Historically famous critics

Finley Peter Dunne

1867-1936 · American · 19th-20th century

Chicago humorist who satirized politics through the Irish saloonkeeper Mr. Dooley

Dunne created Martin Dooley, a fictional Irish saloonkeeper whose brogue-laced monologues punctured the shams of American politics, from machine bosses to the imperial vanity that followed the Spanish-American War. Writing more than 700 dialect essays, he gave ordinary readers a common-sense voice that could deflate presidents and generals alike, coining the line that the Supreme Court follows the election returns. He belongs among the great satirists because he built enduring political criticism out of vernacular comedy.