tom

tom paulin::The faultlines which define tom paulin are there for all to see.
Although to many he is the archetypal irish writer, he was actually born in england.
An ulster protestant by tradition, he is an irish republican by conviction.
A fully paid up member of the awkward squad and a determined iconoclast, he holds a lectureship at that jewel in the crown of the british establishment, oxford university.
Feisty, combative, some would say rebarbative, his appearances on newsnight review and the late review which it replaced have brought him cult status among the chattering classes.
In an interview with the egyptian newspaper, alakram, published in april, he allegedly called for usborn israeli settlers to be killed.
I feel nothing but hatred for them.
And it seems that, in part at least, the american academic establishment has decreed him persona non grata.
Bookish childhood thomas neilson paulin was born in leeds in 1949.
As a child, he was immersed in books his house having no television and that singularly irish love of poetry was soon awakened.
He studied at hull university during the time that another poet, philip larkin, was librarian there, before going on to take a doctorate at lincoln college, oxford.
His first academic post was at nottingham university.
He still looks back on this time with great anger.
After more than two decades at nottingham, he moved back to oxford, this time as gm young lecturer in english literature at hertford college.
Passionate dissenter but his television appearances, most notably on late review, have brought paulin to popular attention.
Together with commentators like germaine greer, allison pearson and tony parsons, his musings on culture both high and low have become a weekly fixture for more than a million viewers.
On another occasion, discussing two television dramas concerning deaths of 13 irish civilians on bloody sunday, he went even further.
They were rotten, racist, bastards.
Now his polemical, knockabout, style has ruffled feathers in the us, where the proisraeli lobby is quick to counter any perceived antisemitic slights.