Quentin Fottrell
Quentin Fottrell is an Irish columnist, author, agony uncle, [1][2][3] journalist, social diarist and critic. He was the Irish correspondent for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal from 2003 to 2011, columnist and feature writer for The Irish Times and is currently working as a journalist in New York City. He was born in Dublin and studied psychology in University College Dublin (UCD) and journalism in University College Galway (UCG).
Quentin Fottrell | |
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Quentin Fottrell at the Morrison Hotel, Dublin, Ireland, 2010 | |
Born | |
Occupation | Journalist, author |
Fottrell reported on the rise [5] and fall [6] of the Celtic Tiger in Ireland and the expansion of the European Union during Ireland's six-month EU presidency.[7] He currently serves as the personal finance editor for MarketWatch. He writes about spending [8] and investing,[9] and writes an advice column, The Moneyist, in which he answers questions on inheritance, marriage, divorce, tipping, weddings and other tricky money issues.[10]
Fottrell contributed to magazines and newspapers in Ireland and the U.K., including The Dubliner (magazine), wrote a weekly radio review column for The Irish Times and gave advice on relationships on The Ray D'Arcy Show. He has published a book on relationships in Ireland, titled "Love in a Damp Climate," [11][12] and contributed to several others, including “A Pint and a Haircut,” a collection of true Irish stories.[13] He is openly gay and an advocate of equality for LGBT people.[14]
LGBT writer and activist
As an activist for LGBT rights, Fottrell advocated for marriage equality in a series of columns for Irish newspapers in the run-up to the Irish civil partnership and marriage equality campaigns. In 2007, he wrote, "Gay marriage doesn't damage children. But not allowing it does. It fosters a culture of prejudice, and infects the aspirations of gay children." [15] Fottrell also wrote about homophobia in rural Ireland and the struggles of gay people to live openly and free of prejudice in small towns.[16] [17]
Fottrell organized a "Vote Yes for Equality" campaign in New York in the weeks leading up to the marriage equality referendum in Ireland in May 2015.[18] He subsequently reported on the impact of the referendum for The Wall Street Journal and interviewed Irish diaspora who returned to Ireland for the vote.[19][20] After Ireland became the first country in the world to put this issue to a public vote, Fottrell wrote, "On May 22, Ireland sent a message to the world: If we can do it, you can too." [21]
Since moving to New York, he has reported on the experiences of Irish emigrants [22] and reflected, in particular, on how that relates to growing up gay in Catholic Ireland: "It’s tempting to romanticize the past. Migrant memories, especially post-Celtic Tiger, can be selective and stylized like a TV commercial." [23] He said generations of people left Ireland for cultural reasons as well as economic ones. "Leaving everything behind is not easy," he wrote,[24] "but I needed to break new ground, and it would be an adventure: Where else to go but the land of Harvey Milk and money."
References
- Reynolds, Deirdre (25 October 2012), "Dear Quentin, so what's it like being an agony uncle?", Irish Independent, retrieved 25 October 2012
- Reynolds, Deirdre (25 October 2012), "People asked if the questions were real—I hadn't time to make them up!", Irish Independent, retrieved 25 October 2012
- Wai, Jonathan (18 August 2014), "6 Lessons for Love and Life", Psychology Today, retrieved 18 August 2014
- Fottrell, Quentin (8 October 2010), "Hardy Irish Souls Tiptoe Into Nation's Ghost Estates", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 8 October 2010
- Fottrell, Quentin (27 October 2010), "Irish Government in Battle for Credibility", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 27 October 2010
- Fottrell, Quentin (3 May 2004), "EU Expansion Gets Mixed Views At Dublin Event", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 3 May 2004
- Fottrell, Quentin (7 July 2017), "Want to buy happiness? Splurge on these 5 things", MarketWatch, retrieved 7 July 2017
- Fottrell, Quentin (25 February 2018), "How low will the Dow go? Brace yourself for the worst-case scenario", MarketWatch, retrieved 25 February 2018
- Fottrell, Quentin (12 May 2018), "The Moneyist", MarketWatch, retrieved 12 May 2018
- Love in a Damp Climate, Amazon
- O’Doherty, Cahir (8 July 2009), "Love in a Damp Climate: The Dating Game …Irish-Style", Irish Voice, retrieved 8 July 2009
- A Pint and a Hair Cut, Amazon
- Fottrell, Quentin (19 December 2008), "Listen carefully: we gays will not go away", Irish Times, retrieved 24 December 2008
- Fottrell, Quentin (17 November 2008), "Roll on gay marriage. It's time the institution got a makeover", Irish Times, retrieved 17 November 2008
- Fottrell, Quentin (10 June 2008), "Something rotten revealed in society's underbelly", Irish Times, retrieved 10 June 2008
- Fottrell, Quentin (1 August 2007), "Being out in a parade of stupid", The Irish Times, retrieved 1 August 2007
- Fottrell, Quentin (11 May 2015), "Emigrants don't have a vote, but we do have a voice", Irish Times, retrieved 11 May 2015
- Fottrell, Quentin (18 May 2015), "As Ireland Prepares to Vote on Same-Sex Marriage, Expats Go Back For the Future", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 18 May 2015
- Hassan, Sara (18 May 2015), "Ireland to hold same-sex marriage referendum", Al Jazeera, retrieved 18 May 2015
- Fottrell, Quentin (23 May 2015), "As Ireland Voted For Same-Sex Marriage, Thousands of Expats Came #Hometovote", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 23 May 2015
- Fottrell, Quentin (17 November 2015), "The Movie 'Brooklyn' Raises Familiar Themes for Irish Expats", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 17 November 2015
- Fottrell, Quentin (30 December 2016), "I'm an Irishman happy in New York", Irish Times, retrieved 30 December 2016
- Fottrell, Quentin (2 March 2012), "In the land of Harvey Milk and money", Irish Times, retrieved 2 March 2012