Ireland General Discussion

[Mike88]

Well, so Kenny resigned... Anyone knows why?

[Mike88]

He'd been on borrowed time for the last few months (ever since he was caught out in one of his fantasy conversations during the McCabe/Tusla scandal) and it always was a matter of how much longer he could string it out before one of the would-be successors lost patience and decided to strike.

Hmmm... Interesting. What was the scandal about? Nonetheless, i have a somewhat positive view about Kenny, although i'm not very in tune of what's happening in Ireland. So, will there be early election or will FG pick someone else? Portuguese Expresso newspaper says Simon Coveney and Leo Varadkar are in the lead.

[Mike88]

So wait, does having one Indian parent qualify him as the first head of government in a European country to be a racial minority?  Or have there been others that I'm not thinking of?

António Costa's father was Goan. Interesting that both Ireland and Portugal, countries who suffered, somewhat, similar economic problems, have currently PM's with Indian ancestry.

[Mike88]

Ireland Thinks  for the Irish Daily Mail:

FG 31 (+6)
FF 26 (-1)
SF 16 (-1)
Ind/Oth 11 (-4)
Lab 7 (+2)
GP 4 (+1)
SP/SWP 2 (-1)
SD 2 (-2)

Leomania kicking in?

[Mike88]

Leo Varadkar has been elected as the new Taoiseach, following the 2020 FG-FF agreement. Micheál Martin is now the Tánaiste.

https://twitter.com/PresidentIRL/status/1604116515564945408

[Mike88]

Now both the United Kingdom and Ireland have a prime minister of Indian descent. It's actually three in all of Europe, I think Antonio Costa of Portugal also has some Indian anchestors.

Yes, Costa's grandfather was from India, Goa to be precise.

[Mike88]

Riots in downtown Dublin after a knife attack left 4 people injured, 3 of them children:

https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1727780659572113419

[Mike88]

Varadkar to stand down as Taoiseach and FG leader.

Was this telegraphed at all? Seems to have come out of nowhere.

Will he stand down now, or only when the next election is schedule, March 2025?

Interesting that the 3 European PMs with Indian ancestry, Costa, Varadkar and Sunak, are all poised to leave office roughly at the same time.