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

Written by Fintan O'Toole

Narrated by Aidan Kelly

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: Mar 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781696607452

Fintan O'Toole

Fintan O'Toole is the author of Heroic Failure, Ship of Fools, A Traitor's Kiss, White Savage and other acclaimed books. He is a columnist for the Irish Times and the Milberg Professor of Irish Letters at Princeton University. He writes regularly for the Guardian, New York Review of Books, New York Times and other British and American journals.

Reviews for We Don't Know Ourselves

[Big John · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pretty good book. The author did an excellent job at weaving incredible historic events into an otherwise normal, drab Irish existence. Being Irish from South Boston and watching all the Priests go down for their criminal behavior, made those sections relatable to me personally. Bravo!

[Shane Dodd · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I grew up in Ireland born in 1971 in Fermoy County Cork.Moved to Dublin to an adoptive family 4 days later.I was very much disenfranchised financially but received a top level education.I have read some of the authors other books and because of his unashamed Leftist philosophical bent I would find points of contention in those works.Including Brexit Britain’s heroic defeat(The people have spoken:)I digress.I am full of admiration for your comprehensive telling of the history of Ireland not only regurgitating banal
Chronology but brilliantly interjecting emotion from all sides and the never spoken about complexity of each situation where nothing ever was as it seemed.I found this book a journey in emotion to an Ireland ostensibly dead but which lives in in the hearts of all Irish people at home and to a greater degree abroad.It inculcated the consciousness like an indelible tattoo.Bravo to you for this gem I cannot say enough about this although there is so much to say.You recounted an Ireland in its nakedness and its insecurities enforced by half hearted bragadociousness and ended up with stating the most obvious fact.That Ireland at the end of the day and it’s people were entirely better than they even came close to giving themselves credit for and most certainly better than the corrupt institutions which subjugated them with the threat of eternal hell fire.
Go raibh mile maith agat.

[Michael Connor · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Nicely written and wonderfully narrated, the book taught me a lot about post war Ireland. Mr O’Toole knows his country, summarizes great change smartly, and only sometimes tells the reader too much in distracting detail. Do read it.

[Margaret Cantrell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderfully written and narrated insight into the soul of Ireland. Highly recommended!