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The Boy Who Would Be TAOISEACH Speaking His Mind
I have just finished reading "Speaking My Mind" by Leo
Varadkar in which he pulls out all the stops to lead the reader through
his personal and political life. In the first twenty pages he describes
how as a gay student in Trinity he always had a plausible answer to the
question why he didn’t have a Girlfriend.
Leo Varadkar was born in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, in 1979
when I was living around the corner from his parents Doctor Ashok
Varadkar, who was raised a Hindu, and his mother Miriam a Catholic who
was a nurse. They had their garage converted for use as a surgery. As a
child Leo developed a colour-coded system which simplified the filing of
patient’s charts. So it is no surprise that, as a thirteen year old, he
was well able to hold his own in discussions about the Maastricht
Treaty, with the erudite people that his parents would have as
dinner-guests.
I lived around the corner from the Varadkar family but
because I worked for a semi state company, I had a panel Doctor. Doctor
Varadkar was not my doctor but I did have occasion to visit him and I
found him to be a perfect gentleman.
Leo was a brilliant student but didn’t like writing short stories. “I couldn’t understand how anyone would want to write something untrue.” I wonder what his later day political colleagues thought of that mind-set.
He mentions his local library and how he was a regular
visitor there. I know from experience that he was in the minority in
that respect. When I lived in Blanchardstown there would be a queue for
the Bingo hall but the library would be almost deserted. One Smart Alec
even defined a Blanchardstown intellectual as, “A person who goes into the library when it’s not raining,”
Up to the time of writing I haven’t ever met Leo Varadkar
face to face but because my son went to the same school as his sister
Sophie and, as a parent, I was part of a shared school run and I often
drove her to school. I think I’m not using the word genius out of its
capacity by describing her as such.
Michael Foot’s, “A political memoir is the last refuge of a politician who has run out of applause”
doesn’t hold water here. Leo has not yet run out of applause. At the
launch of Speaking My Mind, he expressed the hope that his memoir
would serve as the first draft of history for what was an eventful time
in Irish politics and it would be difficult to disagree with that. It
drew a heartfelt round of applause. And it has been applauded many times
since.
The author may have not been a fan of the short story but
from the first page of Speaking My Mind it is obvious that he is a
skilled wordsmith. Did he always speak his mind? No, and in this
autobiography he has no trouble admitting it. When he met President
Trump at Shannon Airport on 05th June 2019, The Donald had a lot of bile
to spew about Betty Midler, “She’s a nasty woman” he said, “very nasty. Literally nobody likes her. Ugly woman.” Leo writes, “I
tried to steer Trump onto more weighty topics, but he was seething...I
would have loved to tell him that I’m a great fan of Bette Midler and I
love “Beaches”-and perhaps the younger me would have done- but I’d grown
more experienced as a politician, I had come to realise there were
times when the national interest or the greater good required me to hold
my tongue.” When describing giving a bowl of shamrock to Trump he says something that many would see as a debatable point, "Donald is many things but he’s certainly not stupid. His intelligence and cunning were extremely apparent."
Leo has his critics and who hasn’t but even his most hardened
opponents would admit that he is the direct opposite to the description
given by the Daily Tribune, “Self-obsessed, bitter, evasive — was Leo Varadkar just an Irish Boris Johnson?”
And none of those traits appeared when the man whose childhood
ambition was to become Taoiseach had his book shortlisted for the Dubray
Biography of the Year 2025. He was in the company of such literary
heavyweights as Julia Kelly, Miriam O’ Callaghan, Stephen Travers, Sarah
Corbett Lynch and Brenda Fricker.
Not afraid to describe others as he sees them he is the
author of many descriptions of his fellow-man. He says Boris Johnson was
“Funny and could be charming” while Nigel Farage can be, “Jovial and chatty.” And others come under the heading of “odd” or “Tetchy". Compliments are not always so concise; Of Brendan Howlin he says, “I’d been known as a Rottweiler in my younger days but he’s certainly capable of being a terrier with a bone.”
Different things have stuck in the former politician’s mind
for different reasons, like Michael O’ Leary’s simple request, “Just
drop the
f**king tax.
”
Highlights? There were many. The first time he was appointed Taoiseach, after he felt the population were asking, “Can Ireland really cope with a gay Taoiseach?”
and he got his answer that indeed we could. The day he addressed our
little country from the steps opposite the White House, the day of the
Marriage Equality Referendum, and the day in March 2024 when he decided
it was time to go, but there is one day that he treasures most of all:
Matt Barrett is a cardiovascular surgeon from Geesala in the Mayo
Gaeltacht.
If I were writing for a less sophisticated readership I could
tell a story about a member of that particular profession. It’s funny
and I’m sorry that I can’t share it with you. It’s about a famous Dublin
heart specialist who died and everyone who was anyone was gathered at
his funeral in Mount Jerome Crematorium. A top of the range coffin was
displayed in front of a large heart. When the Minister finished the
sermon and everyone had said their good-byes the heart was opened, the
coffin rolled inside and the heart closed.
Just at that moment one of the mourners started laughing and
the person beside him asked what was so funny only to be told, “I was
thinking about my own funeral, you see, I’m a gynaecologist.”
Where was I? Oh yes. Matt Barrett. Doctor Barratt and Doctor
Varadkar have been together for eleven years. I meant to tell you the
story of how they met but you’ll have to read it yourself as my deadline
is dangerously close. I have only time to tell you that "Speaking My
Mind" is published by Sandycove which is part of the Penguin Random
House group, that you are in for a treat and this hardback is worth its
price for the 78 wonderful colour pics alone. Enjoy every one of the
421 pages.
I for one am looking forward to his next book.
See you in April.
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