Toner Quinn is a writer, musician, publisher, editor and lecturer. Born in Galway and raised in the Conamara Gaeltacht and Bray, County Wicklow, he studied music in Waterford and publishing at the University of Stirling in Scotland.

In 2000, he founded JMI – The Journal of Music in Ireland (later The Journal of Music), a magazine of in-depth writing on music that won the Utne Independent Press Award for arts coverage in the United States. He has continued to publish and edit the Journal and has written widely on Irish music and culture. His recent book, What Ireland Can Teach the World About Music (2024), a collection of essays, was described in the Irish Times as ‘A formidable collection… a richly textured, all‑embracing compendium … Collecting so many well-argued pieces in one place underscores the heft of Quinn’s writing.’

In 2025, he edited Count Me Out, a book of writings by his father, the filmmaker Bob Quinn, about which Film Ireland wrote, ‘Every chapter is an engrossing piece in its own right.’ Also in 2025, Toner co-edited, with Jerry White, The Radical Thinking of Desmond Fennell, a volume of essays by the late writer and public intellectual, described in Position Papers as ‘an interesting collection of important work’.

Toner was Project Officer with the government-established Special Committee on the Traditional Arts (2004), which produced the report Towards a Policy for the Traditional Arts, and he also authored the Arts Council’s Report on the Harping Tradition in Ireland (2014). A fiddle player, he released Live at the Steeple Sessions with Malachy Bourke on the Ergodos label in 2013, and was artist-in-residence at Stiúideo Cuan in Galway in autumn 2025.

Since 2008, he has lectured in publishing and editing on the MA in Literature and Publishing at the University of Galway, and also teaches music writing and editing at Maynooth University. He is a member of the board of Publishing Ireland.