SPEAKING ABOUT LEO Varadkar’s nomination as Taoiseach, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin commented that even Leo himself, “was somewhat embarrassed by the euphoria with which his election as Fine Gael leader was embraced by some commentators.”
The insider’s view is that Leo Varadkar has until now led something of a charmed life, and that he has had the advantage of a media wind behind his sails. Over the years, the Deputy for Dublin West has certainly given good quote.
At times when others have gone to ground, he has done the round of TV and radio studios, as well as print interviews, always accessible to media, rarely without an opinion. But all of that is about to change.
Dissecting his decisions
In the coming polls, Varadkar’s leadership will be parsed and analysed. His decisions will be dissected, his colleagues will leak from meetings, and in the background his frenemies in Fianna Fáil will be waiting to take him out.
That episode where his entourage fed cup-cakes and coffee to grateful hacks will seem like a halcyon era. There will be a shift in how he is covered.
The feature-style articles that highlighted his three-stone weight-loss, his happiness with his partner, his running and fitness regime, his attendance at Electric Picnic, will appear lightweight in the context of more pressing travails. Everything he says and does will be judged through the prism of his leadership of the country.
No one would envy him the tsunami of problems he is now facing. His “Republic of Opportunity” however will be as empty a phrase as “strong and stable government”, if he fails to deliver in the next few months. In his first speech he mentioned that in dealing with economic issues you had to appeal to people’s hearts as well as their heads. Yet his “early risers” quote had the opposite effect.
We don’t trust Conservative style politics
By nature Irish people have little trust in Conservative style politics, even if it is Tory-lite. The notion of “them” and “us” has more often referred to the divide between the cushioned professional classes and the squeezed middle, than the working and the unemployed.
The lack of a left-right divide in Irish media is one of the reasons political coverage has seemed herd-like at times, in online forums Varadkar’s cheerleaders in the Fourth Estate are often mocked. And it is true that dissenting viewpoints are more likely to be found on social media than among mainstream columnists.
An old boss of mine had a saying that he inherited from his Longford grandmother. He used it when he felt that journalists were in awe of those that they were supposed to be monitoring. “That’s a bit too ‘lay your cloak on the puddle Mary or the Doctor’s feet will get wet’,” he would say. And we all knew exactly what he meant.
Looking after the poorest
Trust in institutions is low in Ireland, because we have been so let down by them in the past. We no longer believe that “Doctor” knows what’s good for us. Elie Weisel once wrote about leadership in the context of the “terrible solitude at moments of decision”.
Amid the hoopla of Leo Varadkar’s appointment as Taoiseach, one moment did stand out. It was the television clip of his parents sitting in their garden, and his father’s admonition that his son “should look after the poorest of the poor”. Across Europe young people are voting in their droves for candidates that reflect Ashok Varadkar’s community-focused idealism.
At thirty-eight Taoiseach Varadkar is not too old to listen to his father. Let’s hope for all our sakes that he does so in the months ahead.
Kate Shanahan is Head of Journalism and Communications at DIT. The views expressed are her own.
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