Fintan O'Toole: The Unknown Knowns of Ireland

Captioned

One of Ireland’s finest journalists shares an intimate account of how the country has changed during his lifetime. There are many contradictions in Ireland’s history and the title of Fintan O’Toole’s personal history, We Don’t Know Ourselves, is one of them. It can be taken to describe what O’Toole sees as ‘Irish people’s strange capacity not to know things’ or to express pleasure in tracking the journey to modernity.

Book Festival News

Celebrating the 2024 Book Festival Celebrating the 2024 Book Festival
Monday 26 August

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Watch more

Kerri ní Dochartaigh & Katherine May: Wildest Dreams Kerri ní Dochartaigh & Katherine May: Wildest Dreams From the depths of winter sprout the seeds of new growth and the promise of wonders. In Enchantment, Katherine May unravels the threads of a tightly-wound life and finds a more meaningful and grounded way to be. In Cacophony of Bone, Kerri ní Dochartaigh… David Crystal (2015 Event) David Crystal (2015 Event) A linguist and an expert on the development of the English language, David Crystal presents two books that tell us a great deal about English as it is spoken in the 21st century. You Say Potato looks at accents and our different ideas about ‘correct&… Hari Kunzru: The Breakdown of Truth Hari Kunzru: The Breakdown of Truth Since Hari Kunzru’s last appearance at the Book Festival in 2017, the world has witnessed a dramatic quickening of social division in the United States, fuelled in part by internet conspiracies and communities. Kunzru makes his long-awaited return to… A L Kennedy: We Are Not Dead Yet A L Kennedy: We Are Not Dead Yet A L Kennedy’s insightful and piercing gaze, evident in all her books, is probably at its most unflinching in her short stories. We are thrilled to welcome her back to the Book Festival with her short story collection We Are Attempting to Survive Our Time… Sophie Hughes & Fernanda Melchor: Another Mexico Sophie Hughes & Fernanda Melchor: Another Mexico Celebrated Mexican author Fernanda Melchor’s first book translated into English, Hurricane Season, has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. In a piece for Granta, the book’s translator Sophie Hughes reflected: ‘Melchor goes with her… Nadifa Mohamed: For Whom is Justice Served? Nadifa Mohamed: For Whom is Justice Served? Can the truth save those who have been condemned for something other than a crime? Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021, The Fortune Men takes us to Cardiff ’s multicultural Tiger Bay in 1952, where Mahmood Mattan is accused of murder. He feels secure… Simon Parkin: A Prison of Luminaries Simon Parkin: A Prison of Luminaries In 1940, the British government ordered the internment of all German refugees in a camp on the Isle of Man. Behind the barbed wire were large numbers of talented experts and artists, who soon transformed the camp into a centre of creative endeavour. Join… Steve Brusatte & Thomas Halliday: The Paleo-Adventurers Steve Brusatte & Thomas Halliday: The Paleo-Adventurers Has our obsession with dinosaurs overshadowed other discoveries about our planet’s history? Palaeontologist Steve Brusatte lays out a fascinating alternative history in The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. Thomas Halliday is a Scottish paleontologist and… Ghada Karmi (2015 Event) Ghada Karmi (2015 Event) When she was forced to leave Palestine in 1948, for Ghada Karmi it meant that she would spend most of her life away from her native land. In Return: A Palestinian Memoir, Karmi describes visits to places she hasn’t seen since her childhood; places… Polly Barton & Eley Williams: Words That Define Us Polly Barton & Eley Williams: Words That Define Us We define words – and then they define us. Meet two authors whose delightful relationship with words and meaning comes to the foreground in their work. Eley Williams won the James Tait Black Prize for her debut short story collection Attrib., a…