structural:scholar_edition
Ireland

The son of an Irishman, O’Toole had a strong affinity with Ireland and on occasion referred to himself as Irish: “I consider myself to be an Irishman but I have lived most of my life in England so I am fairly bogus Irish actor as such”. In an interview with Charlie Rose in 1992 he said Irishness was “almost the centre of my very being” and that “Everything I think of is coloured by its history, by its literature, by its people, by its geography”. He recalls that he was “a bit of a misfit, a bit of an odd man out” but that when he went to County Kerry, Ireland in 1946 he realized “I wasn’t different at all”.

He possessed an Irish passport and believed he may have been born in Connemara. He owned a house in Ireland located in Clifden, County Galway. In 1969 he met future Irish president Michael D. Higgins and the two developed a friendship.

His son Lorcan was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1983. He told his friends that he wanted him to be "raised as an Irishman".