Brendan O'Neill

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Brendan O'Neill on fora.tv

Brendan O'Neill is associated with the libertarian anti-environmental LM network. In particular, he has written for LM magazine and Rising East, is editor of internet magazine Spiked, co-founded the anti-regulatory Manifesto Club and has spoken at the Battle of Ideas, the Brighton Salon, Leeds Salon and Manchester Salon.

O’Neill grew up in North London as one of five brothers, the eldest being Michael. Like Claire Fox and Fiona Fox, he is a child of Catholic Irish immigrants, in this case from Galway. He attended Catholic schools throughout his education, including St James Catholic High School in Colindale, Barnet, based in a Dominican convent.

He commenced his career in journalism in 1997 at Living Marxism and then LM when it was retitled after the Revolutionary Communist Party was dissolved, until the magazine was forced to close in 2000 after losing a libel trial. He then wrote for its successor Spiked from its foundation in 2000, until in 2007 he took over as editor from founding editor Mick Hume.

As one would expect, his writing is entirely consistent with the LM network’s extreme libertarian and anti-environmental views. While claiming to be an atheist, he regularly defends the Catholic Church from attack.

From Jan 2011, he wrote a regular blog for the Telegraph. Prior to that, he wrote regularly for the Guardian.

From the Battle of Ideas biography:

"Brendan O’Neill is the editor of spiked and author of the green satire Can I Recycle My Granny and 39 Other Eco-Dilemmas, published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2008. He started his career in journalism at spiked‘s predecessor, Living Marxism, then its successor LM, until it was forced to close in 2000 following a notorious libel action brought by ITN. When he’s not writing for and editing spiked, and commissioning journalists who have something to say and the guts to say it, O’Neill writes widely for publications on both sides of the Atlantic. His journalism has been published in the New Statesman, the Spectator, the Guardian, The Sunday Times, the British Journalism Review, the Press Gazette and the Catholic Herald in Britain, and in Salon, Slate, the Chicago Sun-Times, the American Prospect, the American Conservative and Reason magazine in the United States. He is also a feature-writer for the Christian Science Monitor in America and for the BBC in Britain.

O’Neill has also been a guest on numerous TV and radio shows in Britain, Ireland and America, including on BBC radio and TV, Sky News, Channel 4 News and The Last Word on More4; The Big Bite on RTE television in Ireland and Talk Radio in Dublin; and on the Heartland show on Fox News and International Correspondents on CNN, and radio stations in New York, San Francisco, Colorado, Wisconsin and Washington, DC. He has given talks at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the Oxford Literary Festival, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and the Battle of Ideas at the Royal College of Art. He was depicted in the play An Explosion, which explored the meaning of terrorism, at the Battersea Arts Centre in London in 2006 (O’Neill was played by actor Jim Pyke). O’Neill also founded and taught the Online Journalism course at the University College for the Creative Arts in Surrey, England."

Affiliations

• Spiked Online | Manifesto Club | Forth Magazine

Publications

• Guardian, "Articles for the Guardian"
• Spiked, "Articles for Spiked"
• Telegraph, "Blog for the Telegraph"

Books

• From Bosnia to Beslan, Pluto Press May 28 2006
• Can I Recycle My Granny and 39 Other Eco-Dilemmas, Hodder & Stoughton, 2008 (as Ethan Greenhart)

Popular press, magazines articles and web publications

1995

• Brendan O'Neill, 'Divided loyalists in Ireland', Living Marxism, No. 80 - June 1995, p. 31.

1996

• Brendan O'Neill, 'Interview with the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition', Living Marxism, No. 93 - September 1996, p. 17.

1997

• Brendan O'Neill, Consensus' by coercion in Northern Ireland', LM 101, p. 14, June 1997.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The new protocol', LM 104, October 1997.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Second class students', LM 104, p. 28, October 1997.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Northern Ireland: look who's talking', LM 105, p. 32, November 1997.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Mo Mowlam's marching orders', LM 106, p. 26, December 1997/January 1998.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Play with your Croc', LM 106, December 1997/January 1998.

1998

• Brendan O'Neill, 'Down with 'the People's Monarchy', LM 107, p. 35, February 1998.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Reading between the lines', LM 107, p. 43, February 1998.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'After Diana: New religion for old?', LM 108, p. 20, March 1998.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Who's afraid of a five-year old?', LM 109, p. 15, April 1998.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The Irish Inquisition', LM 109, p. 20, April 1998.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Ireland's Peace of Nothing', LM 110, p. 16, May 1998.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Ha'way the (well-behaved) lads', LM 110, p. 20, May 1998.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Government officials will manipulate media/public', LM 111, p. 16, June 1998.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Is new news bad news?', LM 112, p. 34, July/August 1998.
• Brendan O'Neill and Emily Young, 'Elton gone', LM 113, p. 12, September 1998.
• Jennie Bristow, Kirsten de la Haye, Brendan O'Neill and Justine Brian, 'Lowering higher education', LM 114, October 1998, p. 12.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Cult is a four-letter word', LM 114, October 1998, p. 22.
• Brendan O'Neill, confusions,', LM 116, p. 14, December/January 1998/1999.

1999

• Brendan O'Neill, 'Iraq: war without end', LM 117, p. 20, February 1999.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Get rid of malaria, then DDT', LM 119, p. 34, April 1999.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Are 'leading lads' the new sads?', LM 120, p. 40, May 1999.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Sophie and Edward: royals without royalty', LM 121, p. 14, June 1999.
• Brendan O'Neill and Fenno Outen, 'Male suicide: worrying us to death', LM 122, p. 30, July/August 1999.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Anti-racial tensions in Greenwich', LM 123, p. 10, September 1999.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Dover the top', LM 124, p. 8, October 1999.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'RSPCA: wolf in sheep's clothing', LM 125, p. 8, November 1999.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Taboos: Ireland: 'the child abuse capital of the world', LM 126, p. 8, December/January 1999/2000.

2000

• Brendan O'Neill, 'Making the ordinary extraordinary', LM 127, p. 22, February 2000.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Prisons of the mind', LM 128, p. 14, March 2000.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Counsel estates', LM 129, p. 8, April 2000.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Ireland - no Plan B', LM 129, p. 41, April 2000.

2004

• Brendan O'Neill, 'The missing people-shredder', The Guardian, 25 February 2004.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Another dodgy dossier', The Guardian, 25 March 2004.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Suffer the little children', New Statesman, 31 May 2004.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Unrecorded victims', The Guardian, 21 July 2004.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'People who are just like us', New Statesman, 26 July 2004.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The Bosnian connection', New Statesman, 2 August 2004.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Use your mop quietly', New Statesman, 13 September 2004.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'How looking for work turns you into a victim', New Statesman, 22 November 2004.

2005

• Brendan O'Neill, 'Workers should know their place', New Statesman, 17 January 2005.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The snobs hold their noses', New Statesman, 28 march 2005.
• Brendan O'Neill, America's "eyes in the skies", New Statesman, 22 August 2005.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The website of death', New Statesman, 5 September 2005.

2006

• Brendan O'Neill, 'Let Iran have the bomb', The Guardian, 31 March 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The anti-imperialism of fools', The Guardian, 3 April 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'What about free speech for footballers?', The Guardian, 7 April 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Human beings are not attack dogs', The Guardian, 7 April 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Shock and gore', The Guardian, 12 April 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Rebranding immigration', The Guardian, 21 April 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The real cowboys', The Guardian, 25 April 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Genocide? What genocide?', The Guardian, 4 May 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Anyone but Gordon', The Guardian, 11 May 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'I love cheap flights', The Guardian, 19 May 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'East of Euston', The Guardian, 25 May 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Ticket to deride', The Guardian, 5 June 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The media's MMR shame', The Guardian, 16 June 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'A very well-connected bogeyman', The Guardian, 21 June 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Teenage kicks', The Guardian, 28 June 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The new 'free speech' apartheid', The Guardian, 6 July 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Capitalism needs its green apologists', The Guardian, 13 July 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Theatre of hate', The Guardian, 17 July 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The flight test', The Guardian, 3 August 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Tory terrorists?', The Guardian, 16 August 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Honk if you've had enough', The Guardian, 23 August 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Loving animals, loathing foreigners', The Guardian, 15 September 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The war against pork pies', The Guardian, 18 September 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Darfur: damned by western pity', The Guardian, 25 September 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Terror in the classroom', The Guardian, 3 October 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Heavy vetting', The Guardian, 25 October 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'What's worse than an illegal war? A legal one', The Guardian, 6 November 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Band on the run', The Guardian, 13 November 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'A climate of censorship', The Guardian, 22 November 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Abolish Ofcom', The Guardian, 30 November 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Ringleader of the Tory mentors', The Guardian, 11 December 2006.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Veiled meanings', The Guardian, 21 December 2006.

2007

• Brendan O'Neill, 'All the young prudes', The Guardian, 7 January 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Flying off the handle', The Guardian, 15 January 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'One form of prejudice reveals another', The Guardian, 22 January 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'A modern-day witch-hunt', The Guardian, 2 February 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Distress calls', The Guardian, 9 February 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Liberally forgetful', The Guardian, 15 February 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Bashing the masses', The Guardian, 21 February 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Our lips are sealed', The Guardian, 8 March 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'I'd rather wear fur than go naked', The Guardian, 19 March 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Enslaved by self-pity', The Guardian, 26 March 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Coffee, please; hold the froth', The Guardian, 4 April 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, Genocide: a codeword for 'wog violence', The Guardian, 13 April 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Finding fault', The Guardian, 23 April 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Old radicals', The Guardian, 7 May 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Statue of limitations', The Guardian, 17 May 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Restricted views', The Guardian, 14 June 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Cowards in the face of Iraq', The Guardian, 27 June 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Environmentalism: the new death cult?', The Guardian, 3 July 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The Bosnian connection', The Guardian, 6 July 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Polluting minds', The Guardian, 25 July 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Doping the masses', The Guardian, 1 August 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Give us wings!', The Guardian, 18 August 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Canine communities', The Guardian, 11 September 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'In the other camp', The Guardian, 20 September 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The tyranny of science', The Guardian, 19 October 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Blue-blooded and green', The Guardian, 1 November 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Dressing up the message', The Guardian, 6 November 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Rating humanity', The Guardian, 14 November 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, What's gone wrong with my Marxism?", Spectator, 28 November 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Harpoon this ecoimperialism', The Guardian, 29 November 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Jamaica: the limit of liberalism', The Guardian, 8 December 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The essence of Orwellianism', The Guardian, 12 December 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Shane MacGowan: voice of reason', The Guardian, 19 December 2007.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The new atheism', The Guardian, 30 December 2007.

2008

• Brendan O'Neill, 'Bearfaced lies', The Guardian, 4 January 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The taint of association', The Guardian, 14 January 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The tyranny of militant lactivism', The Guardian, 27 January 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Persecuting chubby kids', The Guardian, 8 February 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Miliband's contradiction in terms', The Guardian, 12 February 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Delia the radical', The Guardian, 18 February 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Plane snobbery', The Guardian, 27 February 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The problem with Tibet', The Guardian, 6 March 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Poverty of vision', The Guardian, 12 March 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The Chinese burden?', The Guardian, 1 April 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Defending freedom', The Guardian, 7 April 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Learning from Nepal', The Guardian, 13 April 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The other 1968', The Guardian, 23 April 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Over and out?', The Guardian, 25 April 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'A nose for Nazis', The Guardian, 6 May 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The fat freakshow', The Guardian, 16 May 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'True Europeans', The Guardian, 23 May 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Down with the Dalai Lama', The Guardian, 29 May 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The exploitation of Aids', The Guardian, 12 June 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The internet's traffic jam', The Guardian, 3 July 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Greens are the enemies of liberty', The Guardian, 15 July 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Don't trash the China', The Guardian, 25 July 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Olympian myths of Tiananmen', The Guardian, 8 August 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Making headlines in China', The Guardian, 17 August 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Roasting the masses', The Guardian, 27 August 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Elitist evangelists', The Guardian, 9 September 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'We live in an era of sneering', The Guardian, 5 October 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Spike the ASA, not the Cactus Kid', The Guardian, 9 October 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The joy of less', The Guardian, 2 November 2008.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'What part of Ireland's 'no' does the EU not understand?', The Guardian, 13 December 2008.

2009

• Brendan O'Neill, 'This is something worse than class war', The Guardian, 13 January 2009.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'An unenlightened argument', The Guardian, 21 January 2009.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Scotland's petty prohibition', The Guardian, 4 March 2009.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Nano and the rise of eco-imperialism', The Guardian, 24 March 2009.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'We've got all the space in the world', The Guardian, 13 June 2009.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'Wearing thermals won't save the planet', The Guardian, 2 September 2009.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'When it comes to the internet, Labour is clueless', The Guardian, 3 December 2009.

2010

• Brendan O'Neill, 'The media's tall tales over Iraq', The Guardian, 4 February 2010.
• Brendan O'Neill, 'The common sense of Thomas Paine', The Guardian, 17 November 2010.

2011

• Brendan O'Neill, Human Centipede II director angered by BBFC's 'stiff upper lip', The Guardian, 14 June 2011.

Contact

Blog "Freedom Rules"

Personal website "Brendan O'Neill"

Resources

Dale, Iain and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown "Crosstalk video interview"

Datoo, Siraj, "Interview", "The Student Journals", 27 October 2010

Greenstein, Tony, "Spiked by Spiked", Socialist Unity, 13 March 2009

Hari, Johann, "Who do we vote for now

Klinger, Max, "Interview", "Varsity, 5 February 2011

Little Atoms, "Video interviews 2006 & 2007

Alex Lockwood Five reasons Brendan O'Neill is wrong Alexlockwood.net website 15 July 2008

Andrew Newman More on the intellectual laziness of the RCP Socialist Unity website 10 March 2007

Simister, Vicky, "What not to say", Humanist Life, 17 Sep 2010