Towards A Real Republic: Fintan O'Toole

A good summary of his two books, 'Ship of Fools' and 'Enough is Enough' his talk here takes us back to the basics of what a democratic republic is and how we might go about building one. Importantly, he also puts the whole notion of 'austerity' now being shamefully deployed by the spin doctors of our corporate masters into its original context.

[@Guedingen]

brilliant, many thanks. I sometimes think he's the only adult in Irish public life.

[@joehiggs100]

Thanks for posting, even though it's from a few years back it's good to have a reminder of the Celtic Tiger.. Ship of Fools indeed. Hopefully things have got better. Mr O'Toole has been very cogent about Brexit of late..

[@taintabird23]

Brilliant talk.

[@olliemoore11]

great talk

[@chrisMthepoet]

1916 was a reply to centuries of subjection, abuse and neglect, and the attempt to cynically destroy a nations culture and identity. It was a blood sacrifice by extremely brave Irish men and women that led to the possibility of the Fintan O'Tooles of this world to grow up in the freedom to criticise as roundly as he does. Yes! we were badly ruled for 40 years thereafter by narrow minded, priest-ridden idiots, until Lemass started to turn things round, and we know that even after that the brown envelope brigade still served us badly, but no way do I ever want to see a return to the appalling Imperialist/Jingoistic rule favoured by the British for their dependencies. Joining Europe was the right idea. If we were still ruled by Britain we would now be exiting with the rest of them.

[@bam1742]

Dublin 4? The first speaker completely contradicts himself.

[@themsmloveswar3985]

And the moral of the story is....a drama critic discussing how to run a country, is as useful as an interior wall painter trying to manage the electricity power grid. But, this is not a problem for readers of The "Irish" Times.

[@321womble]

I'm interested in knowing what you don't like about what he said?

[@taintabird23]

What are your qualifications for critiquing a drama critic on how a country is run?

[@gloin10]

@Facebook is an addiction Remember the first rule; always, repeat ALWAYS, go for the man, not the ball. Never get involved with the issues.