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Title details for We Don't Know Ourselves by Fintan O'Toole - Wait list

We Don't Know Ourselves

A Personal History of Modern Ireland

by Fintan O'Toole
Aidan Kelly
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In We Don't Know Ourselves, Fintan O'Toole weaves his own experiences into Irish social, cultural, and economic change, showing how Ireland, in just one lifetime, has gone from a reactionary "backwater" to an almost totally open society-perhaps the most astonishing national transformation in modern history. Born to a working-class family in the Dublin suburbs, O'Toole served as an altar boy and attended a Christian Brothers school. He was enthralled by American Westerns suddenly appearing on Irish television, which were not that far from his own experience, given that Ireland's main export was beef and it was still not unknown for herds of cattle to clatter down Dublin's streets. Yet the Westerns were a sign of what was to come. O'Toole narrates the once unthinkable collapse of the all-powerful Catholic Church, brought down by scandal and by the activism of ordinary Irish, women in particular. He relates the horrific violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which led most Irish to reject violent nationalism. In O'Toole's telling, America became a lodestar, from John F. Kennedy's 1963 visit, when the American president was welcomed as a native son, to the emergence of the Irish technology sector in the late 1990s, driven by American corporations, which set Ireland on the path toward particular disaster during the 2008 financial crisis.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    March 15, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781696607452
      • File size: 638942 KB
      • Duration: 22:11:07

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      June 1, 2022

      In 1958, the year O'Toole (The Politics of Pain: Postwar England and the Rise of Nationalism) was born, discouraged government leaders opened Ireland up for foreign investment in an effort to stem the tide of Ireland's emigrating youth. O'Toole has experienced all of the changes this decision influenced, as well as writing about them as a professional journalist for the Irish Times. He recounts his own experiences whenever applicable, along with the accounts of others navigating their way toward modernity. O'Toole was raised a Catholic in the Republic of Ireland, and his years of reporting gave him a unique perspective on Ireland's tortured relationship with the Catholic Church and their own Catholic identity, along with the troubles in Northern Ireland. VERDICT Making every minute of this long book enjoyable, narrator Aidan Kelly's voice is smooth and clearly Irish, and it carries an air of authority without sounding like a documentary. Kelly's timing and pacing help listeners comprehend long passages and convoluted stories as if they are being recounted firsthand.--Laura Trombley

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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