Leo Varadkar has just been elected leader of Ireland’s ruling party. He will be elected Taoiseach (Prime Minister) by our Dail (Parliament) the week after next. (It’s currently in recess).
His father is an Indian doctor who was working in the NHS in the UK in the 70s, his mother is an Irish nurse also then working in the NHS, they met, married and settled in Ireland.
He came out in the run up to the Irish gay marriage referendum in 2015.
As one political commentator pointed out, it’s somewhat ironic. There was a poll in 2014 that said 88% of the Irish electorate would have no problem with a gay Taoiseach. When one was in the offing, polls suggested they actually had to be reminded he was gay. It was a complete non issue,
I’m an American who happens to be working in Ireland for a month. My colleagues and I were thrilled to see this unfold on the telly (in a pub) two nights ago.
My son happens to be genetically half-Indian as well – but my son’s name (first and last) is quintessentially Irish. I bet Mr. Vradakar would find that amusing.
I would have preferred the ‘Jewish’ guy, Alan Shatter. One of my intelligent classmates, Tommy used to work for him in Transition Year (thought he was Jewish because he got 10 A1’s in his Junior Cert).
He expedited citizenship process for many foreigners. Before him the process lasted for 2-3 years and now it’s 6-7 months.
Love the guy…:D. Not really concerned about his faults.
This is probably going to rankle, but…why does it matter that he’s gay and half-Indian? He’s also a pro-life austerity enthusiast who attacks welfare recipients as cheats. I mean, I get that it’s good optics for the identity politics crowd, but I’d rather have a straight white liberal than a gay half-Indian right-winger.
I didn’t mean it as a selling point; his ancestry and orientation aren’t selling points either. It’s just that the combination is kind of cool, regardless of his politics.
The interesting thing is that if you’d predicted just a few decades ago the prime minister of Ireland would be a gay, half-Indian, anti-abortion doctor who thinks that there are lots of welfare cheaters, you would be told that that was ridiculous. “What other absurd predictions do you have?”, they would ask. “Do you also think that the President of the U.S. will have a white mother who wasn’t particularly religious, a black father who was raised as a Moslem (and considered himself an atheist) and who never became an American citizen, a stepfather who was a nominal Moslem, and a name that reminds people of a famous terrorist and a famous dictator who were enemies of the U.S.?”
Does anyone want to make any predictions of what will happen next for world leaders (who are currently not in office, so we can skip the obvious discussion of today’s weird leaders)?
Nah, it’s just not that unusual in Ireland for people with his educational background to have “a decent level” of Irish. He probably would have needed it to get his university place for one thing.
It’s great, but I long for the day when these details are sort of irrelevant, or only appear as side details in interviews in glossy lifestyle magazines, at some point after we already know the candidate and have loved or hated them based on their policies, their integrity and the outcomes they achieved.
That day is already here in Ireland. It’s only outside of Ireland that any sort of issue has been made of this.
Which is not to say we’re a “post-homophobia” or “post-racism” society, that’s very much not the case, but Varadkar’s sexuality and heritage just really haven’t been seen as a big deal here. Far less important than his right-wing politics anyway.
