Ireland’s new prime minister is mocked before he starts

The modern Irish state was born 100 years ago this month, yet only two political movements have ever ruled it. To outsiders, there is not much difference between them. Born out of the struggle for independence from Britain, both Fianna Fail (Soldiers of Destiny) and Fine Gael (Tribe of the Gaels) have evolved into right-of-centre, pragmatic, pro-European parties. Their mutual antipathy derives from a short but vicious civil war between factions of the Irish Republican Army a century ago.Another, more cultural distinction was identified by the late John Kelly, a pundit and former Fine Gael member of parliament, who reportedly said of his own party—in general a little posher, a little more self-righteous—that it couldn’t walk past a sleeping dog without feeling the need to give it a kick. Last month, after surveys suggesting that many of Ireland’s young renters are considering emigrating in order to find affordable housing, the present Fine Gael leader harrumphed that they couldn’t expect to do any better abroad. Leo Varadkar, who served as taoiseach (prime minister) from 2017 to 2020, and whose party has been in government for the past 11 years, noted that “considering emigration is not the same as actually doing it, and many do come back.”