For acclaimed author Fintan O'Toole, the creation of We Don't Know Ourselves was a deeply personal experience. After all, We Don't Know Ourselves recounts O'Toole's "personal history of Modern Ireland." And though it is a personal book for O'Toole, it is also a fairly objective book. In his book, O'Toole takes an objective point of view about some of his personal struggles and some of the struggles of his country, which he sees as voluminous.
Tonally, O'Toole takes an empathetic and emotional but clinical view of the history of Ireland. He loves his country, but recognizes its shortcomings and areas that it could improve in. O'Toole's book is also deeply humanistic. He takes a critical, but nuanced and complex and compassionate view of those who are suffering in Ireland as a result of the government's policies. He understands their plight, having gone through it himself, and questions why the Irish government didn't do more to ensure the safety and prosperity of its citizens. Similarly, We Don't Know Ourselves explores themes of ancestry, the connection between family and ancestry, those who suffer through poor economic conditions, and living in a country in which there are few opportunities and even fewer opportunities to succeed.
We Don't Know Ourselves is set over the course of more than 50 years. The novel starts in 1958, which is when O'Toole was born and continues on to the present day (the book was published in early 2022). Throughout those fifty years, O'Toole examines how the national Irish identity has radically shifted and morphed mainly as a result of governmental policies. Ireland, O'Toole says, has transformed from a "backwater" in which nearly everyone was guided by religion to a totally open society in which anything goes, and the Church has been discarded. For O'Toole and many others, that transformation was incredibly unexpected and shocking.
O'Toole was born into a working-class family in the suburbs of Dublin, where he attended a Christian school for boys. As a young boy, he loved American culture and enjoyed watching American westerns. Initially, O'Toole didn't think anything of the infusion of American culture into Ireland. However, he quickly discovered that the westerns foreshadowed what was to come to Irish culture. Another contributing factor to the downfall of Irish culture was the crippling of the Catholic church as a result of rampant corruption, scandals, and activism from Irish people. It was women particularly who didn't care for the Church.
O'Toole also explores the role "The Troubles" (or Irish civil war) had on the country's people. "The Troubles," in fact, led to many Irish people disavowing political violence and extremism of all kinds. They wouldn't be a part of such a destructive event ever again. Additionally, as American culture continued to integrate itself into Irish culture, Irish people changed along with it.
