Welcome to 14th Taoiseach - Leo’s bright shining moment

IN ANY accession there is always that brief shining moment where we are all engulfed by optimism and friends and gainsayers alike gather to provide best wishes and high hopes as the heir apparent takes on the trappings of power.

This is not to say that yesterday’s assumption of office by the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, the 14th of his line, will lead to a distinctly Irish version of Camelot; rather that he begins his stewardship with a considerable fund of goodwill on which to draw.

In its choice of the new leader, Ireland, like France with Emmanuel Macron, appears to have found a fresher guiding spirit to reinvigorate the political process and increase engagement. Both are the youngest ever to occupy their high offices; Leo Varadkar is a doctor by training while Emmanuel Macron is the son of a physician and a professor of neurology.