{"title":"Books by Fintan O'Toole","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781784978341","title":"We Don't Know Ourselves","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe #1 \u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003cbr\u003eWINNER of the An Post Irish Book Awards \u003cbr\u003e'A clear-eyed, myth-dispelling masterpiece' \u003cb\u003eMarian Keyes\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Sweeping, authoritative and profoundly intelligent' \u003cb\u003eColm Tóibín, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'With the pace and twists of an enthralling novel' \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Evocative, moving, funny and furious' \u003cb\u003eDominic Sandbrook, \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'An enthralling, panoramic book' \u003cb\u003ePatrick Radden Keefe\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A book that will remain important for a very long time' \u003cb\u003eAn Post Irish Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWe Don't Know Ourselves\u003c\/i\u003e is a very personal vision of recent Irish history from the year of O'Toole's birth, 1958, down to the present. Ireland has changed almost out of recognition during those decades, and Fintan O'Toole's life coincides with that arc of transformation. The book is a brilliant interweaving of memories (though this is emphatically not a memoir) and engrossing social and historical narrative. This was the era of Eamon de Valera, Jack Lynch, Charles Haughey and John Charles McQuaid, of sectarian civil war in the North and the Pope's triumphant visit in 1979, but also of those who began to speak out against the ruling consensus – feminists, advocates for the rights of children, gay men and women coming out of the shadows. \u003ci\u003eWe Don't Know Ourselves\u003c\/i\u003e is an essential book for anyone who wishes to understand modern Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204998856882,"sku":"9781784978341","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781784978341_f4e20276-a0c0-4ab3-b6f7-87c4c8698490.jpg?v=1786025640"},{"product_id":"9781789540994","title":"Heroic Failure","description":"\u003cp\u003e'A wildly entertaining but uncomfortable read... Pitilessly brilliant' JONATHAN COE. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'There will not be much political writing in this or any other year that is carried off with such style' \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eTIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BOOK OF THE YEAR. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A quite brilliant dissection of the cultural roots of the Brexit narrative'\u003c\/b\u003e David Miliband. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Hugely entertaining and engrossing'\u003c\/b\u003e Roddy Doyle. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Best book about the English that I've read for ages'\u003c\/b\u003e Billy Bragg. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA fierce, mordantly funny and perceptive book about the act of national self-harm known as Brexit. A great democratic country tears itself apart, and engages in the dangerous pleasures of national masochism. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTrivial journalistic lies became far from trivial national obsessions; the pose of indifference to truth and historical fact came to define the style of an entire political elite; a country that once had colonies redefined itself as an oppressed nation requiring liberation. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFintan O'Toole also discusses the fatal attraction of heroic failure, once a self-deprecating cult in a hugely successful empire that could well afford the occasional disaster. Now failure is no longer heroic – it is just failure, and its terrible costs will be paid by the most vulnerable of Brexit's supporters. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA new afterword lays out the essential reforms that are urgently needed if England is to have a truly democratic future and stable relations with its nearest neighbours. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205560860850,"sku":"9781789540994","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781789540994_ab6e5c28-0720-496c-bffe-fccad1926a61.jpg?v=1786027109"},{"product_id":"9781035908707","title":"Shakespeare is Hard, but so is Life","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe works of Shakespeare have become staples of literature. They are everywhere, from our early schooling to the lecture rooms of academia, from classic theatre to modern adaptations on stage and screen. But how well do we really know his plays?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this witty, iconoclastic book, the bestselling author Fintan O’Toole examines four of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedies: \u003ci\u003eHamlet\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMacbeth\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eOthello\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eKing Lear\u003c\/i\u003e. He shows how their tragic heroes have been over-simplified and moulded to fit restrictive, conservative values, and restores the true heart and spirit of the classics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I've never read a book like this before: it's challenging, irreverent and funny.' \u003ci\u003eRoddy Doyle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55897342771573,"sku":"9781035908707","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781035908707_20c9e5ba-3546-40c1-b63e-29bf41045caf.jpg?v=1786017306"},{"product_id":"9780571270095","title":"Enough is Enough","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Republic of Ireland, which declared itself in 1949, allowed the Catholic Church to dominate its civil society and education system. Investment by American and European companies, and a welcoming tax regime, created the 'Celtic Tiger' of the 1990s. That brief burst of good fortune was destroyed by a corrupt political class which encouraged a wild property boom, leaving the country almost bankrupt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   What Ireland needs now is a programme of real change. It needs to become a fully modern republic in fact as well as name. Politicians have been let get away with murder, and there is a fatalistic sense that nothing can change. The country needs to encourage participation in, and oversight and knowledge of politics, to make people feel that they have a right to challenge the old party machines and to make a difference. It is their country, after all.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56292133699957,"sku":"9780571270095","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780571270095_928513e0-968a-411b-b6ee-1ac0d0ce62fc.jpg?v=1786014078"},{"product_id":"9780571289011","title":"Up the Republic!","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn  this important book, historians, lawyers, economists and writers come  together to put a coherent case: that although the Irish economic  collapse has resulted in national humiliation, renewed emigration and a  decline in living standards for the majority of the population, there is  still hope that the country can be reformed and renewed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIrish  politicians offered the now notorious blanket guarantee to all the banks  which had got in over their heads during the great property bubble -  including one that had become little more than a criminal enterprise. A  different set of politicians grimly enforces the consequences of that  guarantee, locking an entire generation of Irish men and women into  paying for the mistakes of greedy bankers and their corrupt friends in  government.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe energy of hope has to come from elsewhere. These  essays demonstrate how simple measures and different economic and social  policies could release that energy and fulfil the promise of an  educated, literate and culturally vibrant people.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56292606738805,"sku":"9780571289011","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780571289011_583e622c-8ffb-496e-8f02-b73ab65a6138.jpg?v=1786014541"},{"product_id":"9781802050356","title":"For and against a united Ireland","description":"The prospect of Irish unification is now stronger than at any point since partition in 1921. Voters on both sides of the Irish border may soon have to confront for themselves what the answer to a referendum question would mean - for themselves, for their neighbours, and for their society.Journalists Fintan O'Toole and Sam McBride examine the strongest arguments for and against a united Ireland. What do the words 'united Ireland' even mean? Would it be better for Northern Ireland? Would it improve lives in the Republic of Ireland? And could it be brought about without bloodshed?O’Toole and McBride each argue the case for and against unity, questioning received wisdom and bringing fresh thinking to one of Ireland’s most intractable questions.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56307255902581,"sku":"9781802050356","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781802050356_feb601d5-9dbb-4b05-9aea-3d52db564e41.jpg?v=1786026799"},{"product_id":"the-irish-times-book-of-the-1916-rising","title":"The Irish Times Book of the 1916 Rising","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis heavily illustrated book focuses on the events of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, rather than the background and the consequences. In a widely expanded version of the supplement that appeared in The Irish Times in March to commemorate the 90th Anniversary, The 1916 Rising recreates the actual course of events during that tumultuous week, based on contemporary witnesses, memoirs and later recollections. It adds up to the most comprehensive and accessible account of Easter Week in print.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57481550692725,"sku":"9780717144464","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780717144464.jpg?v=1786089821"},{"product_id":"three-years-in-hell","title":"Three Years in Hell","description":"\u003cp\u003eThree years in the troubled British Isles from the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eHeroic Failure\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003eIn 2011 Queen Elizabeth made her first ever state visit to the Irish Republic. It was a great, moving occasion. In settling once and for all its relationship with Ireland, Britain was also settling its relationship with the rest of the world, taking its place as a normal, equal democracy. It was not to last.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen came the 2016 referendum, and so began\u003cbr\u003eThree Years in Hell\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490087641461,"sku":"9781838935214","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781838935214.jpg?v=1786441981"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-fintan-otoole.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}