John Doyle retired from The Globe and Mail in 2022, after more than twenty years as television critic.
From 1995 to 2000 he was the critic for Broadcast Week, the Globe's television magazine.
Born in Ireland, John holds a BA in English Literature and an MA in Anglo-Irish Studies from University College, Dublin. He came to Canada in 1980 to pursue a PhD in English Literature at York University in Toronto. Having done some student and freelance journalism in Ireland, John continued to write in Canada and eventually abandoned writing for academic reward to concentrate on writing for money. After working briefly in radio and in television, he began writing a column for Broadcast Week in 1991.
Always argumentative, John has the distinction of winning a gold medal, at the age of 10, for his debating skills in the Gaelic language. His freelance articles were widely published in Canada, the U.S., Britain and Ireland and lectured on television and other aspects of popular culture. In a profile of John published in Toronto Life magazine in July, 2000, Robert Fulford wrote, "A critic as intelligent, industrious and ambitious as John Doyle should be cherished."
In 2004, John was called less charitable names. His columns mocking the Fox News Channel on its arrival in Canada attracted the attention of Fox News star Bill O'Reilly, and the channel's viewers wrote in their thousands to John, often abusively. The battle between John and Fox News viewers was the subject of international coverage, including a feature story in The New York Times.
John has won two internal Globe and Mail awards for his writing. His Globe columns have been reprinted in the U.S., the U.K. and in Australia.
His book, A Great Feast of Light: Growing Up Irish in the Television Age (Doubleday Canada) was published to acclaim in Canada in October, 2005. The book has now been reprinted many times and published in five countries, including the U.K. and Ireland.
Doyle also writes about soccer for The Globe and Mail and other publications. For the Globe he covered World Cup 2002 in Korea/Japan, Euro 2004 in Portugal, World Cup 2006 in Germany and Euro 2008 in Austria /Switzerland. He has also written extensively about soccer for The Guardian and The New York Times.
His book about soccer, The World is a Ball: The Joy, Madness, and Meaning of Soccer (Doubleday Canada) was a national bestseller in Canada on publication in the summer of 2010 and longlisted for The William Hill Irish Sports Book Of The Year. It has also been published in the U.S., Ireland, the U.K. and Croatia.
He has written essays for TV Quarterly (The Journal of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences) and wrote the introduction to the book Rockburn: The CPAC Interviews (Penumbra Press, 2007). He was profiled in the book A Story To Be Told: Personal Reflections on the Irish Emigrant Experience in Canada (Liffey Press, Dublin, 2008).
