryTue Nov 05 2019 - 00:05
Fintan O’Toole: Boris Johnson has joined the undeadBrexit will never be laid to rest. It may even be destined to meander on foreverSat Nov 02 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Do Fine Gael MEPs ever think about their own recent ancestors?Migrant workers, like our ancestors, are heroes and heroines of the global economyTue Oct 29 2019 - 06:02
Fintan O’Toole: Northern Ireland is being detached from the UK. Get ready for itEnglish nationalism is changing the political architecture of these islandsSat Oct 26 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Johnson’s treachery will be turned on Ireland if and when it suits himDeal with Brussels limits damage to Ireland by increasing damage to BritainTue Oct 22 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: DUP has foolishly trusted Johnson – who will always put Brexit over unionNorthern Ireland will be in the United Kingdom by law, but European Union by factFri Oct 18 2019 - 01:00
Fintan O’Toole: Tories must grasp the profound stupidity of their approach to the NorthBrexit deal depends on Britain restoring disinterest towards Northern IrelandTue Oct 15 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Everybody knows Ireland’s fiscal rules are daftRules that shape budget are part of disastrous response to banking crisisTue Oct 08 2019 - 07:17
Fintan O’Toole: Will Brexit end like Emmerdale or Crossroads?If only the scriptwriters could kill off half the cast, or pretend it was all just a bad dreamSat Oct 05 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O'Toole on Tim Robinson's Experiments on Reality: Illuminating insight on the material worldBook review: Tim Robinson etches his moments on nature for us in indelible sentencesSat Oct 05 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Boris has destroyed what is left of UK’s credibilityBritish government has broken its own solemn legal and political commitmentsThu Oct 03 2019 - 14:52
Fintan O’Toole: There is a pretence the British union is to be saved at all costsThe British PM declared himself minister for the union – a sure sign it’s in troubleTue Oct 01 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Greta Thunberg is a prophet, preacher, rulebreaker, avenging angelThe climate activist is incapable of blocking out truths the rest of us prefer not to think aboutSat Sept 28 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Michael O’Leary’s golden ticket is for a ride to nowhereRevolt against staggering bonus shows culture of ‘incentives’ running out of roadTue Sept 24 2019 - 08:23
Fintan O’Toole: We must let Boris Johnson declare his geniusA version of the Northern Ireland-only backstop would be a triumph of Irish diplomacySat Sept 21 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: Ireland’s Apple appeal is a disastrous miscalculationGovernment should withdraw the appeal and apologise to our neighboursTue Sept 17 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: For the first time since 1171, Ireland is more powerful than BritainThere is far too much at stake to take any pleasure in this bizarre political reversalSat Sept 14 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O'Toole: In a world ruled by babies, we have to grow up fastWith adults such as Donald Trump and Boris Johnson acting like children in high office, children are providing leadershipTue Sept 10 2019 - 06:00
The vices that led Johnson to power are useless when you have to wield itFintan O’Toole: Johnson’s stock of trust is fatally low, not least in DublinMon Sept 09 2019 - 10:04
British politics this week like the mad scenes in King LearBoris Johnson’s Brexit ploy has always been innately absurdSat Sept 07 2019 - 06:00
Fintan O’Toole: It is time for a children’s budgetNo Child 2020: Nothing could be more financially prudent than eliminating child povertySat Sept 07 2019 - 06:00