Fintan O'Toole
@fotoole
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MRIA. Irish Times columnist, advising ed New York Review of Books, winner European Press Prize, Orwell Prize, Robert Silvers Prize. We Don't Know Ourselves
Dublin
Joined November 2008
The #DominicCumings scandal is so explosive because it is not abstract. Hundreds of thousands of people sacrificed by not going to funerals or not seeing frightened parents. They will never forget.
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So Britain's now had the two worst PMs in its history one straight after the other. The chances of a hat trick seem very high.
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As a friendly outsider, can I just say that Britain and England are better than Boris Johnson? #GeneralElection2019.
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The thundering idiocy of presenting Toby Young as an "expert" on a par with an actual Professor of International Public Health is one reason to fear for Britain.
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Another reason to be cheerful is that Ireland is the first Anglophone country to face the full panoply of Trump/Brexit/Bannon tactics and withstand that onslaught. #repealtheeigth.
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“He’s lied his way through life, he’s lied his way through politics, he’s a huckster with a degree of charm to which I am immune. As well as being mendacious he’s incompetent.” Notorious Anglophobe, um, Chris Patten on @BorisJohnson.
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So "take back control" comes down to being controlled by a minority party in Northern Ireland for which no one in Britain can actually vote.
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This is the England I love.
Brian Clough on Robert Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch in 1989
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I was just thinking this evening of my mother, a devout Catholic who was not allowed to attend my baptism because she had not been 'churched" and was still "unclean" after giving birth. Time to end this culture of shaming women. #repealthe8th.
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Coronavirus has exposed the myth of British exceptionalism | Fintan O'Toole
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I had a British radio station on to me earlier: so Varadkar has lost his seat! The idea that first past the post is not our system does not compute.
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It is especially delightful for a Paddy to be decried by as an aristocratic elitist by an outfit funded by the US multi-billionaire oligarch Koch brothers. Might this act not be wearing a bit thin?.
Fintan O’Toole has become the most sneering member of the Remainer aristocracy. His scorn for the British masses exposes the nasty elitism that underpins the pro-EU brigade, says Michael Fitzpatrick .
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The UK is making it clear it doesn't want construction workers from the EU. Ireland should welcome them with open arms. We need builders.
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Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Just heard Iain Duncan Smith on @Channel4News saying Ireland is taking a hard line on the border because "there's a presidential election coming up".
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Very sad to see blasphemy gone from the Constitution. Since I was a child I always dreamed of being burned at the stake. What can we aspire to now?.
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The Border problem is simple: Ireland is being asked to take on trust reassurances about a hard border from people who have shown no ability either to understand the problem or stick to any clear position.
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If only Boris had been Foreign Secretary and David Davis had been Brexit secretary in December 2017 when the backstop was agreed, none of this would ever have happened.
We can’t have some codicil or letter or joint declaration. We need to go back into the text of the treaty and solve the problem. That is the way to unite remainers and leavers in the Conservative party and across the country 2/2.
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Cummings’ contempt for lockdown rules makes the public feel like fools | Fintan O’Toole
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Fintan O’Toole: Historians will not believe sheer ignorance of Brexit supporters via @IrishTimesOpEd.
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Amusing that Theresa May is claiming that no British prime minister will ever sign up to what the EU said today on the Irish border. She herself signed up to it on December 8th 2017. Perhaps she doesn't feel very prime ministerial?.
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Never before has a friendly government had to rebuke a British PM for telling open lies. Yet his is barely a story in the British media. Brexit deal requires checks between Britain and North, Coveney says via @IrishTimes.
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They laughed when I said that upside-down post-imperial mentalities might be at play in Brexit. They're not laughing now.
"The deal leaving the EU is a one off exceptional treaty - it's like a independent country leaving an empire.". - Sir Bernard Jenkin on why the government should change the N.I Protocol. @bernardjenkin | #Newsnight
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Rummaging for a dish cloth this morning, I found this. I am so ashamed. I have burned it and commissioned a new set for £1000 each. All donations gratefully accepted.
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It's the completely unconscious nature of this cliched bigotry that is so fascinating. The idiot has no idea what he's doing either in general (the sheer laziness of the stereotypes) or in particular (Biden is teetotal).
My cartoon Thursday @TheTimes. Where the emphasis of Blarney Biden’s visit lies. `#JoeBiden #Ireland
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Would be good if all the Irish-Americans around @realDonaldTrump remembered Annie Moore today and reflected on the history of migration.
This day 127 years ago – 1 January 1892 – Annie Moore, a native of Co. Cork, became the first immigrant ever to pass through Ellis Island. Moore was 15 years old, and travelling with two brothers to meet parents who had already emigrated. She was gifted with a $10 gold coin.
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The only part of this worth taking seriously is the underlying insistence that to be anti-Brexit is to be anti-British. That's a dangerous mindset when half your voters are anti-Brexit.
Fintan O’Toole has inspired a dangerous new wave of anti-Britishness in Ireland. (Eilis O'Hanlon for Reaction @reactionlife)
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100 years after Irish women got the vote and in the year the Eighth was repealed, it is wonderful that these fabulous women are the first Irish team in any sport to reach a World Cup final.
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For those who knew and loved my gorgeous sister Mary, the heartbreaking thing is that she died this morning. A celebration of her life of care and compassion will be at 2 pm on Wednesday in the Mount Jerome crematorium.
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Good on Eoin Morgan. The best (and funniest) reply to the distorted, narrow-minded version of Englishness that has become so toxic.
Beautiful words. This is the best of England. Confident, diverse, world-class and full of humour. "We had Allah with us as well".
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Not too many State broadcasters end the News with a great poem.
A poem: 'Everything is going to be all right'. Amid the sad news and anxiety the Covid-19 crisis is causing us all, here are words from one of Ireland's most famous poets, Derek Mahon
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And some people thought I was exaggerating when I suggested that these people are obsessed with masochistic fantasies of WW2.
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When my son was 2, I heard him mumbling to himself as he was going to sleep, 'Mikhail Gorbachev'. It sounded like a promise that the world he would grow up in would be less fearful and more hopeful.
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And we're told British exceptionalism has nothing to do with it. .
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Fintan O’Toole: For the first time since 1171, Ireland is more powerful than Britain via @IrishTimesOpEd.
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Jesus Christ Almighty.
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People have been asking for this outside the paywall. Here is the audio version.
You can also now listen to @fotoole reading his recent column on @realDonaldTrump's destruction of the country he promised to make great again .@IrishTimesAudio
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Tomorrow in @IrishTimes I will suggest a concrete plan for how Ireland can stop a no-deal Brexit.
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British journalists have become part of Johnson’s fake news machine
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Oh god I just remembered all the Irish novelists and playwrights. What will they do now we don't have shame and guilt anymore? Gogo in Godot: What do we do now, now that we are happy?.
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So Putin owns Trump and Trump owns the Republican Party. If there are any actual American conservatives left, they either have to take a stand now or knuckle under for good.
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The Ministry of Defence has set up a Brexit bunker underneath its main building in Whitehall. Could it just leave the Brexiteers in it for 2 years and pretend it is all happening while Article 50 is quietly revoked?.
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The sacking of the first NI Secretary for years who really seemed to know and care about the place is an act of political vandalism.Northern Secretary Julian Smith sacked in British government reshuffle via @IrishTimes.
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"End of an era" is a cliche but with the passing of Gay Byrne it is unavoidable. He was a huge figure in Irish life for 4 decades. He didn't just reflect change, he helped it along.
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So proud of Ireland today. A great day for equality, for democracy and for civility.
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The Brexiteers are now admitting that what Brexit really looks like is much worse than being in the EU. But which of them will have the patriotism to draw the obvious conclusion?.
Former Brexit Secretary @DominicRaab says Theresa May's proposed EU deal would be worse than staying in the EU on current terms. "We'd effectively be bound by the same rules but without the control or voice over them" #r4today.
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Very hard to see what's really new in all of this. It's the Withdrawal Agreement served with a side order of "this doesn't mean what it doesn't mean anyway".
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A reminder of the human cost of covering conflict. I'm sure everyone wishes Fergal well in his recovery.
BBC announces Africa editor Fergal Keane has stepped down because of PTSD. Hugely honest statement
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Maureen O'Hara speaking out in 1945 gives the lie to "things were different back then"
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For all the attempts to divide us into tribes, the exit poll shows that every part of Ireland has voted in broadly the same way, which is to trust women and make them fully equal citizens. #repealtheeigth.
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I don't like to upset anybody but I am so pleased that #RepealedThe8th will have shattered the "Irishness" of Bannon, Kelly, Mulvaney, O'Reilly, Hannity etc #NotYourIreland.
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This is a non-story that actually tells a big story.
Most of Ireland’s far right candidates are polling below 1% in their individual constituencies. This despite Ireland having one of the highest rates of inward migration in Europe.
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"Thirty years- I mean 30 days - ought to be enough if we concentrate our minds.” Boris Johnson in Dublin.
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Extraordinary that @sinnfeinireland is saying that it would unthinkable for Irish MPs to interfere at Westminster. Never heard of Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt?.
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I think the UK/EU trade deal will be one line: so long and thanks for all the fish.
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There were two silences. The silenced women of centuries. And the quiet, calm dignity of the ballot paper being marked.
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Very honoured to have been in such great company with fellow toilers in the opinion mines.
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I must admit that I owe all my insights on Brexit to 3 people: Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
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Johnson also rejects “Another turgid, torpid, toxic, appalling EU referendum, which is the last thing we need,” which means he accepts the 2016 referendum was turgid toxic and appalling.
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Gallagher and Duffy and Freeman may have done badly but they deserve some credit for declining to play Casey's vile game. They lost votes but kept their honour.
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It really is remarkable that the NI backstop is no longer an insurance policy -- it is just policy. The safety net is to become the status quo.
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"Our gallant allies in Europe". .
FM @HeikoMaas on #Brexit: Germany and the entire EU will stand by Ireland on the backstop. We will not allow 🇨🇮 to be isolated on this issue.
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90,000 jobs in Ireland, north and south, are at risk from a no-deal Brexit. I wouldn't like to be the one to explain to those families why everything that could be done to save them was not done. via @IrishTimesOpEd.
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Consider me barechested and ranting. Lock the feck down.
Conor McGregor may call for a lockdown, but I shall only take such demands seriously when I see a ranting, bare chested, blood spattered Fintan O'Toole call for the same.
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in Heroic Failure I deal with the delusion of British "pluck". Now @BorisJohnson "no-one in the last few centuries has succeeded in betting against the pluck, nerve and ambition of this country" The book is not an instruction manual.
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The hard-won kinship between Britain and Ireland is threatened by Brexit idiocy | Fintan O’Toole
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For the first time since 1171, Ireland has more power than England
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It was never about Europe. Brexit is Britain’s reckoning with itself | Fintan O’Toole
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If only @CarolineLucas were in charge. She's shown such dignity, sympathy and intelligence throughout this whole debacle and reminded us all that there is another England.
We visited Dudley to learn about the ties between English identity, democracy and #Brexit. What is Englishness to you?. It's time to define a progressive patriotism we can all be proud of. @CarolineLucas #LetsTalk
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Phew! Thank goodness Brexit only affects men.
Had good detailed discussions with a Parliamentary Delegation from the Netherlands re Brexit @OireachtasNews @fiannafailparty @sean_haughey @BernardDurkanTD @KHumphreysDBS
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The Irish Times editorial this morning supports the idea of Sinn Féin "lending" its Westminster seats to stop a no-deal Brexit.The Irish Times view on Brexit: power in Irish hands to avert no deal via @IrishTimesOpEd.
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I love this sign on Tolka Estate in Glasnevin. What golfing madness prompted it?
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Well there are 3 words: Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Greg Gutfeld is on Fox News saying Trump got coronavirus because he’s brave and he was “doing it for us.” Gutfeld says Trump “didn’t hide from the virus” because he didn’t “want America to hide from the virus.”.
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Black humour from Russia: "a criminal act of insanity" is a man damaging a gate.
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Boris Johnson can’t be found out: we all know he’s bluffing | Fintan O’Toole
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An extract from my new book Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain is today's Long Read in The Guardian.The paranoid fantasy behind Brexit | Fintan O'Toole
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Looking forward to talking to @mrjamesob tomorrow.
James O'Brien's gives his damning verdict on Theresa May's view of foreigners following her "jump the queue" speech. @mrjamesob
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So if people think I'm wrong to contend that a screwed-up "memory" of the Second World War is still playing out in the heads of many of the Brexiteers, just look at this. .
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Finally a good reason to keep Stormont closed for a while longer.Same-sex marriage coming to North if Stormont not up-and-running by October via @IrishTimes.
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This from the chief economist of the Leave campaign at least tells the truth that the Brexiteers continue to evade -- they don't give a damn about Northern Ireland or the "precious union".
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Have people noticed that Johnson says here that Northern Ireland keeping "free movement" is a great deal? So ending free movement for GB is a bad deal????.
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Me too. A vastly poorer Ireland could build public housing on a large scale. Now we have the money but lack the political will.
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Terrible news. Veteran journalist and author Robert Fisk dies aged 74 via @IrishTimesWorld.
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Just been on CNN with the splendid @camanpour.
.@fotoole: “All our governments are failing in some way, but I don’t think you can point to any other government in the rich democratic world that has had such a malignant presence at its heart in this crisis. It is deadly, this mixed messaging from Trump.”
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Facing chaos and needing a scapegoat, the Tories seek an endless fight with Europe | Fintan O’Toole
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Quite right -- can't have pro-Europeans at a museum that guards good English treasures like the Elgin marbles, which as we all know were made in Norwich. Mary Beard blocked by No 10 as British Museum trustee 'for pro-Europe views'
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Really pissed off that #McGregor is claiming to be the most famous person from Crumlin. 1. Me 2. Phil Lynnott 3. @OfficCrumlinSC.
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I love this man. Please let me be like him when I grow up.
@larryff6372 @realDonaldTrump Here's a picture of me in uniform in 1941 b/c even at 18 year old I knew what fascism really was. Moreover, I not only can read but also write. In fact, I've penned 5 books whereas all you've done is written MAGA with your finger on the dirty window of your car. #TrumpUKVisit
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Fintan O’Toole: Trump has unfinished business. A republic he wants to destroy still stands via @IrishTimesOpEd.
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Slagging off Bono is a national pastime but he comes incredibly well out of this. Ireland wields its ‘soft power’ as Bono joins coronavirus fight via @IrishTimes.
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If only these people had been in charge of the Remain campaign. .
A message to Europe, this morning on the White Cliffs of Dover. Sound on.
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