We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland

I am still gripped by Fintan O’Toole’s powerful rendering of the Irish—a culture that is as mystical as it is exasperating. His ability to insert poignant memories from his own life within the context of the larger whole of modern Irish history gives the book far richer meaning than if he only presented historical narrative without his own personal reflection. O’Toole grew up during the 1960s in Crumlin, a south side working class enclave suburb of Dublin that actually had running water. A writer of lesser talent than O’Toole would not have been able to seamlessly weave his own life within the frame of the big picture—those momentous events that brought Irish culture from the dark ages and into the Twenty-First Century.Notable events include the launch of television in Ireland. The single national channel Telefis Eireann went on the air on New Year’s Eve of 1961. Keep in mind that Albania got its own television station before Ireland. Once television introduced Ireland to the profound influence of the west, the floodgates had happened, and there was not turning back. The author quotes Dr. Noel Browne, the Irish politician who served as Minister for Health, as saying, “Television is…probably the most frighteningly powerful educational or propaganda media to come into the hands of man sine the establishment of the printing press. Each one is us is frightened of it, whether Socialist, Liberal, Conservative, Labour, Catholic, Communist, or fascist, and rightly so.”O’Toole does a brilliant job of showing The Catholic Church’s dominance in Ireland and the last ditch efforts the church made to keep the Irish people under its thumb. Education left in the hands of the Catholic Church was so inadequate that most boys dropped out of school by age fourteen. During the swinging 1960s, while most of the Western World explored civil rights and women’s liberation, the Catholic Church was busy banning Edna O’Brien’s masterpiece “The Country Girls” because it depicted young girls coming of age, exploring a healthy dose of their sexuality.As one of the last strongholds of Catholicism, Ireland took a lot longer than other countries to come into the Twenty-First Century, but once it did, the culture emerged as one of the most progressive bastions in the world. The encroaching social mobility brought by the massive influx of technology, medical device and biotech companies resulted in sweeping legal reforms and cultural transformation. Is it any wonder that Ireland now has the most liberal gay marriage and abortion laws in the world, or that the new Ireland is young, buoyant and very prosperous?The new holy trinity from the late 1990s—information technology, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, replaced the Father, Son and Holy Ghost (of the Catholic Church) and the ideological troika of land, nationality and religion. There is a clear and present danger whenever a nation is undergoing tremendous cultural and economic change. This same type of dynamic is now occurring in the United States. There is clash of opposing cultures between those who want to live in an America of the past, and those who know there is no going back, and we must press fast forward into the future.The United States needs to take to heed by examining Ireland’s tumultuous years when the IRA and Protestant Loyalists were entrenched in heated warfare and bloodshed. The same type of domestic terrorism and opportunistic, destructive skirmishing has already erupted in the United States between The GOP and Democrats, or specifically between Ultra Conservatives and Woke Liberals and Anarchists and may very well escalate into a state of civil war.O’Toole’s book is a masterpiece that leaves no stone unturned in his exploration of the Ireland of the past and the Ireland that exists today and is still in the process of becoming. The history of Ireland is recast and reimagined—this is a culture where literacy arrived and took hold in an oral culture, Christianity embedded itself into paganism, and the Vikings brought threats and opportunities such as cities and money. There was no Irish culture outside of this constant process of translation and fusion, of preserving things but also remaking them. The Irish culture itself has always been a shapeshifter.The Leprechaun in me must add a final note: If the Irish were a craft cocktail recipe, the ingredients would include a wee bit of guilt mixed with a penchant for martyrdom, add a strong dose of playfulness, a sprinkle of mischief, a pinch of brilliance, one shot of stubbornness, two shots of pride, shake until thoroughly blended, pour and serve hot in the summer or cold in the winter.

Fintan O'Toole parallels his life story with the story of his family and his country. A distinguished journalist, he pulls no punches.

Mr O'Toole's book produced three outstanding results or effects from my perspective:1. He shows masterful control of causes and effects in a macro Irish context, including religion, British colonial hangover, emmigration, corruption, and the Fianna Fáil "compact" of mutual corruption with the Catholic Church (RCC) from1982 to 2011.2. For me, as an Irish American who lived several years in Irleand and maintains Irish friendships, O'Toole's narratives fleshed out much that I knew of but not in great detail, e.g. Haughey et als' corrupt modus operandi, and the vast and purvasive extent of the meanness and unChristian ways of the RCC.3. Mr O'Toole's use of language and sentence wording combinamtions is outstanding. It is so good that despite my thinking he could have gotten all his thoughts across very well in half of the 638 pages that he employed, I still give the book five stars.

Only criticism: too much about Charles Haughey! Perhaps O’Toole should have considered a separate biography instead of high-jacking so much of this “personal history” about this despicable man. Otherwise, I enjoyed the format of the chapters with each one almost a separate essay. Best read of my winter break!

Enlightening history and terrific insights. I think people from any culture will benefit from the reflections. I’ve never taken so many “margin notes.”

Fintan O’Toole has written an inclusive, psychological thriller for serious observers of Irish culture. He manages to analyze the history, economics, religion, and Irish psyche in such a way that is both personal and objective. A wonderful read.

Personal leading to the general. Captures the sweep of history yet from the perspective of the individual. Very moving. Full of insight. Impeccable writing

The length was daunting and O'Toole's explanation of the history of 19-20th Irish history was at times a difficult read. However the points are very well developed. As we are going to visit Ireland soon, I found this book essential to my understanding.

A remarkable book, always readable, often fascinating, and relentless in its exposure of the remarkable ability of the Irish to believe two contradictory things at once, at least one of them being totally unsupported by the observable facts. It is a sign of how much Ireland has changed for the better since O'Toole was born in 1958 that, so far as I know, no one has tried to shoot him since the book was published two years ago.

Bracingly honest portrayal of 50 years dynamic and turbulent years of Irish history.. O'Toole strips away the strips that Ireland tells itself and the outside world to show a country caught between maintaining a false image that doesn't reflect the way Irish societyatually is

Fintan O’Toole is one of the most incisive writers today. This is his analysis of Irish politics during his life time. It is outstanding..

This is a really interesting history--a series of stories that add up to a very rich picture of Ireland in recent years.

Ce recit est passionnant, écrit par un écrivain superbe, drôle, tendre pour son pays, et ses compatriotes.