Jason O'Toole

Jason O'Toole (born 10 December 1973) is an Irish author, filmmaker, and playwright.

He is a former print and magazine editor, journalist and Sunday newspaper columnist.

Jason O'Toole earned a BA in humanities and an MA in political communication from Dublin City University (DCU).

O'Toole's first play The Intruder had a rehearsed reading streamed by Hot Press magazine in June 2021.

It was filmed at Dublin's The Civic theatre and had a new score written for it by David Bowie's Next Day album collaborator Gerry Leonard and was read by Titanic star Jason Barry and Rex Ryan.

The play's poster was designed by the legendary designer Stephen Averill who created many of U2's most iconic album covers.

O'Toole wrote The Gilligan Tapes, a series of in-depth interviews with notorious crime boss John Gilligan, published by Merrion Press in September 2023, which he also turned into a three-part documentary.

It aired on Virgin Media Ireland over three nights in September 2023; causing huge controversy, with three senior government ministers criticising it before it had even been screened.

O'Toole edited an anthology on new Irish fiction, entitled Off The Edge (2006), with an introduction by author Lee Dunne.

He wrote the biography of the former Taoiseach, Brian Cowen: The Path to Power (published by Transworld, a division of Random House, in October 2008).

His book Crime Ink, a collection of his Hot Press journalism, was released in July 2009.

It went straight into the top 10 best-sellers list in Ireland on its release; it includes the first ever interviews with some of Ireland's and UK's most notorious criminals and IRA figures, such as: John Gilligan, Paddy "Dutchy" Holland, Alan Bradley (aka Fat Puss), Paddy McCann (Ireland's longest serving prisoner for double murder), Ian Strachan (the Royal Blackmailer) and IRA bosses John Noonan and Gerry Kelly.

The book was selected as part of the Be Inspired: Great Irish Book Week, and a chapter from it was included in the anthology Gems from Irish Publishing.

O'Toole also wrote The Last Days of Katy French (2009, Merlin), which the Irish Independent wrote was "well written and non-judgmental", adding that "maybe the book should be required reading on the Leaving Certificate curriculum".

He wrote a weekly interview called, "The Jason O'Toole Interview", for the Irish Mail on Sunday and the Irish Daily Mail from 2009 to 2014.

He is the former Senior Editor of the popular Irish publication, Hot Press magazine.

An excerpt from the book appears in the Lord of the Files anthology published in November 2011 by the Institute of Public Administration (IPA).

Over 18 months after its release, the book surprisingly reentered the best-sellers charts at number 5 in non-fiction category in January 2011, according to the Nielsen figures published by the Sunday Independent on 22 January 2011.

O'Toole co-wrote The End of The Party with Bruce Arnold, published in November 2011 by Gill and Macmillan.

The book was selected as one of the top ten Irish books of the year by Joe Duffy's RTÉ show Liveline The show described the book as "gripping"; while the Irish Independent described the book as the "angriest yet" on the meltdown of the Irish economy.

Writing in the Sunday Independent, political writer John Drennan stated: "...this reads like a fast-paced thriller crossed with scenes of farce that would be more appropriate to Halls Pictorial Weekly. End of the Party lifts the lid off the crypt of internal politicking and political ambition that buried Fianna Fail and the country. In particular, for the first time, it fully unveils the alcohol-induced inertia that hollowed out a once uniquely successful party."

O'Toole was one of six short-listed for the National Journalist of the Year Award for the inaugural NNI Journalism Awards in October 2011.

The book he co-wrote with Jimmy Magee was short-listed for the Irish Sports Book of The Year Award, organised by Bord Gais.

O'Toole was short-listed for Features Journalist of the Year at the 2022 Irish Journalism Awards.

He has conducted many high-profile controversial interviews with well-known and sometimes controversial Irish figures, including:

Other controversial interviews O'Toole conducted for Hot Press include:

O'Toole's weekly interview in the Irish Daily Mail and the Irish Mail on Sunday has included several exclusive and controversial interviews, including:

O'Toole has a co-author credit on Jimmy Magee's memoir, "The Memory Man", published in Sept 2012 by Gill & Macmillan.

The book entered the best-sellers charts at no 2 in the hardback non-fiction category.

It was short-listed for the Irish Sports Book of The Year Award, organised by Bord Gais.

He wrote "Katie Taylor: Journey to Olympic Gold", published in October 2012 by Gill & MacMillan.

O'Toole co-wrote Different Class with Jimmy Magee, published in October 2013.

He returned to his post of senior editor at Hot Press magazine in September 2016 and stepped down in December 2018.

Between 2018 and 2022 he wrote a weekly column for the Irish Sunday Mirror. He also wrote a major weekly 2,000-words music interview with countless iconic figures, such as The Doors, Sex Pistols, Tom Jones, Elvis Costello, Tito Jackson, Jehtro Tull, Simple Minds, and Iron Maiden for the Irish Daily Mirror. between 2018 and March 2023.

O'Toole's book Hollywood Irish was published in September 2019.

O'Toole's book The Writing Irish was published in December 2021.

O'Toole directed the controversial three-part docuseries Confessions of a Crime Boss which aired on Virgin Media Ireland in September 2023.

Two Irish government ministers, the Minister for Justice and Minister for Drugs, had bizarrely called for the banning of the documentary before they had even watched the first episode.

O'Toole's journalism has appeared in dozens of publications, including The Sunday Times, Empire magazine, The Mail on Sunday, Film Ireland, the Evening Herald, Irish Independent, La Republica, In Dublin, The People, The Daily Mail, "The Mirror", "Panorama", Enterprise, The Star on Sunday, The Dublin Quarterly, Playboy magazine and the Australian-based Irish Echo.

He has been described by several prominent Irish publications as the best interviewer of his generation..